Category Archives: Friday Fun

Friday, Friday, Getting Down on Friday

So have you heard the latest song to hate? Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’. If you haven’t seen it check it out. I didn’t see it until she appeared on Good Morning America to dispute critic’s claims she can’t really sing and she’s all auto-tune.

I was a little disappointed I was late to the feeding frenzy a couple weeks ago. I had not heard who Rebecca Black was – and I try to keep up on this music stuff. Not to be swayed by the critics, I found the origin video on youtube and judged for myself. If you know me, you know I say, if you don’t like something you’re not listening to it the right way. Initially its ok – the lyrics are lame, the chorus is catchy, the video starts out bad and really doesn’t get any better. Unfortunately the lyrics get worse and the video gets hokier. Then this aging rapper comes on…

The song has a catchy chorus in an annoying kind of way, the lyrics are horrible, the video is amateur and consistency doesn’t exist – but for an amateur video this is a huge leap – and that is the point. This is isn’t a record company video. This isn’t even an independent label. Well, it is but its a step below. Picture your high school doing a video class, this is just above that. This is Ark Music Factory.

The man behind Ark Music Factory is Patrice Wilson. He helps rich kids reach the dreams their money can buy. And we’re not talking Paris Hilton level rich, just ‘normal’ rich. For $2,000 – $4,000, he will write your kid a song and create a video. He’s a dream maker. But is he a star maker? No. That, honor goes to Daniel Tosh.

Huh? If you watch Rebecca Black’s video on Youtube, you will see “as see on Tosh.0” However, he didn’t feature it on his show – yet. By his posting it on his website, that caused the views to go from hundreds to millions. The first weekend I watched the video go from 12 million hits to 27 million. It is currently over 54 million.

Yes, its the most ‘thumbs down’ video I’ve ever seen. But I find it ironic that Miley Cyrus disses Rebecca (and Justin Bieber). Even with Disney and ‘million dollar studios’, I don’t think she sounds any better. Yes – her songs and videos are better but you get what you pay for.

So finally, is Rebecca and her family laughing all the way to the bank? Apparently Forbes got it wrong when they said she’s sold 2 million copies of ‘Friday’ (though I could not find the original article). According to Annie Lowery Rebecca should clear $40,000 (and probably closer to $50,000 now).

But some may say, “for that crappy song? you should should pay me!” and then you find out she’s donating her ‘Friday’ money to the relief effort in Japan. Really? Could she really be just a sweet kid – with rich parents – that made a video – that got a lucky break from Tosh.o – ignored death threats – and gave the money away? I guess we’ll find out when she releases her next song

Friday Fun

If you have been to Brummfamily.com you know I do a ‘Friday Fun’ (something non-work related) on Friday’s at work on our Intranet (for you geeks – we use Microsoft Sharepoint). So I will add those here on a weekly basis. This week’s Friday Fun went like this…

Now this is a little nuts. Car Jousting? What will they think of next? Is this real? Answer at the end…. (patience – its a .mov so it may have to download before it plays.)