A classmate introduced Rebecca to Ark Music Factory, a production company in L.A. that, for a fee, will write and produce music for aspiring artists. Think of it like a baseball fantasy camp for musicians: Give them some cash, and you can live your dream of working in a real studio with a real producer, and maybe even get your own music video. The video for her first single, "Friday," hit YouTube on February 10th, 2011 to little fanfare. A month later, it would become the biggest thing in the world.
Monotonous is one of the kinder ways I've heard the song described. For the unkind ways, just go to Urban Dictionary and look for the words that make you gag; those were probably used too. The video hit 10 million views in a week, and the song was soon in the iTunes Top 100. Rebecca Black was on The Tonight Show the month after that. It was number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the most-viewed video on YouTube in 2011, totaling 167 million views in just four months ... along with 3,190,000 dislikes. It was memed, it was GIFed, it was covered, it was remixed, it was parodied. People hated it, people defended it. But mostly, people hated it.
NOTHING TO HATE HERE MOVE ALONG
So what happens to a person once they go from nothing to having an abundance of a bizarre and not particularly friendly brand of success, and all while still in their early teens?
After The Fame
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