What Can Internet Marketers Learn From Rebecca Black?

Just to clarify, Kyle's video was not a apology for any type of vitriol or malicious intent. Our parody of her was done in good spirits and wasn't a personal attack at her. In fact, we appreciated that her song was seriously about fun and nothing more. Oh, and the days of the week... and lets not forget Partying!

So we decided to have a bit of fun with our own parody called Wednesdays....

I definitely relate. Thank God I never listened long enough to catch the chorus.

C'mon, man, bash her head in? Please take a look at what those words actually mean. How about just say your own head in, it just sounds a bit strange you wanting to bash in the head of a kid who just happend to go viral. Anyway, sure you didn't mean it that way.

She's only 13.

Anyway, as for the song I really don't like it but I don't think it's the worst thing I've ever heard. Horrible lyrics, and I don't see why a 13-year old needs to be going to parties like that, ha ha. Man I sound like an old man.

Anyway, carry on, everyone, carry on.

Never attempt something like this unless you can actually sing !!

Except that it's Sunday. Singapore's not that far ahead is it?

EDIT: LMAO! Holy crap I just got the joke. Man I need coffee!

To be honest I think its a catchy song.

Yes the lyrics are horrible and everything about it is pretty bad, but it didn't annoy me anywhere near as much as Justin Biebers first video and he has some talent.

Who is this girl? I can't believe people call this music (I just googled her music video)

As a singer I feel ashamed people put stuff like this out there. I'm sorry but this is just horrible... what happened to the good old days when there was REAL music or when people could actually sing? :confused:

But more importantly, how did this get so many views in the first place? Over 24 million views on YouTube.. :confused:

I haven't bothered to watch the video, since I've heard enough awful music to last a few lifetimes, but I doubt it's much worse than Ke$ha, Lil' Wayne or a lot of the other "hip hop" and pop music you hear on the radio nowadays. I was embarrased for humanity after reading some of the comments from people saying she should die and such. Can't say there's any music I've ever heard that makes me want to bash a 13-year-old's head in (or anyone for that matter), but hey maybe that's just me.

As for what's to be learned, our culture loves a train wreck. You don't have to be talented or cool or interesting anymore, you just have to be a train wreck/douchebag and have a bunch of cameras pointed at you and you too can become a household name, at least for a while. It's pretty sad actually. Not in terms of what it says about the afformentioned train wrecks/douchebags, but what it says about the rest of us.

Hi,

I'm going to comment without watching/hearing it, just based on what has been said here.

I think peoples reactions to stuff like this are fascinating.

In some ways, I think a lot of the feelings generated by 'modern' music stem back to the invention of MIDI and the consequent infiltration of the music industry by hardcore marketers - for example, here in the UK we had three stooges called Stock, Aitken and Waterman who decided that it would be a great idea to shove karaoke singers on top of bland pop tracks. These singers comprised of unknowns such as (the now infamous) Rick Astley and soap 'stars' like Kylie and Jason.

Coupled with MTV, and events like the first $1m video by Duran Duran, the visual suddenly became more important than the aural.

I think it's helpful for us 'oldies' to refer back to a defining moment where the whole us vs them thing (IE young vs old AKA young destroying whatever is precious to old) happened, in order to put each generation's version of the same thing into context.

My generation's version of this was perhaps the most extreme and frightening for anyone who wasn't a teen. It attacked everything 'establishment.' We had 'destroy shirts' comprising of an upturned crucifix, made from cheesecloth with strait-jacket style dog-clipped arms emblazoned with one motto - 'Destroy'. We had safety-pin piercings (the fastening for old-fashioned nappies used as a piercing device). We had fashions based on S&M like bondage trousers.

The subject matter of the songs was anything at all that offended and upset older people - EG - attacking Royalty and the establishment, praising Nazism, attacking society in any way, praising sex and violence. 'Anarchy in the UK', 'no future' - it had the lot.

It appeared to be created by a gifted marketer, McLaren, but he was probably just the public face of the elite - the social engineers. He examined what worked and exploited it to the max. He understood that teens would flock to identify with punk and he also realised that everyone else would be frightened to death by the perversion of their kids.

Similar to later versions, the Sex Pistols could not play or sing and they were hand-picked because they were lazy, thieving drop outs with a bad attitude.

Personally, I think that the rise of rap and hip-hop is designed in exactly the same mold by the same people. Behind all of this are marketers looking to make money and perhaps the people who drive them are social engineers, the elite.

What fuels this the most, is the revulsion of the older generation, NOT the youth themselves. The youth are driven to towards these things because of their parents' attitude towards it and their attempts to 'ban' or 'stifle' it for the 'sake' of society.

To me, this current stuff is simply the same process in a different format. The more adults are repulsed by the commentary and debasement of the language we see on youtube, facebook and elsewhere and the bland (or disturbing) music that drives it, the more it drives it to happen.

The fuel for attention is to invoke passionate response (love or hate) and the struggle between generations and their own view of their place in the world is a key aspect - while the young get a grip on the world as they become the current 'owners' of it, the old struggle to let go and to deal with what they see as the loss of stability and sanity, perhaps reflecting their own personal life struggles.

If you want to upset the applecart and you are beyond your teen years, simply embrace the whole thing with relish. That'll confuse the heck out of 'em and will keep you feeling young.

Yes, I've never heard or seen this Rebecca Black, but I'm already a huge fan and as for the hating commentary, I think it's great that people are freely expressing themselves.

Edit - Ok, just watched the whole thing from start to finish. Based on what I said above about 'the applecart' - I absolutely loved it and think it's driving music in just the right direction. The highlights for me were at 2.26 and the way she 'sings' 'afterwards', followed by the (ahem) pimp-like grown up character appearing, who's obviously also a fan of hers.

Conclusion - just like punk, this is most definitely driven by the social engineer/elite class, in order to drive the majority of the adult population to distraction, in a whole gamut of ways.

On that basis, I absolutely love it. We want more! Who needs difficult to play instruments, we need more auto-tuned voices, bleep-bloop beats and children depicted in adult situations!

only thing i've learned is that I can waste a ridiculous amount of time on youtube (as i've just done) and that the comments are almost always better than the videos themselves. awesome stuff.