Rebecca Black, Friday | The Flops

In the third edition of The Flops (2026), we examine the questionable and infamous “Friday” recorded by Rebecca Black. 

Like damn, bruh! Sis! C’mon! You thought it was bound to hit, but instead it was total shit – nothing but dookie 💩!  The songs that appear in The Flops didn’t hit, or the perception by many is that they underperformed or underwhelmed for a given artist.  Flops are even more detrimental when the artist is considered a superstar and rarely misses the mark. Flops can even be successful, even if the quality sucked. Or maybe they’re not-so-bad, but they bombed on the charts.  Regardless, this is the column to highlight abject failure. In the third edition of The Flops (2026), we examine the questionable “Friday” recorded by Rebecca Black.

Ugh, ugh, ugh! Sometimes musical missteps can earn you attention. Everyone wants to go viral, right? The question is, are the negative reactions worth it? Rebecca Black cemented her place in pop culture infamy by recording one of the most annoying songs ever, “Friday”. ‘Annoying’ is a kinder characterization than the worst song ever label she received. Being fair, she was only 13 when this epic flop occurred, sparking some way over-the-top, mean comments.  But, at the same time, the excerpted chorus tells you all you need to know about it – JUST A HOT MESS 🤢! Black did earn modest success with this cringey monstrosity; it peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100.  But number 58 is 18 spots shy of the top 40, which is sort of the measure for a successful hit.  Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson wrote and produced this polarizing 2011 song.

Positively, the virality of “Friday” is not flop-worthy. But, as a pop song, a low-50s peak does not a hit make, so that’s a knock against it. More so than missing out on top 40 status is the shoddy quality of the song. This is why it’s considered a flop.  The songwriting is MEH at best. Meh is too nice – it’s downright cringey! Yes, it’s teen pop, which tends to be cornball central, but BABY! “7 a.m., wakin’ up in the morning / Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs,” she sings in the first verse, and continues, “Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal / Seein’ everything, the time is goin’.” 😏 The routine is routine-ing, I suppose.  But did we need to know? HELL NO! In the pre-chorus, Black’s concern is which seat to sit in on the school bus 🚌… That prefaces the weekend-desiring chorus from musical hell.  And then, there’s a post-chorus, with “partyin’,” which I’m sure Black was doing a lot of at 13…  Just like how there is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it in the Bible, well, the second verse is much like the first – silly, silly, silly 🤪! “7:45, we’re drivin’ on the highway / Cruisin’ so fast, I want time to fly /… I got this, you got this / My friend is by my right…”  🙄🙄🙄.  We also get a kindergarten lesson on the days of the week in the bridge, with the big takeaways being “Today it is Friday,” and “Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards / I don’t want this weekend to end.” Oh, brother!  Of course, the thin, autotuned vocals do Black no favors, making things more insufferable.  While I appreciate the enthusiasm of Black and the sunny, major-key production, not even colorful, rhythmic synths could save this unfortunate, ear-grating experience. “Friday” is a disaster – that’s indisputable.  But some of those comments that were aimed at a 13-year-old regarding a dumb song – FAR TOO MUCH!

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Rebecca Black » “Friday” » Rebecca Black » 2011

Rebecca Black, Friday: The Flops No. 3 (2026) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Rebecca Black; Will Oliveira from Pexels; Gordon Johnson, OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay]

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