Decoder Ring: Gotta Get Down on Friday

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rebecca Black's music video for Friday was Youtube's most watched video of 2011, thrusting the thirteen-year-old Rebecca into a very harsh spotlight. Dubbed "The Worst Music Video Ever Made" Friday was an almost universal object of derision. This is the story of how Friday came to be, and how nearly a decade after it went viral, it sounds so different than it did back then. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Dear Prudence and Slow Burn. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, before I get started today I wanted to talk to you about something.
0:04.0	Slee, like so many media outlets right now, is contending with the dire economic effects of COVID-19.
0:10.0	My colleagues are working tirelessly to bring you news about the pandemic and also
0:15.7	working tirelessly to bring you news and entertainment distraction laughter about everything else too. If you have gotten anything out of our work, we're asking
0:25.6	if you're able for you to become a member of Slate Plus. Slate is our membership
0:30.3	program, a way for you to directly support Decodering, Slate, and the work that we are doing
0:35.3	for just $35 for your first year.
0:38.2	You'll get access to ad-free podcasts, exclusive podcasts, extra segments of podcasts, and all of our written content.
0:45.7	If you can swing it, please do.
0:47.8	It will really help us to continue doing this work.
0:51.3	Please become a member, please support Slate directly by going to Slate.com slash
0:56.1	Decodering Plus. Thank you. Now on to the show. In 2011, Eleanor Kagan, an audio producer was working at a job where she had a little too much time on her hands.
1:12.0	I would literally spend all day scrolling the internet
1:16.1	and just like refreshing, refreshing,
1:17.8	waiting for a new post.
1:20.1	Like there wasn't enough internet for me to read.
1:23.0	And then one day in March, something interesting happened.
1:26.0	All of a sudden, I started hearing people around my office giggle.
1:31.0	She immediately started looking around online, trying to figure out what they were laughing at.
1:35.6	Everybody was hosting the lyrics to a song called Friday.
1:39.6	It's Friday, Friday, got to get down on Friday.
1:45.0	Everybody's like a word to the weekend.
	...

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