If you haven’t heard about Rebecca Black yet, you should do the following things: 1) thank whichever deity you pray to, 2) tell us all how you’ve avoided the disaster thus far, and 3) read this, because her success represents a troubling new era of faux pop stars, stage parents, and child exploitation.
13-year-old Rebecca Black is a new YouTube star, famous for her video “Friday,” an auto-tuned ode to the weekend that various media sources have referred to as “a whole new level of bad,” and “like an alien attempting to pass [as] an average American girl.” The video’s garnered almost 15 million hits since last Friday, and Black has been a trending topic on Twitter for five days.
She owes her fame to the ARK Music Factory, a record label based in Los Angeles. According to ARK’s website:
Our team at ARK have [sic] certainly recognized that raw talent alone is sufficient to get noticed. However, to further advance as a professional within the music industry, it is absolutely essential for an artist to have hit singles and a well executed image—all within that marketable package.
The company has at least nine artists on its roster, all of whom are girls below the age of 17. There may even be more ARK artists, since video footage from their launch party shows even more kids, including a few boys, who aren’t on the ARK website. The ARK formula is simple: take a young girl (one of them is only ten), have her record a song with bizarre, age-inappropriate lyrics, auto-tune the hell out of the vocals, dress her up in age-inappropriate clothes and record an age-inappropriate video about partying or being famous or exacting revenge on cheating school yard boyfriends.
All of the ARK kids have only one song, and almost all of them feature an awkward interlude by an adult rapper. That’s because the guys behind the music factory—rappers Patrice Wilson and Clarence Jey—don’t want to entrust their chances at big money with just one budding starlet, and they want to make sure their face is stamped on as many of the videos as possible.
As some bloggers have already figured, the One Song Wonder syndrome is also likely based in an ARK experiment to see how much money can be squeezed out of how many parents. The Daily Beast reported yesterday on some of the specifics behind Black’s rise to fame:
Acing a casting-call audition, Black was invited to record one of two songs label heads had written for her. And, as part of a $2,000 package her mother paid for, they offered to produce an accompanying video in a bid to make a splash on YouTube.
The Internet’s been pretty cruel to Rebecca Black—and, in fairness, her song is laughably awful. But we don’t need to be criticizing middle schoolers. We need to be looking critically at the Ark Music Factory, not just for marring pop music and ruining our favorite day of the week, but for exploiting their clients. The company is exploiting the child performers for their own fame gain, and in the process turning them into oversexed adults before they’re even able to drive.
The entire story just makes me feel gross and disappointed, and it leaves me with so many questions. How can the ARK Music Factory continue promising stardom to kids when their songs are becoming famous for all the wrong reasons? Why aren’t the parents of Rebecca Black or the other ARK girls even attempting to shield their girls from international dissection by pulling the videos or cutting ties with ARK? And maybe most importantly, is it even possible to stop the madness now that it’s attracted so many not-so-adoring “fans”?
Seeing them have some success is a sure sign the apocalypse is near. Not really an insult to them as I’m sure they don’t know big words like that anyway. The extent of their limited vocab seems to be “friday friday … (pathetically talentless for sure)
Whether you like it or not, the song has now been downloaded over 2 million times on i-tunes. at .70 per track sold, someone made money. Word is they’ll record an acoustic version, probably take RB and a few others on tour (maybe open for some bigger acts)…listen, it’s bad…i get that. But tell me you’re not singing it after listening to it a few times. The under 12s are eating this up! And why complain when you know a) they’ll be gone in 6 months, tops, and b) someone else will be right there to take their place. ARK’s… Read more »
I believe they are dumbing down america,who is they??You and me.Forget the gubment and corporations,our country wouldnt be the way it is if we didnt want it this way,filled with fake food,fake green energy,fake music and idols,fake boobs,fake plants,and gobs of fake wanna bee bankers,stars and gangsters.
Stop being a democrat or republican,black or white,gay or straight and just be.Turn off your television and be the kind of person that sees that poor rebecca black video and maybe feel sick to your stomach,then you will know you are in the right place in life.
ARK seems like the logical extension of Simon Cowell and American Idol. ARK takes Cowell’s emphasis on “the total package” and runs with it.
Wonder how many would be child stars Disney weeded through before coming up with Miley Cyrus.
You’re going to get a kick out of this. ON Twitter Rebecca Black is a trending topic. You know how? Her people are starting lots and lots of fake Twitter accounts and putting out one tweet apiece saying something good and linking to her video. It is a total scam.
I completley disagree. First I’m only going to go by what I’ve seen on the “Friday” video and not the other Ark videos, where exactly is it oversexed? there is no age-inappropriate clothes and it doesn’t even deal with romantic topics. It’s just about having fun on friday, if anything the reason it’s getting mocked is because it’s cheesy in a christian rock conservative sort of way. If you’re saying Rebecca Black is being exploited, where does it end? Dakota Fanning, is she being exploited? Just because she’s underage and in movies and became famous? The Olsen Twins in Full… Read more »
Blame ARK? I’m sorry, did I miss something? Is ARK forcing these girls and their parents to sign up for this? Are they forcing them to churn out cheesy YouTube videos at gunpoint? Don’t blame ARK, blame the parents. They’re the ones willingly and eagerly signing their kids up for 15 minutes of fame with absolutely no regard for the negative consequences. If ARK is successful then more power to them. It’s a sad reality, but they aren’t doing anything wrong. Furthermore, blame consumers and ARK’s audience (ie, all of us). If we weren’t delivering 16 million hits on YouTube… Read more »
Actually Daddy Files, perhaps you missed the last paragraph of Adam’s story: ” Why aren’t the parents of Rebecca Black or the other ARK girls even attempting to shield their girls from international dissection by pulling the videos or cutting ties with ARK?” I think it’s fine to question the business practices of any industry even when parents are letting their children be exposed to such drivel out of the desire for possible money or fame. It’s clearly more then just a parental issue. It’s also a social one since ARK apparently is popular and it’s at the expense of… Read more »
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How have I still not heard it? I listen to NPR, and I only read intelligent blogs such as this one. Oh wait, oops. 😛