“Friday” by Rebecca Black: (Descriptive Theory)

“Friday” is an “awful” viral teen pop music video on YouTube, written and produced by Ark Music Factory and performed by Rebecca Black. The song is about a schoolgirl who is tired of the tedious and rushed schedule of the week, and is hoping to find liberation in the weekend to come. This is an archetypal plot for many songs directed to/by the teenage audience, where the freedom to have fun is of the foremost importance. It can be considered that “Friday” is both a readerly and writerly text, as it adheres to the practices of the “current music video”, form- and content-wise, but leaves too much up the audience’s imagination to be considered a one-dimensional text.

As mentioned, the video follows the typical conventions of music videos, stylistically and narratively. The introduction, as the new tradition, presents the credits for the music video. This establishes the video as a mainstream text, and gives the audience the sense that the video will play out cinematically. It begins with familiarizing the audience with the main character, Rebecca, who is a teenage girl getting ready for school. It visually supports this fact with the school supplies showed in the opening shot, and with the use of backpacks and bus stops to symbolise a teenager’s typical trip to school. The target audience of adolescent schoolchild is addressed by the colourful settings and wardrobes, as well as by the diction of the lyrics (e.g. “We so excited. We gonna have a ball today”).

The story plays out linearly, beginning with Rebecca getting ready for school, and ending with her performance at the party. To begin, the lyrics describe her morning schedule of getting ready for school, which is inferred as boring and repetitive both audio and visually. The lyrics are sung in a monotonous and unemotional voice, and are accompanied by visuals of her family “rushing” around and an un-amused look on her face. Once she makes contact with her friends during the pre-chorus, the narration becomes more relaxed vocally and develops more complicated harmonies. This continues for the chorus, where there is a certain “call and answer” aspect to the lyrics.

 Although the video follows the formula for a typical teen pop music video, it proves that quality and content is still respected in today’s culture by the response of the viewers. However, it could be argued that “Friday” is directed towards a very specific audience that YouTube dilutes throughout the video’s 161 million views, and among that audience it is a more highly respected text. On the other hand, what cannot be argued is that “Friday” (and to that effect Ark) use the discourses of the modern day music video to shape what it delivers to its audience. It is a cinematic video that, for the most part, uses the appropriate forms (i.e. Lighting, framing, camera movement) to both deliver and enforce the message of the lyrics.