Rebecca Black
And who said the Internet never broke a star?
This is what the Black Eyed Peas have wrought. After songs with inane lyrics like "My Humps" and "Boom Boom Pow" is it any wonder that Rebecca Black’s trifle is a YouTube sensation?
Oh, don’t focus on the barely literate lyrics. We’ve been pandering this crap for a decade and now we’re surprised the public buys it?
And the de rigueur rapper.
And the music video.
This is just the logical conclusion to where the major labels and radio have led us. And you wonder why both are dying.
You can’t have it both ways.
You can’t sell crap and then get pissed when someone creates same and profits from it.
So we’ve finally reached that crossroads where real artists and "stars" part ways.
Isn’t it interesting. The so-called "stars" of today are all over the gossip blogs, even the mainstream press is infatuated. It’s a simple story. Take good-looking kid and music industry and radio consensus and everybody gets on the bandwagon to sell this worthless product. Which is why most Top Forty acts can barely play clubs. Or if you have fame, your "career" arc is very brief.
And "American Idol" is no better. Just because Jimmy Iovine worked with the Boss and Dr. Dre that does not make the contestants deserving of anyone’s attention. And trotting out all those "producers". Used to be artists fought to produce their own records, now they can’t wait to sign up with the major label and get made over by the usual suspects, who do the same for every pretty face, just like Ark Factory.
I think it’s funny. I think if you dig down too deep you’re missing the point.
It does not matter exactly why this video caught fire. That’s what happens online. There’s a constant flow of overnight sensations, train-wrecks we watch, discuss for a nanosecond and then move on from.
Like I said, don’t confuse this with artistry.
And unlike in the old days, something can reach everybody in a day or two. Gatekeepers are irrelevant. The public spreads the news.
But do you research that accident you saw on the freeway? No, you focus and forget.
What we’ve got now is the dying gasp of the old media. Not only music, but news too. Otherwise, how in the hell could Kim Kardashian be such a star? The mainstream media was complicit, otherwise no one would pay attention, not for long.
And I’m not saying these nitwits will never rise to the surface.
But I am saying that they’ll constitute ever less of the music business money.
Come on. Everyone’s got the software. The tracks on the radio feature auto-tune and you want to beat up this little girl with rich parents miming the concoction of bottom feeders?
Little kids like seeing people their own age.
Little kids want to believe they too can be stars. That if they met Rebecca Black, their life would work. It’s about the fantasy.
It’s not about the music.
But the music is not that far different from what the big boys are selling.
So why are they complaining?
And why are you complaining?
We no longer live in one homogeneously controlled landscape. The fact that you hate crap is not so significant. It’s about what your peers like.
And if you’re over twenty and your peers are interested in Rebecca Black, you must be a pedophile.
Rebecca Black will go back to middle school.
In college, people will laugh at her fleeting fame.
To believe she’s a star is to believe the cast members of the "Real World" have lasting talent.
Move right along folks, there’s nothing here of interest. Real music requires inspiration and dedication and tons of practice and it lasts.
Unlike "Friday".
