Posted by Maura Johnston on 03/17/2011 at 2:26 PM News

The Popdust Files: Friday, rebecca black, twitter

The Rebecca Black Media Cycle has reached the point where she’s given her first interview! She spoke to The Daily Beast about being cyberbullied by crazed Beliebers, her background, and how “Friday”—currently at No. 71 on the iTunes Store’s singles chart—came to be.

Black is dealing with what she sees as cyberbullying on both a macro and micro level—she’s got the critics deriding “Friday” as the worst song ever, and the Justin Bieber fans taking her on via Twitter and telling her to kill herself. To the former people, she said she was shocked. (And really, some of the criticism of the track has been kinda over-the-top in a way that only music made by and/or appealing to teenage girls often is.) But she showed her strength: Ark Music, which produced the song, said that she could take the song down from the site—and she refused, because she didn’t want to give her critics the satisfaction of winning. She’s taken that inner resolve even further with the way that she’s stood up to crazy Justin Bieber fans telling her to kill herself (!?):

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/_RebeccaBlack_/status/48179225605324800"]

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/_RebeccaBlack_/status/48179400457457665"]

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/_RebeccaBlack_/status/48184939052675072"]

You tell ‘em, Rebecca! What’s probably most interesting to this observer is the story of how “Friday” came to be. Sure, it seems like some sort of fantasy-camp vanity project, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really cost that much money, especially when you think about how successful it’s been:

She performed musical theater and sang as part of the patriotic ensemble Celebration USA. Talent shows and vocal lessons, all the normal stuff. Until, as Black’s mother Georgina Kelly explained, a classmate fatefully told her about a Los Angeles-based vanity record label called Ark Music Factory where she could gain real-world experience in her chosen profession.

Acing a casting-call audition, Black was invited to record one of two songs label heads had written for her. And, as part of a $2,000 package her mother paid for, they offered to produce an accompanying video in a bid to make a splash on YouTube. The song she picked: “Friday.”

The other song was apparently about “adult love,” and since she felt like she couldn’t accurately put its emotions into song, “Friday” it was. Probably a good thing, since how would this mash-up of Ice Cube and Rebecca Black have come to be with an old-fashioned love song?

Up next: More media appearances (including a Good Morning America gig) and expansion of her musical empire. Not really sure about how the “acoustic version” of “Friday” is going to sound, but at least this story has a happy-ish ending compared to most other Internet meme explosions.