If you didn’t know it before, you know it now, the internet is not for the faint of heart or weak willed. It doesn’t matter whether you post on your own site or on a community site, it only takes one irate reader/viewer and your reputation can be destroyed rightfully or wrongly in the blink of an eye.
Take the case of 13 year old Rebecca Black. She wanted to be a professional singer and a friend of hers told Black’s mother about a vanity record label called Ark Music Factory. After a successful casting call audition, Black was invited to record a song that Clarence Jey, founder of the studio had written called, Friday. As part of the $4,000 her parents paid for the vanity recording, the studio produced a video for Black to post on YouTube. She did in February and by mid-March she was an internet sensation for all the wrong reasons.
The song and her singing have been called a “train wreck,” “a disaster” and “horrible.” There are Facebook pages that have called for the 13 year old’s death. Out of 200,000 votes on YouTube, more than 181,000 dislike the video. To her credit, Rebecca Black has refused to pull the video and has proclaimed that she will not allow herself to be bullied. (The video below may have buffering issues because of video popularity.)
And I say, “Good for her.” Her idol is clearly Miranda Cosgrove of iCarly fame and she does a good job of saluting her heroine in that this video bears a remarkable resemblance to Cosgrove’s Dancing Crazy. In fact, the time on the clock that the Cosgrove video shows at the very end is the time on the clock that the Black video starts. But the best thing is that Black is now laughing at her detractors all the way to the bank. Every view on YouTube brings money to her and Ark Music Factory and her recording is now outselling Justin Beiber on iTunes with 2 million downloads.
Let’s be clear, Rebecca Black doesn’t have a great voice and with today’s recording technology, she may actually have a horrible one. But that isn’t the point. The point is Rebecca Black wanted to have a professional singing career (and despite the wishes of some, she just may have it). Her parents cared enough to let the 13 year old record a song and a video just like her hero. The least the rest of us can do is let the child enjoy her moment in the sun without insisting that every dream must be crushed or proclaiming this young girl a failure at life.
UPDATE: On 17 June 2011, Ark Music pulled the Friday video in a copyright dispute with Rebecca Black. The video had more than 174 million hits before being pulled.