Top 100 moments in Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video

a little Spotify sleuthing turns up what appears to be her personal playlists, featuring, among many others.....that's right, gaz coombes. the mystery deepens

I feel like I need a 20m Adam Neely video unpacking this.

Oh, I just realized what this reminds me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNhhXmXQ_bY

The chorus of Red Dress is a straight rip of something but I can't think what it is.

shotgun?

sounds like a lot of pop country choruses, maybe some "Wildest Dreams" in there

Yes, it's Shotgun!

Thanks, Calumerio.

She's an MA student at Oxford who "conduct[ s ] quantitative research on the intersection of religion and politics": https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-brand-501595188/

The recording and engineering quality definitely suggests that digital pitch correction could have been applied if it was desired. My speculative hypothesis is she's not trolling but not lacking in self-awareness. She doesn't have singing chops but feels that shouldn't stop someone, out of a version of indie/punk-like aesthetic principles; all the online haters make her more resolved to do her thing and actually prove her message. She wants to make an anti-Christianity/pro-sex/anti-conformity statement and this kind of out-of-tune indie-country is what she sees as her innovation.

I feel like if you asked her then she would say this is part of her singing style, like Kate Bush or sth

That's my theory too, with the caveat that I don't believe she would be able to sing conventionally if she had to.

Did IceJJFish turn out to be real or a joke in the end?

Why not put the instruments out-of-tune too, if she's trying to make that statement? Why not go fully atonal?

I mean, I'm just throwing darts but tbf this way of doing it does highlight the dissonance of her vs the group, which is also the message of the song.

Cause she's making an uncanny-valley, gentle tweak to the conventions of the genre?

Man, we should get on Linked In and invite her to the thread.

Otherwise, she'd just be doing early Pavement.

Not saying I like it (although I didn't like Pavement either for a long time).xps

is she Jandek's daughter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv-cPY0Bel4

Devil fest

It's almost as if she's never heard singing before until someone described the act of singing to her and she decided to take a stab at it based upon that description.

If this wasn't produced/presented the way it was, I think the response would be less bafflement and more praise. The YT algorithm showed me Wuthering Heights immediately afterword, and I think the algorithm is on to something.

Obviously Kate Bush is a much better singer! Just to be clear

this is certainly a way to stand out amongst other youtube folksingers

seems like she knows what shes doing, and it isn't a parody

Her Covid song is a bit more standard, but when she sings an off note she makes a puzzled face, as if to say, "Isn't this quirky?"

She's playing standard chords on her guitar, so she's not quite some unschooled savant.

this is a girl who can't sing in tune, it's not the second coming of the shaggs.

xxxpost maybe she just farted

I want a duet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5148rRIkw

Let's make this happen

Ahah this is great. I couldn’t help laughing in public while listening to it like a maniac.
What’s the link to R. Black though ?

It's almost as if she's never heard singing before until someone described the act of singing to her and she decided to take a stab at it based upon that description.

Eh, matching pitch is a skill that has to be learned for most people, myself certainly included. I've heard plenty of people who sound pretty similar to this in studios or schools.

The live Taylor cover def feels/sounds to me like a sort of trolling (as artistic strategy).

I usually understand "trolling" to mean that someone's main goal is to provoke and antagonize. I don't see that, based on the audience's reaction; if she was trolling them, she wasn't very successful.

The more recent comments on the video do show negative reactions but the comments from when she first posted it don't.

It's almost as if she's never heard singing before until someone described the act of singing to her and she decided to take a stab at it based upon that description.

Yeah, that was my first impression: like an alien or someone living in a rainforest heard Taylor Swift and tried doing it herself.

Also reminiscent of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr3R8aSjkAk

3. she picked a very nice note to sing and was v wise in not straying far from it

― Sheneneh et Caro (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, March 12, 2011 6:26 PM (ten years ago)

still curious about the Rebecca Black connection. is it cos this person has gone viral with a terrible song?

it's the only reason I can see tbh -- in addition to them both being female.

This is nothing like Rebecca Black imo.

otm

As for 'terrible', I found it quite compelling

because you thought she was hot?

honestly, if I was more industrious, I would try adding a shit-ton of reverb to her voice to see if it could be palatable to gothwave cru

Ari Evan
12 hours ago (edited)
Really niche of you to incorporate such strong Ives-ian influences in your composition. Who knew bi-tonality, microtones and “pop” could go so well together?!

Sarah Brand
Sarah Brand
11 hours ago
Thank you so much!

I think I'm coming around to classic.

Imo we're all sleeping on her other video, the fully fleshed version of 'Fantasy':

https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/sarah-brand-fantasy-music-video/

Wow, that's actually kind of cool. I mean, I want there to be more going on in the music but the dissonances are amazing at times, esp the crunchy layered vocal harmonies.

She makes me think a bit of Danielson Famile.

Maybe Adorno is her sociological role model?

Tbc, I have been exposed to one Danielson Famile album many years ago.

this is blowing up at the moment, huh