Friday (an analysis of a viral song)

So yeah, if you haven't heard this song by Rebecca Black called Friday is being called the "Worst. Song. Ever." To be honest, the lyrics definitely put it as a strong contender in this wonderful category.

Witness it for yourself here:

Wow, go take some ibuprofen before  the stupid headache gets you.

SO I'm going to provide an analysis from an English Major's perspective, because it's too fun not too. I'll start with a verse by verse break down and then do an overview because I'm cool like that...

The first verse explains her morning routine and unlike Ke$ha's (for the time being) immortal "Wake up in the Morning feeling like P. Diddy/ Grab my glasses I'm out the door, I'm gonna hit this city/ Before I leave brush my teeth with a bottle of jack/ Because when I leave for the night I aint comin' back." This leaves no interest in Rebecca's life. I don't care that she has cereal for breakfast or goes to the bus stop everyone does that until they get a friend with a car, which she then meets her friends with a car and can't decide where to sit (because the fate of the world depends upon where she sits). I don't know that many people who want to feel like P. Diddy or  brush their teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels, that's interesting. The curiosity we, as listeners, feel toward Rebecca's daily routine is the fact that she can't make up her fucking mind about where she wants to sit in her friend's car. Which in the music video is even more peculiar as there is clearly only one seat available in the car (and most cars of that size really don't have a third seat in the back like the video suggests, nay is hoping you'll buy without worrying too much).

The first chorus has her repeating the title of the song ad nauseum and reminding us that she's "gotta get down" today. Because NO ONE parties at all on Saturdays.... She also reminds us everyone is looking forward to the weekend. Which I thought that "Everybody's Working for the Weekend" ? or am I just crazy? She then talks about, no, just says "Partyin'" over and over and everyone in the car agrees with her, though their shouts don't match what you'd think they'd sound like and really don't sound that enthusiastic either in acting or voices (seriously their 'voices' sound like some demon from Hell, possibly Legion). Her friends never just have quiet weekend get togethers where everyone talks and creates meaninful relationships, just partyin'? How superficial,  but of course this is studio manufactured music.

Second Verse and I'm already aching for alcohol for this girl, not me. She talks about cruising down the highway so fast she feels like flying. In the music video she's doing that 'cool' thing where you stand in the back seat of a convertable (By the way: how many teens do you know have brand new convertables?) and stand above the rest of the car which is generally only done at slower speeds because it's a fucking dangerous move. Cars, while fun like toys, are also to be treated with respect because they can kill you. She's just asking to die hanging out of a car going fast down the highway. Remember: she's probably going 55-70 mph so if she falls she's splattering on the ground. She then wants us to think about fun, which is so fun as opposed to going out and actually having fun. She reminds us "I got this, You got this" (don't ask what 'this' is, it's never explained) and then points out her friend is on her right. Now normally I could forgive a nonsequiter like that because sometimes a writer needed an easy rhyme, however that line goes with nothing, not even a half rhyme, it is completely pointless. On top of that she has another girl on her left in the music video who just gets the shaft. I guess they are just superficial friends. And then we know this. Know what? The epitome of bad song writing? She then shows that she can't make her mind up about what seat to sit in AGAIN! Despite being IN a moving car "in" a seat already and it's been the same seat all fucking day despite someone else driving the EXACT same car in front of a very obvious backdrop.

Why yes I'm getting more and more aggitated can you tell?

The second chorus is the same as the first lyrically, but the backdrop is more confusing. She's now at the party (oh thank God she doesn't have to worry about which seat to sit in in the car anymore!), but she's not ineracting with people that much. She waves at one person and some guy touches her shoulder right before it cuts to another scene where she doesn't interact with people except when they shout their standard "yeah" in agreement with her statement of "Partyin' Partyin.'" While the actors shouting "Yeah" are slightly more enthusiastic, the vocals are still the half-enthused non caring ones we heard before.

The Bridge: Oh the infamous bridge. In this lovely infamous bridge she goes over the days of the week, but not all of them, because that MIGHT be helpful in the long run. Because the youth of America are struggling in school and someone thought it was a good idea to put in a little reminder of the days of the week like the bridge of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" reminded everyone how to spell "bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" which admittedly is a fucking catchy way to spell bananas. It's almost like Arthur spelling "aardvark" in that one episode. However, the key difference is kids know days of the week, I even learned them in song, but the difference is the catchyness. While "A-A-R-D-VA-RK!" and " B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" are quick and catchy, this is long and droning and says it is Friday, which it might not be whenever you hear this song, thankfully (or not) the music video has a constant reminder while attempting this really bad rotoscoping, flip book thing that is distracting.  It's like they were trying to repeat Ah-Ha's "Take On Me" and failing spectacularly. Then out of left field she loses her ability to use grammar properly. Seriously she just starts repeating "We, we, we, we" like a broken record before finally finishing her thought "so excited." And just when you think she made a mistake because of an actual broken record she repeats, "We so excited." She had grammar before, faltingly so, but now it's just MIA, maybe a POW of the war on America's sanity...? It gets WORSE when she then says "We gonna have a ball today." Yeah, grammar is  gone, dead, no more. Then we go back to our days of the week lesson. You know, the Animaniacs did a better job of teaching things in song, bring them back! She then shouts, "I don't want this weekend to ENNNNND!" My stuffed dog started howling... Obviously a bad sign.

Now for the obligatory rap part, because that's what you do in this kind of music! Yeah rap in this crap fest. Some gangster just cried out in pain and didn't know why, this is obviously the reason. Let me put on a sideways hat and analyze this. The rapper is someone I've never seen before, and his name isn't listed anywhere I can find on the video. He drives while he points out Rebecca's initials and her name, Because we needed to point out more obvious things in this song. He then (oh my god NO!) repeats the front and back seat and back seat thing and celebrates it... Head meet wall, ouch, but not as painful as the song. He goes on to advocate more dangerous driving such as switching in and out of lanes at highspeeds. What is it with this song and dangerous driving? I think the lyrics then imply he has a narrow miss with a car to his side because he hasn't been checking his blindspots. Way to go idiot! All he can say is "Woo." Yes, nearly side-swiping someone is something to "woo" about. It may be a near miss "woo" but he doesn't adjust his driving habits. He then complains about getting stuck behind a bus worring about all the fun hanging with tweens he's missing out on, still hopin he'll have fun this Friday.

The Chorus comes back again, twice. This time at the party which is made to look like it's in full swing. However, everyone has their hands awkwardly placed, generally down by their shoulders, because if they were to put them up they'd be in our little manufactured starlett's face. This is demonstrated the first time the crowd shouts "yeah" and fist pumps and covers her face. However, this wasn't corrected immediately and there are a couple awkward shots where her face is covered for a second. They obviously saw this problem and corrected for the second repetition of the refrain where everyone's hands are far out of the way of her face, even during the fist pumps. Why didn't they fix it in the first part? If I knew anything about this video I wouldn't be making this post. I forgot to mention she's on a stage above her peers, obviously providing the entertainment for the party. Oh, that's why she hasn't been interacting, she's the hired help. Seriously, who'd rather perform than have fun with their friends? Maybe her only friend is her roadie? This is interspersed with clips of the rapper guy driving in his car and largely doing nothing other than reminding us he's there and our little "starlett" in another part of the world. Where she's over-emoting some lyrics I can't make out. If she had just been emoting like this the whole time I wouldn't mind, however this super emotion is really weird and out of place comparison to her vague smile throughout the rest of the video. The video mercifully ends and the party goers applaud while she laughs in a a show of humility.

Overall, there were a couple of disturbing things I noticed throughout the video that were alluded to above but should still be addressed here in my general critique.

The song is incredibly formulaic: Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, rap section, chorus x2. While normally this wouldn't bother me, as structure can be a useful tool (Look at Shakespeare and the sonnets) it doesn't work when the lyrics have nothing behind them and generally suck. I feel like the song writers deceided, "What do teens like? Friday. What about Friday? Fun and the weekend. What's fun about the weekend? Parties. We need something for the bridge! Just list the days of the week. Ooh kids like rappers and driving fast how can we incoporate this? Oh we can have a rapper rap about driving fast. This is clearly song writing gold. Wait! we can't start with the party, we need a narrative of SOME kind. Just have her talk about her morning routine and tough decisions when going to school."

I also hate how this song kept reminding me of the great songs they were trying to bounce off of. They say bounce off, I say rip off. If you really stop and think about all the better songs they ripped off it goes from bad to horrendous.

I'm also really aggitated by the singer's voice, which I only briefly alluded to in my critique. It's very flat an monotonous. I don't know that much about music, but it sounds auto-tuned to hell and back, or she's just a robot. There is most definitely a metallic tinge to most of the song. Except during the parts  where there's a back up singer (implied to be her) that sounds okay, not great but tolerable. She also sounds average when she holds a longer note, but nothing amazing.

The acting of both Rebecca and the extras was abysmal. Remember what I said about her boring monotonous and emotionless smile, she has it throughout the entire music video (except precious exception, duh). Even when complaining or worrying about which damn seat to take she smiles like she secretly has a million worries behind her. The extras are no better, just watch the second verse and watch her friend on the right. By the way everyone in the back seat has the same hairstyle as her, which she apparently had to straighten like no other in the morning. Because individuality or having curls is a problem.

Again, the advocating of the dangerous driving bugs me, but I'm a car fan who like to drive my car properly, if fun, not like a fucking maniac.

That's my overly long break down.

TL;DR: This already formulaic song rips off actually good music, features a girl who can't sing and has terrible lyrics on top of everything else.