Do you remember where you were when you learned Kurt Cobain had died? Sadly, we don’t, and it’s a memory lapse that has plagued us for the past 18 years. And in a bit of twisted irony, we know exactly where we were when we first heard “Friday,” the informative song by amateur tween singer Rebecca Black via something called Ark Music Factory. The song came out a year ago today, but the Internet blew it up a full month later. And thank God they did, because it let people like Rob Sheffield muse, “I love the part when she’s kicking it in the back seat between two friends and she sings, ‘My friend is by my right!’ Friend on the left? Totally dissed. Life is cold, friend on the left.” We salute you, random girl who should never have stumbled into our world who earned a spot atop our list of 2011’s most contagiously viral musical web sensations. Though we regret that the day your song hit YouTube last year was actually Thursday.
Yesterday Was Thursday, and Today It Is the One-Year Anniversary of ‘Friday’
