Why all the hate towards Rebecca Black?
- Thread starter DefinitelyPsychotic
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It's what she represents: A person who is trying to make it in the business of singing without being able to sing well. You may or may not like her, you're entitled to your own opinion, but opinion or not, she is not a good singer. I think she wouldn't be bad on the ears if she tried to sing without auto-tune but she certainly wouldn't stand out. I work part time in a studio and I see way better talent than her auditioning and not make it.
There also the fact that she is trying to buy her way into the music business. I don't remember for which song but she spent $2,000.00 to make a song and music video that brought in $40,000.00 in revenue. Not bad from an investor's point of view but kind of an insult to those who are trying to make it in the music business alone on talent, charisma and attempting to know the right people.
Another sad fact is that her popularity will grow (the evidence is right here on the escapists forums) and within a year, maybe two, she will have a concert or a full blown tour that will be sold out. You better believe that most of her current haters will be the ones trying to buy the front row tickets. Heck, the haters are already paying her now. Every time her videos are viewed and every time people comment on them, she makes money.
You are right about the extreme comments. The threats need to stop. If people want to do something about her, stop paying her attention so her potential career will be threatened and not her life.
There also the fact that she is trying to buy her way into the music business. I don't remember for which song but she spent $2,000.00 to make a song and music video that brought in $40,000.00 in revenue. Not bad from an investor's point of view but kind of an insult to those who are trying to make it in the music business alone on talent, charisma and attempting to know the right people.
Another sad fact is that her popularity will grow (the evidence is right here on the escapists forums) and within a year, maybe two, she will have a concert or a full blown tour that will be sold out. You better believe that most of her current haters will be the ones trying to buy the front row tickets. Heck, the haters are already paying her now. Every time her videos are viewed and every time people comment on them, she makes money.
You are right about the extreme comments. The threats need to stop. If people want to do something about her, stop paying her attention so her potential career will be threatened and not her life.
Hehe nicelacktheknack said:
However I fear my ever observant eye may be the death of me one day X_X
That in a nutshell, especially the first item.trooper6 said:
It's frustrating, because I think the amount of vitriol from adults directed to a teenage girl is disgusting. I can't remember her response to the death threats and misogynist slurs on Twitter, but I do remember that I thought it was pretty mature and sensible.
She makes pop music for tweens. It's not my kind of music, but I'm not her targeted audience, either. I think, if her attitude is that this is her moment and she's going to enjoy it while it lasts and ignore the haters, that it's a healthy response to the reception she's gotten and it may inspire some confidence in the young girls that are fans of her. I can't really see the harm.
(OTOH, there are some heavily autotuned songs that I absolutely adore ("Love Lockdown", for example), so I can't even see that as Teh Enemy.)
I'm not seeing the "Sexism" (simply saying "misogynist slurs" doesn't cut it anymore, both terms for men and women are so overused now - examples?) in that explanation, to be honest. Also, "Twilight Mom's" ring a bell? Mature aged women fawning at a teenage guy.. huh, no creep factor there, eh?Polarity27 said:
OT: I don't hate her, I just think her talent could use a massive amount of work, or stop using the auto-tuning so that we can really see her supposed talent at work. Otherwise, I pay less attention to the music industry than most other industries and star-machines, so.. *Shrug*. Rarely crosses my mind.
The comments made about her on Youtube and also on Twitter, while they did include generic comments like "I hate you" or "You have no talent" or "I hope you commit suicide," they also were dominated by comments that targeted her on a gender basis. They included things like: You are a slut, You are a whore, I hope you get raped and murdered, I hope you get an eating disorder so you can look pretty.ShadowsofHope said:
These are sexist and misogynist comments. But also, the attacking of her is part of a larger stucture of sexism in our society that devalues things that women (especially girls) like while not similarly devaluing that men (especially boys) like. I regularly read and hear comments like: "You know Twilight Sucks because so many women like it" "you know Justin Bieber sucks because so many girls like him." "American Idol sucks...and only teenage girls like it." If men are acknowledged at all as part of these audiences, they are accused of being gay, adding homophobia to sexism.
Here are just three of the gazillion comments on the internet to this effect:
"Why Your Girlfriend has such bad Taste in Music"
http://www.quanology.org/why-your-girlfriend-has-such-bad-taste-in-music/
"Opinion: Women have worse taste in music than men"
http://boards.ign.com/teh_vestibule/b5296/178143320/p1
"Why Do Women Have Such Bad Taste in Music?"
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071119033406AAGmKdp
Similar commentary are pervasive. And this is not new. It is a longstanding part of sexist discourse to discredit artists heavily associated with female audiences, related to a longstanding homophobic discourse discrediting male artists by associating them with femininity or homosexuality.
For example, the Composer Liszt was discredited by pointing out that he couldn't be a good composer because he had massive female audiences. Schubert was discredited by claiming his music was feminine. The crooners of the twenties like Gene Austin and Rudy Vallee were attacked viciously for their female audiences and for being effeminate. Same with twenties film heartthrob Rudolph Valentino. Frank Sinatra's early Columbia years when he had a heavy female audience is a time when he is dismissed, while his later Capital years when he cultivated a majority male audience is a time when he gets great praise for genius by critics (who are mostly male, by the way). This also happens with the Beatles (the albums associated with female audieces are dismissed, their albums with more heavily male audiences are praised), Elvis, and countless other artists. Justin Timberlake as part of N*Sync (with its perception of mainly a female audience) is roundly attacked, but now that he is doing "Dick in a Box" for the dudes, he's got cred back...cred for dudes.
You bring up Twilight...and much of the Twilight commentary is also sexist. It goes on about how Twilight is crap an only women could like it...you know, because women are stupid/sheep/have no taste/etc.
When I was 13 or so, I remember all the things my fellow 13 year old boys liked. Mostly metal...and metal with half naked women rolling around on cars. But nobody mocked any of that.
There are larger issues at stake. It is about the ease with which anything too closely associated with women and femininity is demonized as less than. And this manifested with adult men telling a 13 years old girl that she should be raped and she's a whore, causing her to cry and be freaked out because she did a karaoke song for fun and put it up on the internet.
ShadowsOfHope, you day you don't see the sexism. Right, I checked your profile, you are 19 year old guy. We live in a system with structural inequalities. These inequalities are based on numerous things: gender, sexuality, race, age, region, class, etc. The one of the ways that system is able to continue existing by making itself invisible. It is hard for people to see sexism, not because it doesn't exist, but because being subtle allows it to continuing to exist. Also it is hard for good people to accept that they are getting unfair advantage at the expense of other people. So, especially as a man, it is easier to imagine that men and women are treated equally and have equal chances and opportunity. If makes us feel a lot better to think that we are getting called on in class so much because we are smarter and better rather than that study after study shows that teachers (male and female) call on male students more than female students rather even when the same number of men and women raise their hands. I notice in your profile that you like psychology. There have been a lot of studies dealing with unconscious bias. We live in a culture that has decades of sexism, classism, regionalism, racism, nationalism, homophobia, etc all accrued and pervading everything. And that leads to a lot of unconscious bias. So maybe those people were telling a 13 year old girl she should be raped because they don't like autotune weren't being consciously sexist, but it this isn't about my trying to tell you you are a bad person. This is pointing out that you don't have Akon getting a bunch of comments saying she should be raped and that he's a whore because he used autotune or because someone doesn't like his songs.
There are larger structural societal issues. If we remain blind to them, we can't help bring about positive change for society. The terrible ganging up on Rebecca Black is simultaneously a real horrible thing to do to a 13 year old girl and also part of a larger structure of sexism and misogyny that we all live in, and that hurts everybody--men and women.
Sorry I should have specified, its the people who FLAUNT that they hate it. Disliking it is fine, I don't like the song but I sure find the reaction to it interesting. Its the people who run around saying how much it sucks that are the tools. If you genuinely dislike it there's little reason to run around screaming about it, just ignore it otherwise your simply exposing yourself to more of what you dislike not to mention even bad publicity is good so your only helping what you hate.Arehexes said:
Because "Friday" was one of the worst mainstream songs of all time.
I don't think people actually hate her to the point of sending death threats though; those who do are probably just trolls.
I don't think people actually hate her to the point of sending death threats though; those who do are probably just trolls.
Mainly because she has little to no talent, her parents bought her record deal where other musicians would have to put in years of hard work tearing things down and re building them to even get noticed by a label. This personally as a musician is why i hate her, she and other pop stars are giving music a bad name and making okay for music to mediocre and flat out bad. The other reason i don't like her is that she has pop star syndrome of lyrics with no true meaning, what we need is more bands like dream theater, rise against, linkin park, Creed, and the offspring that write and craft great songs and understand how to make meaningful lyrics. ((For example))
Rise Against: "Time spent on hate is time gone to waste"
Rebecca Black:"It's Friday! Friday!Friday!"
Just my opinion on this
Rise Against: "Time spent on hate is time gone to waste"
Rebecca Black:"It's Friday! Friday!Friday!"
Just my opinion on this
Would everyone quit this bullshit about autotune being the worst thing in the world and that it is an automatic qualification for a bad song. Go listen to Discovery by Daft Punk, an incredibly album that uses autotune in several songs, and then come back and say that autotune ruins songs. It all depends on how you use the materials at your disposal...
There's hate for them on the Internet? I used to make fun of my Girl Friend for liking them. There was a point when I had to get all of her music for her on her Ipod and I told her that there wasn't a torrent for it anywhere even though I didn't look because I didn't want it in my Music on Itunes. I'm not going on there youtube videos to say "You guys suck get off the world" or something equally retarded.lacktheknack said:
<youtube=yn5WKMiyV3c>Mr. Google said:
Check the comments on this video. Just because you're classy enough to not go to the videos to rip on the comments doesn't mean others are.
Then, if you feel bold, check their MySpace. They sarcastically label themselves the "apocalypse of music" then simultaneously thank and flip off their haters.
These girls THRIVE on internet hate.
Because when one person on the internet hates something, someone else has to match it and then someone else has to hate harder and the whole thing keeps going until you reach the death threats level-then the subject of hate's 15 mins of fame ends and a new subject is discovered and the beautiful cycle begins again!
ahhhh its so bad. I did look at the comments though and theyre just giving them more views in the end.lacktheknack said:
And let's be 100% serious. They are all far from hot. I just don't get how this music gets signed but then there are amazing bands that work hard and deserve to be signed but they get passed up because it's a risk. Music industry makes me
Precisely. That's why they thrive on hate: The haters come in to flame, and give the girls more in ad revenue.Mr. Google said:
But let's be 100% serious. They are all far from hot. I just don't get how this music gets signed but then there are amazing bands that work hard and deserve to be signed but they get passed up because it's a risk. Music industry makes melacktheknack said:
its difficult to respect any artist who relies on auto-tune but i dont hate her. shes not worth the effort it would take to hate her. what i do hate is that run of the mill people like her and bieber get huge through youtube, while talented singers on youtube are usually passed over completely