Just saw Rebecca Black’s “Friday” video, rightly voted the most hated on YouTube. I didn’t mind the video itself so much as the song, which was about as Autotuned and lyrically awful as anything I’ve ever heard. It’s almost like the song was programmed to annoy adults. For those outside the tweener demographic that this is clearly aimed at, the idea of a 13 year-old “kickin’ it” and “chillin'” and “cruisin'”—the latter being particularly remarkable since 13 year-olds can’t drive, so she’s doing all this with who exactly?—is another example of kids trying to act adult(ish) when it’s so painfully obvious they’re not. We all grow up in fits and starts. Most of us don’t (or didn’t) pretend so forcefully that we’ve already arrived then broadcast those attempts to the world.
So I’m clear—since I understand that Black has received personal messages of dislike from the looneys on the Internet—I’m not saying anything against her personally. In fact, I wish all the best and congratulate her on the success she’s achieved. I wish she would lay off the Autotune so we could hear the real her. But I also agree with Simon Cowell, the notorious judge of American Idol as well as a fine an evaluator of musical talent, who said Black should not “listen to anyone over the age of 18. I’m being deadly serious. Whatever she’s done has worked. Whether you like her or not, she’s the most talked-about artist in America right now. Nobody over the age of 18 should understand her or like her. So she should just do it her way.”