Rebecca Black's 'Friday' goes viral for all the wrong reasons
On Friday, teen pop singer Rebecca Black was a little-known artist on an independent label.
A weekend later, her song, "Friday," is an internet sensation -- largely for all the wrong reasons.
Viewed from two angles, the video's quick, bright flash of internet fame showcases flip sides of the Web's potential.
On one hand, it's a glance at how art (and, yes, maybe that's a tenuous term in this case) that might have languished in obscurity a decade ago can literally become world-famous overnight.
On the other, it showcases the willingness of a mostly anonymous Web population to savage the fledgling efforts of a 13-year-old girl for sport.
On Friday, the song's YouTube video, which was posted February 10, had a few thousand views.
This story was originally published March 16, 2011 at 8:44 AM with the headline "Rebecca Black's 'Friday' goes viral for all the wrong reasons."