YOUTUBIN': Could this new YouTube sensation be the next Bieber?

Matt Cantor breaks down the lyrics to newest YouTube sensation Rebecca Black's disgustingly catchy "Friday."

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YOUTUBIN': Could this new YouTube sensation be the next Bieber?

POSTED: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Now See This | Video

I recently had the good fortune to hear what may be mankind’s greatest achievement thus far: “Friday,” by 13-year-old prodigy Rebecca Black. I must have been late on this, because according to YouTube, 29,874,430 people viewed the video before I did. Given that that’s a significant proportion of the US population, I think it’s fair to say that “Friday” has become a cultural touchstone.

That is no surprise. Black conveys a universal human emotion, celebrated for centuries: the desire for an end to labor. In so doing, she is working in a literary tradition that dates back to Genesis, in which God punished Adam by forcing his descendants to work for survival. Black encapsulates this theme in a single word, “Friday,” which in much of Western culture heralds the coming of a period of rest, or in the singer’s words, “fun, fun, fun, fun.” In short: “Everybody’s looking forward to the weekend, weekend.”

But before reaching that period, Black, and indeed all of us, have a series of hurdles to overcome. In the “Friday” allegory, those struggles are represented by an early rise — 7 a.m. — as well as the compulsion to “be fresh,” “go downstairs,” and “get to the bus stop.” All the while, we are “seein’ everything,” but must grapple with the notion that “the time is goin’/ Tickin’ on and on.”

Fortunately, as Joseph Campbell observed in his “heroic cycle,” such quests typically have “helper” figures. Black is not without this assistance: “I see my friends,” she tells us as a group of underage drivers approach. That poses another pre-Sabbath dilemma, one we’ve all faced: is it better to be “kickin’ in the front seat” or “sittin’ in the back seat”? The urgency of the question is clear: “Gotta make my mind up,” Black points out.

Within three-quarters of an hour, Black and her friends are “cruisin’ so fast,” physically manifesting their desire for “time to fly.” It is a study in futility, however: the unavoidable reality is that speeding towards school will only result in having to spend more time there. But the rest of the stanza offers reassurance: “Fun, fun, think about fun,” the singer entreats her friends. “You know what it is,” she reminds them: “I got this, you got this.” She then establishes a frame of reference: While “yesterday was Thursday,” “today is Friday,” and that means that “we, we, we so excited.” Yet the weekend can’t last: though “tomorrow is Saturday,” still, “Sunday comes afterwards.”

Thus Black has conceded the cyclical nature of the workweek, which ultimately requires us all to return to labor. Yet for the young idealist, hope remains: “I don’t want this weekend to end.”

Posted by Matt Cantor @ 2:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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