Rebecca Black’s single ‘Friday’ is a perverse social commentary on life and the monotony of the fixed schedules that we put ourselves through. It is as well a commentary on the lost art of meaningful lyrics. She employs heavy satire in the way she cleverly disguises well thought out and intricate poetry as a mere pop song for children.

We take comfort in an arbitrary ‘Friday,’ a day where we are meant to rejoice and revel in our accomplishments. What is Friday? Is it a day we designated as something that we are supposed to enjoy? Is it a day for “partyin’, partyin’ yeah” and ‘fun,fun,fun,fun?’ We wish to hold on to this feeling of perpetual hopefulness by ‘looking forward to the weekend’ and constantly reminding ourselves to ‘think about fun.’

‘Yesterday was Thursday,… tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes after that.’ Black reinforces the idea that there is no escape from this chronic timeline that we have set out for ourselves, waiting each day to get to ‘Friday.’

I would like to comment on the choice of tone she wishes to convey. She does not sing badly because she perhaps lacks proper range and/or skill, but she does so because she wishes to employ the use of Auto-tune, a representation of the mechanized and contrived way we convey expression and emotion. By doing this she is able to display subtle themes of ennui. The random inflections in the tone of her voice throughout the song is also an analogy that life is rollercoaster, however that rollercoaster is still on a fixed track. Brilliant.

Black reinforces this dismal idea in her lyrics. ‘Which seat do I take?’ she echoes. Viewed on the surface as confusion from a 13 year old and her choice of where to sit in a car, but veritably this is the disillusion of having a choice/decision altogether. There is only the middle seat open. There is no choice. Just like life. We walk through life as individuals and reassure ourselves that we can handle it, ‘I got this, you got this,’ but we are constantly being held by the hand every step of the way, perhaps most intrinsically indicated by the very next line ‘my friend is by my right.’

And then Fat Usher drops a verse that makes no sense and is possibly a verse about how he’s a pedophile.

To the naked eye, ‘Friday’ is a song about partying on Friday, but really symbolizes the bleakness of life, and the repression of the struggles we have to move forward through week. Week after week after week.

I now present the magnus opus of an illustrious music career:

Rebecca Black - Friday.