Rebecca Black – Friday

It is fitting that the first After Thoughts thought should be about Rebecca Blacks’ Friday, which thanks to YouTube went viral, changing the world as we know it! I live in the Middle East. I walk among veiled women and Bedouins: and most of my male students know this song! A good friend who’s the CEO of a fast growing internet development company’s Friday status update read: “Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday, Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend…Fun, fun, fun, fun lookin’ forward to the weekend”.  There is not a place on God’s green earth (or God’s desolate desert!) where the backseat, backstreet diva has not invaded our subconscious and forced the addictingly (yes, I just coined the word addictingly and want credit when it is added to Merriam-Webster. I would also be honored if it won “Word of the Year”, like Sarah Palins’ “refudiate” [which is still not recognized by my spell checker!])  repetitious chorus onto our helpless lips! The fact that this blog of blogs has seen fit to speak on it is further evidence of it’s importance. It is thus with fear and trembling (read annoyance and laughter) I offer a few after thoughts:

1). The educational value of the song. As a basic level ESL instructor one of my regular tasks is to help my students understand the days of the week. The pronunciation, spelling and sequence of the days are essential! Thus, when Rebecca uses her song as a platform to explain to the American people, most of which will not speak English by 2020, the sequence of the days of the week I was thrilled!

I am hoping that in her next internet sensational song she includes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, January, February and March (or four other random months as long as they are in order.)

2) The creeper factor. Was anyone else caught off guard when the song broke from the prepubescent teens singing about which seat in the backseat they should take to the 40 year old creepy gangster guy driving the Lexus? I was! Out of nowhere he comes in with a rap and a creeper smile! I expect that he had to film this part of the video at least 200 feet away from the rest of the teens, and any parks and/or schools in the area! I mean come on I cannot be the only one who was creeped out? The lyrics were also a tad bit disturbing:

Two questions: What the hell is so exciting about the school bus in front of him that he wants to scream? And how the hell is he planning on “partyin, partyin” with the 13-17 year old kids in the rest of the video? Legitimate questions?

3). Confusion as to what the this is that she got and I/we got cause I don’t know what it is! I love to interpret songs! It is rare when a song is of such a great artistic and poetic character that I cannot in some way shape or form come up with some interpretation (however far-flung, high-falutin or subjective!) Enter Rebecca Black:

While I could go on…I won’t. I am done. But the legacy of this song will go on and on and on and on and on and on and Friday Friday getting’ down….ahhh!