Think of the most annoying song you’ve ever heard.
Did Rebecca Black’s atrocious Internet sensation “Friday” pop into your head? If so, we have something in common, and I have some bad news for you: Black is back.
Her first single, “Friday,” with lyrics that explain the days of the week for anyone who is still confused on their order, manages to get stuck in my head at the most inopportune moments, just when I’ve forgotten its existence.
A few weeks ago, one of my professors decided it would be appropriate to play the song during a lecture, causing 12 people to flee the room. I, like a fool, stayed behind, and suffered the rest of the day with “It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday” playing on repeat in my mind.
The original video was removed from YouTube in June 2011 when it had more than 167 million views. Black, who will turn 15 this June, re-uploaded the video to her personal YouTube account in September and it has since received almost 31 million views.
My faith in humanity was restored a little when I noticed the dislikes on her video outweigh the likes about 4:1.
What scares me more than Black’s YouTube viewership is the fact that she’s back. Her new single “Sing It” dropped Tuesday, and the music video premiered exclusively on E! News Monday.
Although the vocals aren’t quite as obviously auto-tuned as they were in “Friday,” the lyrics still remind me of cheesy phrases a middle school girl would doodle in the margins of her notebook next to hearts and smiley faces.
After an introduction of “woah-oh”s, Black moves back into her signature simple lyric style with lines like, “Sun is out / And the darkness fades / Got my headphones on and I’m under / In a dream but I’m wide awake.”
While the song doesn’t dwell on choosing a seat in a car full of 13-year-olds who can somehow drive, or contain anything quite as bad as “Fun, fun, think about fun,” a lyric from “Friday,” the song definitely does not contain anything of musical substance.
In “Sing It,” Black actually uses the phrase “million billion miles,” which makes me cringe, but the repetitive “Live it up, live it up, live it up, yeah!” to conclude the song does make me want to live it up. That is, if turning off the song and never listening to it again constitutes as “living it up.”
In reality, I’m sure Black’s music appeals to a generation of middle school girls who love the Disney Channel’s mass-produced young “talents.” Black would probably be better off if she was managed by Disney, though, because not even a lack of talent stops a Disney Channel star from being successful.
But to give Black some credit, she didn’t go into hiding due to embarrassment following the release of “Friday.” In fact, Black has released two other singles prior to “Sing It,” although this is her first stab at music for 2012.
I don’t think Black could ever be considered a serious musician after her debut single made her a mockery following its September 2010 release. Not that many ever questioned whether that was possible.
