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Rebecca Black Proves New Rules of Fame

Meghan Daum: To be really popular, you have to be really unpopular

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 24, 2011 3:23 PM CDT

(Newser) – With Friday, 13-year-old Rebecca Black has a top 20 song on iTunes and a video that’s reached 35 million views—but what she’s most noted for is widespread derision. “We don't hate you because you're famous. You're famous because we hate you,” reads one of the printable tweets. But that’s what fame is in the age of the Internet, writes Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times: "To do anything in a public arena is to invite an insta-response that will echo just as loudly with harsh critics as with fans."

Rebecca's mom paid for a song-writing service for her daughter, trying to give her "the gift of attention and maybe a teeny bit of fame." As a result, total strangers are now urging her daughter to kill herself. “Whereas it used to be that the forum for anonymous public opinion was the high school bathroom wall, now the whole world is essentially a bathroom wall,” Daum writes. And "being extremely popular is now basically the same thing as being extremely unpopular."

A frame grab from the video.
A frame grab from the video.   (YouTube)
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The video.   (YouTube)

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 27 comments
thesmartboomer
Mar 25, 2011 9:59 AM CDT
Again, why are we focusing on her "To be really popular, you have to be really unpopular" like it's some prophetic statement? Just because we're using 'Yoda Logic' doesn't make it an intelligent statement or even the truth... and that doesn't even cover the differences of being popular and famous, which the girl and her parents clearly misunderstand. To be popular you have to be well liked - to be famous, you have to own a computer.
Shinykid
Mar 24, 2011 6:18 PM CDT
The song is horrible, but she's just a little kid. What did anyone expect? Now lets back to great, well-written, and deeply thought out music, like Lady Gaga!
pg13
Mar 24, 2011 6:15 PM CDT
I missed the Beiber craze and I'll miss the Rebecca Black craze too. Hope I never hear either one of them sing. Ever.

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