Miley Cyrus Slams Rebecca Black
The music world has been a-buzz since the song “Friday,” an auto-tuned earworm produced by the Ark Music Factory, went viral. Seriously, EVERYONE has heard that song by now.
Including Miley Cyrus. And she’s got something to say about it.
“It should be harder to be an artist,” Cyrus pined to Australia’s Daily Telegraph when asked about the rising viral sensation and her new song, ‘Friday.’ “You shouldn’t just be able to put a song on YouTube and go out on tour.”
Oh my GOD, I know, right, Miley? Being an artist should require all the hard work of having your famous father get you a show on the Disney Channel.
To be fair: I think I can see what Miley was trying to say and I think she just said it poorly. I like to imagine her point was that there are a lot of other artists/groups out there trying to get attention and sell songs/albums, but are being passed over in favor of flash-in-the-pan artists who are mostly being treated like jokes. And honestly, I think she has a point, there are artists touring in vans and playing tiny, crappy venues in order to promote themselves and getting nowhere, but Black’s song goes viral and suddenly she’s the center of attention.
HOWEVER, to a certain extent you can’t help things like that. “Friday” caught on while other songs don’t, for whatever reason. ALSO: as I alluded to above, Miley doesn’t have any room to talk about arists “paying their dues.” Rebecca Black got famous for having a video shown on YouTube. Miley got famous for having a show on a Disney Channel. The only difference I see is the venue, really.
ANOTHER THING to consider: why SHOULDN’T it be viable for an artist to put a song on YouTube and go on tour? Social media marketing is a THING now, and many artists are using it to be able to pass on needing to sign to a major label in order to record and promote their music. And that goes all the way from Amanda Palmer, who split with her label Roadrunner Records after YEARS of creative differences, to independent bands like Philly’s Robots and Racecars who are utilizing online tools such as Kickstarter to ‘crowdsource’ their new album.
Not that I think Rebecca Black is some new “damn the man!” symbol of freedom from major labels. From everything I’ve seen, she’s just a surprisingly sweet young woman who recorded a song and video for fun and has unexpectedly seen them become a Thing. And you know what? That’s okay.
As for Miley Cyrus, I think her comments about Rebecca could, unintentionally, spark a conversation about the current state of the music industry and the power artists now have to release music free of labels. But I’m really, really sad that the debate springs from Toxic Girl Hate. Miley can do her thing, Rebecca can do her thing, and we all get down on Friday.
‘Cause you gotta get down on Friday.
