Believe it or not, Rebecca Black’s earworm hit “Friday” was released ten years ago today. The once-inescapable YouTube hit remains a landmark moment in 2010s internet virality, and today Black is honoring the Gold-certified track by giving it a modern makeover.
The 23-year-old has enlisted emo-pop veterans 3OH!3, rapper Big Freedia, and genre-averse weirdo Dorian Electra for a “hyperpop“-style remix of “Friday” that’s produced by none other than Dylan Brady of 100 gecs. Compared to the original version of the song, which was performed by a 13-year-old Black and memed to death for its nonsensical lyrics and preposterous video, the remix sounds like something PC Music founder A.G. Cook would drop during a club set.
Black’s voice is pitched-up into the nightcore register, the beat alternates between pulsating trance and bouncy pop-trap, and the guest verses put contemporary spins on the weekend-minded theme — while maintaining the cheeky self-awareness that they’re in a remix of the fucking “Friday” song.
Whereas the original video looked like stock footage of wealthy youths gallivanting around LA, this video looks more like an acid-trip version of The Fast & The Furious Tokyo Drift. Black is decked out in anime garb, the face of 3OH!3 singer Sean Foreman is transposed onto the moon, and there are plenty of Easter egg callbacks to the OG video. Check it out below.
For those who haven’t thought about Black in ten years, this isn’t her big return to music. She never really stopped dropping songs after “Friday”, but within the last year she’s revamped her sound, collaborated with Man Man, and guested in the song and video for Electra’s 2020 track “Edgelord”
Late last month she dropped a new single called “Girlfriend” that actually has kind of an old-school Katy Perry vibe, but today she’s also taking over Spotify’s beloved Hyperpop playlist and spotlighting artists like Shygirl and Madge.
Earlier this month, 3OH!3 guested on Consequence of Sound’s Kyle Meredith with… podcast, where they talked about their new record, NEED, maturing into middle-age, and the 2000s resurgence.
