“Today is Friday, Friday, Friday.” Most people know exactly the song I’m quoting. Rebecca Black became famous from her one hit wonder, “Friday” (and yes, I’m speculating on the “one hit” part). Katy Perry and countless YouTube users have covered her song, but it seems her original song won’t be playing legally on YouTube anymore. According to an article by Garrett Downing (2011) of kypost.com, the video was requiring a payment of $2.99 to view and has now been taken off of YouTube all together.
Downing sourced TMZ.com: “Ark Music [who claims to have written the song] operated the YouTube account, and put the video behind paywall, and Black responded by having the video removed” (¶6). Black’s “Friday” had received over 160 million views prior to the video’s removal.
I haven’t been able to find an official word from Black’s reps; however, this seems to foreshadow a lawsuit where copyright and intellectual property infringement will be argued.
Rebecca Black had received a lot of extreme comments that clearly transcended into the bullying category—which, though inexcusable, is to be expected when a young person is made a star over night from a practical joke with music. That said, she created a unique song and video and commanded attention. She had kids and adults a like singing the lyrics as they left school and work. In my time analyzing social media platforms, I can’t remember a time when someone received that much attention—what appeared to be, overnight.
Rebecca Black is the perfect example of how social media websites give anyone, and I mean anyone, the potential to be famous. At 160 million views, that calculates to $160K in Ms. Black’s pocket—earning $10K for every million views received. Whether Black has the rights to the song or not, I’m sure between appearances or endorsements she will have some extravagant Fridays.
Source
Downing, G. (2011). Rebecca Black's 'Friday' video removed from YouTube. kypost.com. Retrieved on June 23, 2011, from click here.
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