Does Rebecca Black's "Friday" video send the wrong message to teens about Car Culture?

Folks,

I've just spent the evening learning the song "Friday" by 13-year-old Internet sensation Rebecca Black: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0

I'll be performing "Friday" this Friday, 4/1, at 7:30 pm at a benefit for Darwin Elementary School at Quencher's Saloon, 2401 N. Western, with fellow Chainlinker Aaron Busse joining me on vocals.

While I applaud the themes of friendship, inclusiveness and positivity expressed in Ms. Black's lyrics and video, I'm troubled by strong pro-car, anti-safety images in the video:

- At the beginning of the video Black is waiting for the school bus. When a convertible, dangerously overcrowded with teens, pulls up, she eschews public transit for the private automobile. The tacit message is the car is a "cooler" way to get to school.

- In the second verse Black is now standing on the back seat of another moving convertible, flanked by two female friends. We now see the driver, a teenage girl who is obviously not old enough to drive legally.

- During the rap interlude, the rapper, who pilots yet another convertible while he raps (at least he seems to be much older than 16), expresses road rage about being passed by a school bus.

- Finally, in the climactic party scene the notion that we are at a swinging party is indicated by a row of four convertibles parked in front of the mansion with headlights blazing. Certainly not my idea of "fun, fun, fun, fun."

In this song, Ms. Black's musical dilemma is not whether to get into a car but how: "Kickin' in the front seat / Sittin' in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up/ Which seat can I take?" The seat she should have taken is a bicycle seat.

What are your thoughts on this? No cyber-bullying, please.

- John Greenfield

 

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on March 29, 2011 at 10:10am


Autotune is evil and ruining music; I can embed this but here ya go: Sing Talk

 

I really cannot believe this has turned into a serious conversation here.  That song is horrible, I mean really, really f'ing horrible in every possible way.  It is not popular because it is good, it is popular because it is bad.  This poor girl is not going to be a pop star, she is going to be a joke for her 15 minutes and the disappear no matter how talented she really is because perception is reality and no one out there sees her as anything as a joke.

 

 

 

 

Liz said:

I think the worst part of listening to that was to listen to the over modified vocals, nothing makes me cringe more as a singer than hearing beautiful voices distorted to sound like chipmunks. 

 

Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on March 29, 2011 at 10:32am

 

"I wanna be eurotrash on a bike like these guys!"

Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on March 29, 2011 at 6:45pm
Permalink Reply by T.C. O'Rourke on March 29, 2011 at 7:16pm

Word.

 

- T.C. O'Rourke


notoriousDUG said:

 

I really cannot believe this has turned into a serious conversation here.  That song is horrible, I mean really, really f'ing horrible in every possible way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on March 30, 2011 at 10:51am

I don't think that rap interlude expresses road rage, he just says he's next to a school bus. The song is about one's placement in spacetime and the moments and objects adjacent to the observer.

 

I realize people are quick to perceive Angry Black Men but this is ridiculous

Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on March 30, 2011 at 10:55am
black man in a car making words. it's not unlikely that some kind of drug hit just took off. do we really want our children exposed to night time.
Permalink Reply by Davo on March 30, 2011 at 11:23am

I don't think that the color of that person has anything to do with weather or not that person is angry.

 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 30, 2011 at 12:42pm

Peenworm Grubologist,

 

I believe the lyrics prove that this individual is, in fact, expressing road rage since the schoolbus is actually in front of him, not next to him:

"Fast lanes, switchin’ lanes
Wit’ a car up on my side (Woo!)
(C’mon) Passin’ by is a school bus in front of me
Makes tick tock, tick tock, wanna scream"

 

This man says he is so enraged by being temporarily delayed by a bus full of schoolchildren that he wants to scream. This is precisely the selfish, dangerous attitude of many drivers that makes it so important for us to film the video "Bike Friday" as a response, showing kids that bikes are a much safer, friendlier and cooler way to get to school and parties than cars. We're planning to shoot the video at Kidical Mass in Palmer Square Park, 3000 W. Palmer, on Saturday, April 9, from 11 - 11:30 am. All are welcome.

 

- John Greenfield

Permalink Reply by Mike Bullis 5.5-6.5 miles on March 31, 2011 at 2:04am

Flashback twenty years and I think my kids heard me complain about Boy George. Go back another twenty five years and I heard the same things from my parents about the Beatles. It's a never ending circle.

 

Rebecca who?

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 31, 2011 at 2:16am
Boy George can not be compared to The Beatles in this way.  A fairer comparison would be The Monkeys.
Permalink Reply by Mike Bullis 5.5-6.5 miles on March 31, 2011 at 3:06am
True, but I hadn't had my coffee yet.

James Baum said:
Boy George can not be compared to The Beatles in this way.  A fairer comparison would be The Monkeys.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on March 31, 2011 at 3:49am

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