Rebecca Black on the Evolution of Song Virality: ‘No Longer Are We Being Told What to Listen to’

In the fifteen years since “Friday” by Rebecca Black went viral on YouTube, the music industry — and virality itself — has changed dramatically.

The internet mainstream that once pushed the music video for “Friday” into ubiquity for the then-13-year-old singer has given way to a much more fragmented landscape of short-form video.

Music discovery is no longer predicated on the gatekeepers still hanging on when “Friday” dropped in 2011, it’s controlled by the unknowable algorithm, whether that is on Spotify or TikTok.

“My experience with virality,” Black tells Billboard.

“My first experience, at least, was something that I don’t know if it really exists anymore… Back in the day… what was happening on the internet was everywhere.” Still, the artists today who win the virality lottery on TikTok may have more in common with Black’s launch in the music industry than most of the other artists surfacing back then, which were still often a byproduct of the industry machine and traditional marketing methods.

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But, as Black experienced herself, while virality is often the artists’ goal, it does not always happen the way one intends it to.

Some artists go viral too early to capitalize on their luck, and some land their song into the cruelest corners of the internet.

But ultimately, is virality still a good thing? On the latest episode of Billboard’s music business podcast, Billboard On the Record , Black joins the show to talk about the evolution of song virality, the new RIAA Platinum certification for “Friday,” and what her goals are with her upcoming album Age of the Exhibitionist, out Friday, Sept.

4.

Watch Black’s episode of Billboard On the Record below on YouTube, or click here for more viewing and listening options.

An edited and condensed excerpt of the conversation can also be found below.

I was thinking about the idea of how they say there’s no such thing as bad press.

I’m wondering: Do you think there is such a thing as bad virality? Rebecca Black: I feel like everyone would have a different opinion on it.