It isn't Rebecca Blacks fault

I figured today would be the best day to make this post.

Before the torrential firestorm starts, let me just say that "Friday" by Rebecca Black is a bad song. It takes and conveniently shows off everything that is bad with the current state of pop music. Horrid lyrics, too much autotune (though I believe that autotune should be used minimalistically as possible, and that if you can't sing, you shouldn't have a career doing so), lazy production techniques, and a ridiculous music video to boot. That being said, let me justify the title of this post.

Rebecca Blacks' "fame" is a result of her parents paying some $2000 to a music production company called Ark Music Factory (AMF). Kids parents pay the fee, the company records the kid singing, does all the necessary production on the song, puts them in the music video, and then sends the whole package out. This way of making "music" is a predatory money-making tactic, it uses the hope that parents are willing enough to spend that money on their kids (which they are), and that the kids have the dream of "pop stardom". The end result is a horrible song and a horrible music video that appeals to kids with no real musical taste, who only listen to pop radio and consider Justin Bieber to be "good music". Most of the "talent" that AMF has barely makes a dent in the realm of pop music, the "talent" barely making any money and AMF barely recouping what was spent on the production and music video.

Now, we could just blame Rebeccas parents and AMF, but the real culprit of the "fame" that Rebecca Black has is....us. We listened to her music, and passed judgment on it. Most of us panned it, seeing it for what it really is, stupid pop drivel. We made fun of it, made funny memes out of it, remixed the song, and did all the things that we do to things that are horrible and/or popular tripe. But there are those that like it....the previously mentioned kids that listen to Justin Bieber. Both sides are guilty, one for keeping her in the public face, even in a negative way, and the other for encouraging Rebecca Black to make more songs by buying her music.

It is not Rebecca Blacks fault that she is famous. Most of the blame lays at our feet. What should've happened, and I'm guilty for not doing this, was to ignore it. We should've seen "Friday" as the garbage that it was, laughed, and continued browsing Youtube. But we did not. We turned it into an internet juggernaut. The video was viral, but we turned it into a plague. We continue to mock it, to remix it, to make sure that the world knows that it exists. The internet is a place of "haters", we enjoy finding things to hate, and Rebecca Black and "Friday" were perfect targets.

Rebecca Black has made some success of "Friday", earning in a week about what a teacher makes in a year. She has reportedly donated all the money she has earned from "Friday" to the relief effort in Japan. I still wonder if that was her idea, her agents, or her parents, as well as how much of that money was her total gain, and not what was left over after spending some money on herself. Which, in a way, one could not blame her....the past week and a half  she has had to deal with the scorn of the internet. A little retail therapy wouldn't hurt to mend those wounds.

But then again....perhaps those wounds shouldn't have been made at all, had we, the internet, just ignored Rebecca Black and the song "Friday".

Why I'm doing this

Those of you that will be seeing this, will probably know me.

Those that don't, let me explain how I am as a person: I am analytical, arrogant, opinionated, somewhat cantankerous, cynical and an elitist. I have been this way for many years, starting when I realized I was more intelligent than average. This began when I was just hitting the age of ten, and I gradually started using the style of thinking that I use today.

Even though I had my style of thinking cemented within myself, it was not til these recent years that I realized that my thinking meant that I was something....more.

It was in these recent years that I have started to realize I....am a critic. I like to analyze, I like to take apart, I like to judge EVERYTHING. Music, movies, TV, people.....and I don't mind saying so. So much of learning to live in a "polite society" removes our ability to judge things as they are, we are taught to accept things. We are also taught to "fit in", to "conform", and as a direct result we do not critically think about the things that we experience.

We go through life listening to bad music, because its what's "popular", so we think it's good. We go through life watching the same bad movies, but because our friends say its "amazing", we accept that its good. I don't do that. I am the dissenting opinion, I am the one that says "this song is poppy tripe", I am the the one that says "these people can't act", I am the one that says "this TV show has no substance".

My first critical review was on a Facebook and Twitter update. I had just seen Avatar (the movie by James Cameron), and that is a grand example of hype over substance. My review was succinct, simple, and a bit controversial with my friends; I did not care. That began my criticizenship, and this is to further it.

This will also be a blog about other things, though the critic part will be the biggest part. It was also chronicle my journey into vlogging and video criticism, as well as my journey as a dj and a producer of electronic music, and the occasional snippet on the human condition and my views of the world.

Here, is to the beginning.