Friday, A Decade Later

 "Sorry for my prolonged absence" is the phrase with which I began my previous post reflecting on a piece of music, over a decade ago. Of course, since my previous post on any topic occurred in 2012, this absence has been a bit more prolonged. Appropriately enough, my last post touched upon the changing nature of one's "self" and my current post was motivated by a sudden time-warp the way that music feels uniquely capable of evoking.

It has been a decade since Rebecca Black took the world by storm, intentionally or not, with her song, "Friday." Reading through a retrospective piece on the "Friday phenomenon" and its continuing effects on music and pop culture in general, I was first struck by the fact that Rebecca Black is now about the same age as I was then when her song first rose to internet fame, or infamy.

At its debut, "Friday" was widely reviled, or at best mocked, for its vapid enthusiasm. It felt the need to explain the order in which days of the week occur, extolled the virtues of fun, and the biggest challenge it seemed to pose was whether one ought sit in the front or the back when riding with one's friends. Not the first song you'd expect me to dig into philosophically. Through one lens, it appears to be empty, auditory calories, the result of a "pop culture factory" putting out products intended to be engaged with on only the most superficial of levels.

However, viewed through another lens, that of a young teenager making an early foray into music and showbusiness in general, the very same song acquires an endearing earnestness. A decade later, I regret my cynical dismissiveness towards Black's creation. While I still feel there is tongue-in-cheek humor to be found in its simplicity, it is the kind of laughter the young often cause in the older. Laughter that mixes amusement with bemused wonder at what the next generation will accomplish.

Nowadays there is a third thread alongside the amusement and amazement when I think of "Friday." Because the song became so iconic ten years ago, there is also an echo of who I was ten years ago. At almost the exact midway point of my doctoral journey it was a time of loneliness and despair, but also one of envious stability, in hindsight at least. Dance, and music in general, were a large part of my life and from them I obtained great joy and friendships. Of course, memory is known to retain best: the highest highs and the lowest lows, then smooth out the rest into the grey melange that ends up fleshing out much of a life.

So, is "Friday" a vapid exercise in pop culture designed to be pop culture, an impressive debut by a young artist who had no intention for it to make such an impression, or an anthem emblematic of a time and place? It can be any or all of these, depending on your personal experiences with it. Context is important, so maybe it is worth specifying that "yesterday was Thursday," and that, "tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards," even when your entire song is about it being Friday? Or, maybe not.