Song of the Week

Fridays on the Strings blog are going to take on a new sound. Tune in each Friday for the Song of the Week. It might be the #1 hit of the week, a funny spoof, the latest classical composition, a classic throwback, or anything else that catches my eye.   

Here’s one to start us off.

Rebecca Black – “Friday”

This song came out in February of 2011 and to everyone’s surprise was one of those instant hits. It was surprising because if you search for the song, you’ll come up with reviewers calling it “the worst song ever,” “just terrible,” “and hilariously dreadful.” But the song’s awful reviews didn’t stop it from getting 30 million hits during its release month, putting the 13-year-old girl ahead of teen star Justin Bieber on the charts.

While it’s been dubbed the song “people love to hate,” I trend toward the love side. Despite the fact that the song has over 800,000 dislikes on YouTube, it’s impossible to ignore that it follows all the rules when it comes to making a #1 pop hit: it will get stuck in your head and you’ll find yourself looking around to make sure no one noticed that you were singing it to yourself. When I worked at Steamboat in the winter of 2011, my crew habitually watched the video every Friday as we rode up the gondola to work. Since it put all of us in a happy Friday spirit, I thought it would be the perfect way to launch the new Friday Song of the Week blog series. Happy Friday, Friday!