Rebecca Black’s “Friday”: Perhaps The Worst Song Ever

This is a joke, right?

FILED UNDER: Entertainment, Popular Culture
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Brett #2 says:

    I actually kind of like it. It’s not great, but catchy.

  2. As I put it elsewhere: “I have a pretty high tolerance for teen pop (heck, I consider myself a connoisseur of the form), and that is just off-the-scale awful. Even succeeding with autotune requires a bit more talent than Rebecca Black brings to the table.”

    But you really should have posted this under OTB Late Night 😉

  3. Brett #2 says:

    Listening to it, I still think it’s catchy, although it’s extremely obvious that

    1. She has basically no vocal range to speak of, and

    2. Her voice has been cleaned up digitally to an incredible degree.

  4. Franklin says:

    Doesn’t matter that it’s a mass-produced piece of cow dung, it probably hits the target demographic perfectly. And they’re the ones buying the most music.

    They’ll also realize about 15 years too late how absolutely horrible their taste was, and how dated a song with over-the-top Autotune settings will sound then. Hell, it’s already dated, as Cher used the max setting in the late 90s, IIRC.

  5. Trumwill says:

    They’ll also realize about 15 years too late how absolutely horrible their taste was, and how dated a song with over-the-top Autotune settings will sound then.

    I know too many people who refuse to disassociate themselves from 80’s hair bands to believe that is the case. They’ll know it’s dated, but they won’t care.

  6. Gerry W. says:

    You might want to go to youtube and listen to the Trashmen. A 1963 song “Surfin Bird or The bird is the word.” We all grooved on that. Beyond that, they can take all the rap and hip hop and throw them into the trash can.

  7. Franklin says:

    Hmmm, a little backstory on this little gem:

    http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/popcrush/118165554.html

    And Trumwill- yeah I’ve got a couple friends like that. I guess it depends: personally I now hate the spoonfed MTV crap I consumed in middle and high school, but still like the stuff I listened to in college.

  8. legion says:

    Autotune is this generation’s wah-wah pedal.

  9. epistorese says:

    In the words of the Three Dog Night song
    “I dunno what it is, but I don’t wanna see no mo’.”

  10. Mr. Grouchypants says:

    Worst song ever? Did someone manage to erase “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” from existence?

  11. Neil Hudelson says:

    Mr. Grouchypants raises a good point. Somehow we’ve managed to forget “We Built This City” as well.

  12. Box Jockey says:

    My bunghole has written better lyrics whilst dropping a deuce.

  13. JessicaJ says:
  14. jj says:

    Gerry W we can throw you in the trash can ur just mad cause they make more money then you ever will nobody knocks the country you probably listen to

  15. Gerry W. says:

    Actually, I agree with Brett. The song is catchy. But I long left hearing most of the music for the past 20 years. I don’t like rap and I don’t like country and the music stations pick certain songs to be repetitive (payola). Actually, I went to French music. There are a lot of music artists in the world, and we are on an island of our own.