The Power of the Internet
by Aaron Frias

Music is a great thing, isn’t it? It allows the listener to just forget about the stresses of life and can unite a wide range of people. Go to any concert and the venue is filled with people with different religions, political views and personalities, but one thing they all have in common is the music. Humans have now entered into the digital age of communication and word spreads a lot faster than it did 100 years ago, hell 10 years ago. With that comes along YouTube, a website dedicated to making the average Joe a viral celebrity. Aspiring musicians have taken advantage of said website and a handful found success. One of the recent discoveries from the site goes by the name of Rebecca Black.
Miss Black is also an aspiring musician and her one music video currently has about 20 million views. Sounds pretty good, right? It should sound great, except for the fact that she has become a national joke that words can’t even begin to describe. It’s not because she’s 13 years old or for the genre of music. No, it’s the awful music video and atrocious lyrics. You haven’t heard BAD lyrics until you’ve listened to this song. The song involves an overly excited girl who’s happy that it’s finally Friday. The viewer gets a look of her daily routine, waking up in the morning (and for some reason she wears her makeup when she goes to sleep) has her bowl of cereal, goes to the bus stop waiting for a bus and then her underage friends show up in a convertible to pick her up. Seriously, the driver can’t even see over the steering wheel. But, she has her first dilemma of the day? Which seat can she take? Hmm, well considering that the car is a 5-seater and 4 of the seats are taken up, I think the choice is made for you already.
One of the big problems with this video is the fact that it literally follows the lyrics. Every word that she sings correlates with the video, and that gets annoying. Here’s a sample of her musical genius: “7am, waking up in the morning, Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs, Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal, Seein’ everything, the time is goin’, Tickin’ on and on, everybody’s rushin’, Gotta get down to the bus stop, Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends” Wow.
Despite how bad the video and song are, it’s become a viral hit. Hate it or love it, this young girl is getting paid handsomely for a dumb song. But that goes back to my point about word spreading quickly. The song has inspired Facebook groups, covers, remakes, and even a website dedicated to this one song. Websites like these are what made Justin Bieber and Soulja Boy famous. The more people that spread the video and talk about the musician, it gains the attention of record companies. Regardless, even though technology has made entertainment easier to obtain, the money is all where it boils down to. Business and music is such an unfortunate marriage that can never get divorced, but it’s the way our world works. It’s proven that bad music can still make money, despite if millions poke fun of it. The musician gets the last laugh on their way to the bank. Luckily, there are many artists and bands that aren’t motivated by the greenbacks and play for the sake of music. These hidden gems in our industry are the ones worth listening to.