<p>NYMomof2, this particular selection was not casting. I don’t want to give details here, but it has to do with being commissioned by a well known theater to write a new musical. She has written one musical ever. The others selected have had their works on Broadway. While she is a musical theater performer/actor, she is also a singer/songwriter (not in the MT genre), and also has written and composed one musical that was just produced in NYC (which led to this latest commission). She did play a lead in that musical that just closed.</p>
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<p>Oh, definitely talented…but there are plenty of talented, out-of-work actors. Kudos to your daughter to accomplishing so much with non famous parents (I assume…), but I thought we were talking about a fourth rate youtube video.</p>
<p>You’re right. This thread is about Rebecca Black and should stick with that. I was replying to your questions about those who attend NYU/Tisch and how many become famous and I was saying that not all are seeking fame, but merely seeking to be successful actors.</p>
<p>Yes, there are plenty out of work very talented actors. However, my D knows plenty who went to her school who are successfully working in the field. A few even achieve some degree of fame or at least have made it to the highest levels of the field such as Broadway.</p>
<p>PS, yes, my kid’s parents are not famous, nor in this field, and she has no connections that way. She just has pursued her interest since preschool and so far so good and the rest remains to be seen. It is a difficult field for sure.</p>
<p>I’m always curious to see how my 16-year-old will react to the fame of different people. She resents the fame of Miley Cyrus, because she doesn’t think she’s really very talented, and achieved fame only through connections. She doesn’t resent Justin Bieber, who (to some extent) is self-made and is reasonably talented. She doesn’t resent Taylor Swift, who (reportedly) writes her own songs. She doesn’t resent Will Smith’s daughter, because she has attitude. She somewhat resents the marketing of Selena Gomez and Miranda Cosgrove as singers. As for Rebecca Black, she doesn’t resent her–especially after finding out she wasn’t part of a famous family and was only 13.</p>
<p>Cruel and anonymous Internet comments are always uncalled for and cowardly, but they are particularly troubling when directed at a child. That being said, Rebecca’s parents may have mislead their daughter by allowing her to dip a toe into the Milli Vanilli pond. Fake, highly digitalized vocals are no way to win respect, especially when the song you are singing is not your own. She may have “sung” the song, but nothing about the sound, the style, or the content of this video is really her. </p>
<p>Everyone knows how hard it is to “make it” as a performing artist, and there is a special kind of contempt reserved for those who try to unscrupulously jump the line or mislead the audience. There are more than enough highly trained and uniquely talented people who never get the limelight, so feathers do get ruffled when a privileged person gets paid-for attention which was unearned and undeserved.</p>
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<p>Psst, don’t let Brittany Spears hear this!</p>
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Well, yeah, but who’s the audience? This wasn’t a demo for a “real” record company. If I go to one of those photo booths where you can dress up as a cowboy and have your picture taken, am I misleading anybody by not wearing my own clothes? When I first saw and heard about this, I wondered whether it might have been intended simply to be shown at a bat mitzvah party.</p>
<p>So what does all this say about Miley Cyrus & the rest of the Disney stable?</p>
<p>I notice there is a YouTube video called: “Rebecca Black - “Friday” (Brock’s Dub)” (which has over five million hits) that lampoons Rebecca’s original video. I must admit it is funny. But what I think it brings out is how terrible the song is, particularly the lyrics and when you hear them in this way (kind of spoken, not sung), it makes it even more obvious. I wonder who wrote the song for her, if she didi not do so herself (as someone else wrote above). I had assumed she wrote them as they are extremely juvenile lyrics I would expect of elem or middle school. No substance or creativity. I have no idea if she is talented or not (can’t tell from the video), but I think she was given poor material to work with in any case.</p>
<p>PS, my kids at age 13 weren’t riding in cars driven by friends…that even was just so unrealistic too.</p>
<p>The song was written by Ark Music Factory. It was one of several songs they offered to her as part of their package. Honestly, what do you expect for two grand?</p>
<p>I just looked and didn’t realize how many parody videos have gone up about this Friday video…there’s one for Saturday and one for Monday, with lyrics changed, etc. I kinda feel sorry for the kid. Some wrote that the original video came off as a parody itself (it did). </p>
<p>I know nothing about Ark Music Factory. Had never heard of them. But if this is what they came up with…well, um, gag. </p>
<p>I don’t know what it costs to make a music video. I know that a group my D is in that performs original shows weekly in NYC, made the music video of a song she wrote and I don’t think it cost that much. Nobody wrote it for them. The lyrics themselves are an aspect of its popularity (it’s comedic). </p>
<p>Rebecca is only 13 and so I don’t expect great lyrics from her pen but surely they could find a better songwriter. I just think that they went straight to trying to gain fame and recognition and with no regard to putting out something good to showcase talent. I feel bad to be critical (and my criticism is not of the young girl herself) and maybe I just am as I have a kid who is a singer/songwriter. I just know lots of talented people and saw nothing worthy in the video being discussed here. I think it is kind of a shame the nature of the fame it brought this girl because it has not been positive. Better to have waited and honed her talents and let her progress in a more realistic fashion to get recognition for her talent, and not this. It comes across as trying to buy fame or recognition, rather than showcasing talent.</p>
<p>Her voice is not that much worse (it’s better than Kesha’s and though what’s-her-face has improved, not worse than her at the beginning) but the video is awful.</p>
<p>I was kind of wondering how this ever got made, personally, so it’s interesting to know that her parents paid. I did not realize she was 13! Now I feel bad because I did post comments about her hair, thinking an aspiring pop-star really ought to know better. I thought she was sixteen. She doesn’t look that old but frankly, most of the 16-year-olds I know look young as well. You never know.</p>
<p>Brock’s Dub is hilarious, though. And they have dubs like that of all kinds of YouTube videos, not only of Rebecca’s.</p>
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<p>No kidding. What a terrible defense. To my mind, “This was a personal fantasy gift and she posted it to YouTube for her friends, and did not make optimal use of the privacy settings as she is just learning how this works” would have been a good defense. It would have made me feel guilty. Not, “She wants to be a recording star.”</p>
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<p>C’mon, it’s just a vanity production that accidently hit it big due to the craziness of the internet—just like “David at dentist”. Their only concern was probably that the 2K check cleared.</p>
<p>Re post #52:
That’s the problem…it comes off as making it in order to become a recording star, at 13 no less. </p>
<p>We also support our child’s performing career and it has cost money. The aim has not been stardom, however. Ya work your way up and hopefully gain recognition due to talent.</p>
<p>Billy, of course they were not planning to have it hit it big. I recognize that. But if you are gonna make a music video to share with the world (this is different than putting up a video of your high school show), I would think twice and have her build her training and career a bit and then put a music video out there, once industry folks are interested, she has a regional following, etc. In this family’s case, it comes across as wanting to go straight to becoming a recording artist and skip the steps that work up to that. And it is a shame that it garnered negative attention, because that’s out there now and so if she looks to train and pursue a career, this can’t be erased…the negative attention is widespread and so I feel sorry for her (then again, she got the fame she may have wanted).</p>
<p>Hunt
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<p>Good point, but this kid is a genuine aspirant for this field. If you wanted to be a real cowboy, Hunt, and you went to the photo booth in a halloween cowboy costume to take pictures, you can’t be surprised if the real cowboys from Oklahoma or Texas laugh at you when they see these photographs. They will say (in their cowboy way, with their cowboy accents), “No, Hunt. You are not a real cowboy. And now that you have pretended to be a real cowboy, you may have jeopardized your chances of being perceived as one. Real cowboys do not do what you have done.” You may move to a little town in Oklahoma and begin to do as real cowboys do, and dress as real cowboys dress. Yet those who remember the time when you tried to pass yourself off as a real cowboy will laugh at you, and probably not trust you. Even cowboys have a code of authenticity, Hunt.</p>
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<p>IMO, the mom gets props for this if it’s true. That plan might have saved her untold thousands in private lessons, tuition, etc. only to wind up as disappointed as most aspirants in the field.</p>
<p>Well, as a parent of a performing artist, I would never discourage my kid from pursuing her goals. I don’t care if it is a difficult field. We are behind her all the way. (she is not just a singer and is involved in several facets of the industry)</p>
<p>Are you saying to not support and invest in training a kid in the performing arts, particularly a very passionate and talented kid, because so few really make it?</p>
<p>Remember, that to my kid, “making it,” is not about achieving fame, but about having a career that supports herself in the field and being successful at what she does. I feel she is already doing that and has been in the 22 months since graduating college…every single job she has held is in her field.</p>
<p>Perhaps you give props for the attempt to discourage a kid but for me, I give props to the many parents I know of performing artists, who are supporting their kids’ endeavors. Behind many successful people lie supportive families.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m a just a cynic, but you have to wonder if part of the plan all along wasn’t to intentionally stir up controversy in order to generate interest, both positive and negative. It could have been about the quick buck, not the music career. If that’s the case, they succeeded.</p>
<p>Billy, Very nice. I guess that makes you Frank Zappa? The bottom line is that I think it’s the responsibility of each parent to know what their child is listening to or buying. The parent advisory labels are a voluntary thing as far as I know, but I can see no reason why it’s anything but a positive for the music labels to agree to provide these with really offensive, disturbing or violent material. The question becomes one of censorship and where you draw the line.</p>
<p>I think it’s crazy to think that this family ever thought this video was going to be her big break and get her a recording contract. It wasn’t marketed at all, as far as I know–it was just put up on YouTube, like thousands upon thousands of other videos. I’ll bet I could go onto YouTube right now and find dozens (or more likely, hundreds) of things just like this that have about 100 views each. The only thing different about this one is that somebody chose this one to highlight.</p>
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You think real cowboys would be mean to a 13-year-old boy in a cowboy costume? My problem with this is the idea that Rebecca Black was trying to “pass herself off” as a recording star. She was just a kid whose parents bought her a recoding package from some fairly amateurish promoters. It’s not like they bought an ad in Variety or something.</p>