The Pop Corporation

12 years ago on this very day, Rebecca Black released ‘Friday’ and became a meme. She implored us that we needed to get down on Friday, and over a decade later with the release of her first LP ‘Let Her Burn’, on a literal Friday, it’s very easy to get down, because in a week where we see the release of Paramore’s new LP, Kelela’s, a new one from Depeche Mode and more, Black may have released the most solid bangers of the lot.

No. Seriously.

Look, it’s easy to be arch about these things and root for the underdog, and hype something up for the sake of a bit of camp, but fact is, through the trial-by-internet, Rebecca Black has been working away and making fantastic, neon pop-music. Unashamed, proper pop music.

On her new LP, there’s a track called ‘Misery Loves Company’ and it is straight-up fantastic. Like a slow-grinding French electropop underground banger that could sit in a Justice set.

She’d actually made a comeback in 2013 with an EP called ‘Rebecca Black Was Here’ and those that were paying attention were like ‘HEY! THIS SLAPS!’. Sure, she may have had some distancing to do to get away from That Song Where She Went Viral all those years ago, but she’d been in the trenches and been hounded online and came out saying ‘fuck it’, and it’s working.

There’s a lot of mentions of HyperPop and the like, but we don’t need to get too bogged down in where her influences are coming from because the fact is, this is pop music made by someone who genuinely loves it. It’s not a cynical move. It’s not music made by a committee. It’s straight up marvellous. It might not change the world, but it isn’t aiming too. And anecdotally, her lives shows are apparently just glorious explosions of Having A Good Time and an outpouring of love.

She could have been a reality TV also-ran, but instead, she came out as a queer woman and started writing about same-sex relationships in a way that has clearly inspired larger artists than herself. Rebecca has said that she’s ready to make pop “that fucking pushes boundaries and lives outside of what someone would think pop would be”.

And she’s selling out shows in the UK, and that’s great news. She was 13 years old when everyone was telling her she was the worst thing that had ever happened to human ears, and as she’s recently said herself: “It took a toll. I mean, having so much intake of information when you’re a child – and having not even a semblance of self, really, to bounce that off of. Everything passes through it – there is no filter that you have built within yourself to able to say, like, “I don’t know if I agree with that.” If somebody says “you don’t belong here, you’re bad at this, you’re a disgrace for even trying to do something like this,” those words have such a different intensity when you’re a child because you just believe them.”

Now, it’s 2023 and she’s basically handing popstars with larger clout and budgets their arses. You can only applaud that.

Talking to NPR, her story is something you can believe in. In a music world that is so incredibly easy to be cynical and jaded about, here we are looking at someone who really gives a shit.

“Maybe this moment took so long to get to. I wanted to show people that I deserve to not just be some sort of a redemption, or a comeback story,” she said. “This album is just as good as everything else that’s out there right now. This album can compete. And I as a performer can compete with all the other pop stars that are in this realm. That was really important for me. I feel that way about myself and where I’m at now. And whether or not other people agree or disagree will be up to them.”

And it’s not like she’s ignoring ‘Friday’, proving as such with a 10 year anniversary remix of it a few years ago… it’s us that are less keen to dwell on that. If this is a triumph for her personally and professionally, sure we’ll mention it, but let’s move on. That’s because she’s got to somewhere fantastic, and she’s writing the songs herself and focusing on looking forward. She’s played the small venues to cut her teeth and sidestepped the one-note nonsense she could have so easily fallen into.

With ‘Sick To My Stomach’, we see an absolutely glorious slice of modern pop making it’s way into a fine post-disco chugger. Instead of some mealy-mouthed hook, you’re grooving along to a line that says “I HATE HER… and I don’t even know her.” That’s great, that’s what that is.

It’s all electric emotion, tainted love, emotional bangers and heady-sorrow. It’s what you want your pop music to be. She’s said of the LP that she’s trying to “explore the vulnerability felt in finding balance with submission, dominance, and sexuality” alongside “the deeply powerful but also dangerous feelings of relinquishing control.”

Isn’t that something you want to sign up for?

Genuinely, if this is a statement of intent, then we’re in for some brilliant trouble. We can’t think of a stronger pop debut since GaGa’s first outing, and sincerely, we know that sounds like hyperbole, but there’s just so much to love about this record. It’s a bit of a magpie, touching on the aforementioned HyperPop, but also, ’80s boogie, UK garage, breakbeat, full-on-pop, electroclash and a whole load more besides.

It is entirely dependent on whether Black wants to be a megastar or carry on at her own pace, earning her dues, but if this debut is anything to go by, it’s a very real choice she’ll have to make. It feels like she’s in control of her own destiny and will be able to turn down lousy meme-led offers from TV stations and such.

Get on this album. You won’t be sorry.