Jeffrey Tucker said Rebecca Black’s Friday was an example of an item that large numbers of people hate, but those very large numbers of people consume…repeatedly.
Their actions speak louder than words.
Various corners of the internet have also dubbed this music video one of the worst, if not the worst, music video ever made. And yet, it is watched repeatedly, over and over and over again. Why has it not been ignored and put into obscurity?
Post some more cases of demonstrated preference.
it can lack artistic merit but be be meritous in the entertainment value it unintentionally provides.
If people watch the video they only demonstrate their preference to watching it rather than doing other things, yet that does not come loaded with the reason that they watched it, (they expected it to be a good musical experience / they expect it to be an unintentional laugh riot - horror show / they want to see what the ‘fuss’ is about)
6 million views implies many saw it more than once.
and ?
So, “wanted to see what the fuss is about” might not necessarilly apply.
my point was that one should be cautious when drawing necessarily implications from peoples demonstrated preferences for having done something
A: Ack, dude this smells like crap… here, smell this.
Emo gangsta rappers? Hahaha.
I’m with nirgraham here. Just as I said on Tucker’s blog post…He tried to claim
The point, rather, is that the plight, the hopes, and the dreams that are reflected in this video, however inadvertently, tap into a sensibility and a longing of a generation for a certain kind of freedom from a system that has ensnared them against their will. This might be the driving force of its popularity — and precisely why something that people claim not to like is evidently so loved.
I honestly doubt that. I don’t even think that’s a subconscious case. I’m gonna go with “It’s catchy and lame. And therefore funny and addictive.”
I think shadenfreude is a much more realistic culprit…people enjoy being able to point to someone else and laugh at their being so unintentionally ridiculous. The fact that the video was a completely serious attempt at a legitimate music video and was not at all meant to be humorous is what makes it so intriguing. As much as I like the idea of everyone being unconsciously drawn to the song because of it’s liberation undertones, I really don’t think the subconscious of the millions of people who made this song popular is that deep.
Or maybe I’m just too pessimistic.
I think few people would argue against the phenomenon of something being so bad it’s funny. And yes, people start liking it because it is so bad.
My favorite example of that is this cult classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBdAY8eA9w
It’s sort of like rickrolling. People may not say they “value” the song, but they do value the ability to link it.
Or why on earth does this have 70,000 views??
Thank you.
Did you like it, or hate it? This one is even more, well, whatever that is.
It’s like the freak show. It gets attention because it’s rare and intriguing. People aren’t necessarily demonstrating a preference for women to have beards or humans to look like elephant men. It’s just interesting to look at because it’s not something you see everyday. Just like a train wreck. That doesn’t mean people would actually prefer to have a world filled with hairy women, deadly accidents, or terrible singers featured in ridiculous music videos.
I don’t get why this is so hard to understand.