Rebecca Black: I Left School Because of Teasing Over 'Friday'

Rebecca Black has found both fame -- and infamy – since the release of her song "Friday."

The 14-year-old Anaheim, Calif., girl, whose first single garnered more than 167 million YouTube views in the past six months, told "Nightline" on Tuesday that she'd been getting so brutally ribbed by classmates about the song that she decided to leave the school.

"When I walk by, they'll start singing 'Friday' in a really nasally voice," she recounted of the abuse she took from petty peers. "Or, you know, they'll be like, 'Oh, hey, Rebecca, guess what day it is?'"

Shortly thereafter, her mother, Georgina Marquez, took her out of the junior high she was attending and is now homeschooling her.

"She certainly did not need that kind of pressure," Marquez said.

"I've had a lot of experience with not being liked and all that," Black said. "I think if I hadn't had to deal with that in the past, then I totally would have handled this differently and I would have gone down in burning flames. But I've learned that you just can't let it get to you."

After her breakout in March, Black told ABC News that as a victim of schoolyard bullies, she'd "learned to have a thick skin" long before she ever got a single "Thumbs Down" or nasty comment for her YouTube efforts.

"I was bullied all the time in school," Black said. "I don't know what was so different about me that made people want to pick on me. I thank those people because if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here right now. I would probably still be sitting at home crying. I've dealt with that my whole life. I laugh at them now."

ABC News has more with Black on its special "Underage and Famous," which airs Wednesday at 10/9c.[wonderwall.msn.com]

Hollywood Lab Rat : Rebecca Black’s My Moment

Thoughts on the new single

When I last wrote about Rebecca Black, I argued that she has shown how Hollywood has the power to make anyone a star. The effort of many hardworking marketing experts to create a star (because it will be profitable) surpasses any one person’s unique shortcomings or lack of star presence. Now I’m in conflict and think the opposite might be true: One individual has the power to expose the upsetting inner workings of the Hollywood marketing machine.

The music video for Rebecca Black’s new single “My Moment” dually capitalizes on Black’s goofy charm (that fans love) and awkwardness (that haters love to hate).  On the surface, the video tells us that 1) despite the haters, Rebecca Black is a star and 2) this works, because at the same time Rebecca Black is still just a likable young girl genuinely ecstatic about all this attention.

On another level, the video seems aware that people love to hate Rebecca Black, and want to give people the opportunity to hate her.

The dual role Rebecca Black has to play is carefully manufactured. Viewed one way, she appears as the rising pop star who has succeeded despite adversity. In the video she dances with apparent fans rather than in front of them (0:57), showing that everybody is equally stoked about Black’s success. Even more, it suggests Black’s stardom is marked by her normality. She’s the everygirl’s pop star, integrated with her supporters.

Viewed differently, Black appears as the clumsy and awkward girl not quite in tune with her own body’s movements. In one instance, she taps her thigh with an open hand in the awkward way she has in earlier videos (0:36-0:37) and in another, claps her hands, shakes her head, and snaps her fingers in an uncomfortably exaggerated way (1:14-1:16).

This is a self-aware tactic that for some viewers might transform the what-was-once-painful-to-watch into something endearing. Alternatively, it leaves space for a less positive viewer to hate.

It’s not startling that “My Moment” has succeeded in manufacturing a Rebecca Black that appeals easily to both fans and haters. What’s striking is that Rebecca Black makes the supposed-to-be-subliminal marketing tactics blatantly obvious.

Black is capable of doing this because she was initially the perfect example of something so incredibly bad, something so devoid of serious, positive allure, that it could never, ever, be seriously marketable.

But behold the marketers greatest challenge: to market the unmarketable.

At face value, Black’s enterprise is a success. Viewed analytically, however, Rebecca Black is the most transparent example of a Hollywood experiment, her YouTubian stardom akin to a genetically enhanced lab rat dancing in a cage.[thefastertimes.com]