Humanity is fucked*: Why 'everyone' is in denial about what it is they 'like' re Rebecca Black's "Friday"

3.24.11: This is very simple. We are living in a strange time (or so we like to think). Every unit of media that becomes popular, and especially ones that are viral / fast ascenders, needs to be labeled with a "reason why" as quickly as it came into our consciousness. Most of the time, we aren't wrong about what it is we enjoy. "David after dentist" and "Charlie bit my finger" are examples of memes that follow a set of rules that aren't difficult to ascertain, rules that predate the internet by decades (ie, "funny," "cute children," "innocence lost," "reality," etc.). However, what makes a meme popular in the current mediascape is the (false) feeling that what we're consuming right now is somehow wholly unique to the moment, our moment in time. We 'like', or find interesting, Rebecca Black's "Friday" because it is so bad, this is what we think. Not true though. Irony is dead. We don't like Rebecca Black's "Friday" ironically, or because it is "so bad it is good." Far too much media exists for any truly bad piece to rise to the surface. Especially one that lacks any sort of large promotional budget to shove it in our faces (See: most Hollywood 'blockbusters'). What "Friday" really is is an authentically good production of bubblegum pop. You can go back to at least the mid 50s and find numerous examples of 'flash in the pan' songs sung by teenagers with moronic lyrics and bouncy, overtly joyous (almost annoying) chorus melodies. The only difference is, back then, adults weren't concerned with shit like this. Their brains weren't tied to a machine 8-12 hours a day, a machine that dictates we process and overanalyze (and possibly attempt to destroy) any or as many bits of media which happen to gain traction. So we have a world full of people above the age of 20 'critically' concerned with understanding the marginal popularity (she's currently #31) of a tween pop sensation, when it really isn't their (our) place to judge. It's the same reason why 11 and 12-year olds weren't rapidly mediafiring the new Radiohead album the day it came out. (In this regard, children 'get' it means to be human more than we do, one might say.) The lines have desperately blurred. It's not a bad thing. People just need to step back from that seemingly unavoidable feeling of cultural importance (the zeitgeist!) and realize A) the death of irony has most likely occurred, and B) history is real. Humanity is not fucked, no not necessarily. But just read some of the nearly 1/2-million YouTube comment and tell me we aren't getting close.

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