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Friday Deconstructed

Skip to: Audio/Video General Information At a Glance Structural Analysis Sectional Analysis Waveform Benchmark Analysis Overall Assessment Hit Factor Assessment Conclusion Why it’s a Phenomenon

Audio/Video Back to Top

General Information Back to Top

Artist: Song/Album: Friday (Single) Songwriter(s): , Clarence Jey Week on BB Chart: 4/9/2011 Chart Position: #58 Genre: Pop Sub Genre: Electro Pop

At a Glance Back to Top

Length: 3:42 Structure: A-B-A-B-C-A-B Tempo: Mid/Mid-Up (~115 bpm) First Chorus: 0:45 (20% into the song)

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Intro Length: 0:17 Outro Length: n/a Primary Tone (Electric/Acoustic): Electric Primary Instrumentation: Synth Lyrical Theme: Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun Primary Lyrical P.O.V: 1st

Structural Analysis Back to Top

At-a-Glance

Section Length (Length of each individual section within the song)

Here we see the longest section landing at 0:53, occurring in the double chorus towards the end of the song, followed by the bridge at 0:28, 1st and 2nd choruses at 0:26, verses and intro at 0:17, and pre-chorus at 0:11/0:10.

Structure Timeline (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song)

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Total Section Analysis (Total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song)

“Friday” follows the “Hit” formula when it comes to the total amount of time allocated to each section within the song, most specifically the chorus and verse sections. With 47% of the song comprised of the chorus, and 23% comprised of the verses, it closely follows such hits as “F**Kn’ Perfect” (49% Chorus / 20% Verse), “Firework” (41% Chorus / 27% Verse) and “Only Girl (In the World)” (47% Chorus / 27% Verse).

Momentum/Intensity Factor (Evaluation of the intensity of each section within the song timeline on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being the most intense)

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As you can see in the graph above, there is some (though not a lot) of variation in momentum and intensity within the song, primarily in the intro, transition points and bridge.

Sectional Analysis Back to Top

Intro: 3/10 As Is, 8/10 Just the First Half The first half of the intro follows in typical Electro Pop fashion, characterized by the “overloaded” synths, background female “yeah, yeah’s” and ultra-processed male flavored voiceovers. If the intro ended right after the “whistle” at 0:08, it would have been quite effective. The problem is that it lumbers on, with the beat kicking in at 0:08, but doesn’t really add anything interesting to the mix. The “yeah, yeah’s” become redundant, and quite honestly annoying to some degree. It’s overkill. They should have kept it short and to-the-point.

Verses: 3/10 First off, the vocal melody is way too monotone in nature – coming across “robotic” and devoid of emotion. Let’s take the first part of the first verse, for example:

The first three vocal melody lines stay in the key of B: “7am, waking up in the morning Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal Seein’ everything, the time is goin’”

If she mixed it up a little, for example going to a D# on “downstairs”, and C# on “goin’’”, it would have brought the melody a bit more to life. Keep the monotone on the first line, since it jibes with the lyrical theme of waking up in the morning at 7am – you’re tired, so the monotone natured vocals work. Shifting to another key (D#) on “downstairs” works as well, because your “moving” keys and it works with they lyrics “gotta go downstairs”, which denotes movement.

The second verse has the same problem as well, and both the first and second verses need quite a bit of melodic assistance. The Rap part during the third verse actually works quite well. It’s predictable, but effective and gives the song a much needed shot of melodic diversity.

Regarding the lyrics, they’re extremely simple in nature, which is fine considering that the song is meant for a very young tween audience. They also contain imagery, which is important in helping to engage the listener in the song. That being said, there are a number of fundamental

4 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com problems, including rhyming issues, vagueness of content (“I got this, You got this”) and overall just coming across disjointed in nature.

Pre-Chorus: 5/10 First, there needs to be some transitional element that aids in separating the verse from the pre- chorus. It could be a synth “swoosh”, a drum fill, or something of the like. From a vocal melody perspective, it’s not terrible. At least it’s not 100% monotone as in the verse. The weakest link in the section is the drums. The start and stop beat works well, but should have driven with a continuous beat once we hit the line “gotta make up my mind.” The way that it is doesn’t really work all that well – it’s almost as if they didn’t feel like finishing up the section to make it as good as it could possibly be. If they fixed the section up, they could even double the length to help provide a break from the monotony present in the rest of the song.

Chorus: 4/10 First – whatever setting they used to process her vocals really didn’t do her, or the song, justice. Having an original sounding voice is great and important in giving both an artist and a song identity. However, doing a poor job of it can have the exact opposite effect, which I believe was done here. Her voice comes across nasally and winey in nature. It almost makes it sound like she’s NOT happy that it’s Friday. It kind of reminds me of Eurkel from that show “Family Matters.” As for the melody, again, there is potential there, but in its current state it just doesn’t deliver. It comes across generic and devoid of any real emotion. Lyrically, it’s probably the weakest part of the entire song. Again, keeping in mind the intended audience (young tween), simple and fun IS the way to go lyrically. However, the lyrics here are SO simple and SO generic, that they covey absolutely nothing of substance to the listener. Here’s the chorus:

“It’s Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend Friday, Friday Gettin’ down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend”

“Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah) Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah) Fun, fun, fun, fun Lookin’ forward to the weekend”

The first part of the chorus isn’t terrible. It actually works a bit to a very simple, basic degree (the “yeah” does a good job of accentuating the “partyin’). The real problem lies in the second part of the section, specifically “fun, fun, fun, fun.” It’s that line alone coupled with its monotone delivery that kills the section, and the song. It’s just SO basic and generic that it’s laughable.

Bridge: 2/10 The bridge in “Friday” delivers in the sense that it breaks from the momentum present in the

5 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com sections that preceded it (as any good bridge should). Aside from that, it’s the weakest section of the song, specifically for the following reasons:

1. The lyrics are, quite honestly, terrible. A bridge should bring a new twist to the song, not just melodically, but lyrically as well. These lyrics bring NOTHING to the song at all, except stating the obvious (i.e. “tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards.”). Here are the full lyrics to the bridge – enough said:

“Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin’) We-we-we so excited We so excited We gonna have a ball today

Tomorrow is Saturday And Sunday comes after…wards I don’t want this weekend to end”

2. The vocal melody is ineffective, coming across “karaoke” and “robotic” in nature. You can easily tell that she’s having a very tough time with the phrasing in spots as well.

Waveform Back to Top

As you can see from the waveform above, the levels in “Friday” remain pretty much constant throughout the entire song, with a slight drop off during the bridge.

Benchmark Analysis Back to Top

Compares the song being analyzed to all songs that have entered the Billboard Pop top 10: Q1 – Q4 2010

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The key elements present in “Friday” are in-line with all year-to-date top 10 Pop hits EXCEPT:

The first chorus comes in 0:08 (3%) later than the average top 10 Pop hit.

“Friday” is sung by a female (plus a male third verse), where the majority of top 10 Pop hits are sung exclusively by a male vocalist.

The lyrical theme is “fun fun fun fun” themed, where the majority of top 10 Pop hits deal with a love/relationship theme..

Overall Assessment Back to Top

Structure: 8/10

Does the song flow in a cohesive manner? Overall, “Friday” is a well structured song. The

7 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com sections change over frequently, which would normally aid in keeping the listener engaged if the other elements of the song were strong. Two changes within the structure that could aid in improving the song are:

Cut the intro in half as mentioned earlier in the report.

Get rid of the third verse (that comes after the bridge). Have the “Rap” section as the second verse, followed by the chorus and then the bridge, followed by a double chorus out.

Incorporating the change above would change the structure from A-B-A-B-C-A-B to A-B- A-B-C-B, which is by far the most popular song structure for current Pop hits, and would help to further focus the song.

Production: 4/10 How does the production stand up in maximizing the songs impact? The overall production is basic at best, coming across as a decent sounding demo. The major flaw within the production is the vocal treatment. I could go on and on about the production, but keep in mind that this isn’t a major label release while listening to the song. You get what you pay for.

Tone: 5/10 Does the instrumentation and sound maximize the vibe of the song? The tone of the instrumentation does jibe with the overall vibe of the song. That being said, there is still a lot of room for improvement, most specifically the drums.

Lyrics: 1/10 Do the lyrics serve the song and jibe with the vibe of the music? The lyrics in “Friday” are by far the weakest aspect of the song. When you’re writing for a young tween market (I assume that is the target audience for this song), simple lyrics ARE the way to go. However, they need to be conveyed in SOME SORT of clever way to be effective, and should at least offer the vocalist some support when it comes to phrasing and delivery. Above all, they should aid in eliciting some sort of emotion for the listener. The lyrics here do NONE of that.

Vocal Delivery: 1/10 Does the tonality and phrasing of the vocals maximize the songs impact? The vocals are WAY over processed, poorly phrased in the majority of sections and lack in emotion. Enough said.

Hit Factor Assessment Back to Top

Memorability: 4/10 (Songwriting), 9/10 (Cultural Phenom) How easy is it to remember this song after you hear it once? From a songwriting standpoint, there are bits and pieces of the song that are memorable (though not in a positive way), such as “fun, fun, fun, fun” as well as parts of the pre-chorus. In the end, however, “Friday” is memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Originality: 1/10 (Songwriting), 8/10 (Delivery)

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Does this song have its own unique vibe when compared to other songs/artists in the genre? We can look at this one of two ways. From a songwriting standpoint, there is basically nothing original about this song. It plays upon current hit Pop songwriting trends to a tee. From a “delivery” standpoint, the song is quite original, considering that the vocal and melodic deliveries have their own “unique” flair. The problem is that it’s not a good flair.

Longevity: 0/10 (In a good way), 9/10 (In a bad way) Does this song have what it takes to stand the test of time? Will it become a staple of the artist’s repertoire? Will it become a staple of the artist’s repertoire? “Friday” is currently in the process of getting its 15 minutes of fame. Once that’s up, it will fade into complete obscurity. The exception will be on “worst song” compilations, and possible licensing in TV and Movies (if there is a need for that type of song, “Friday” is the cream of the crop – in its current state).

Conclusion: 4/10 Back to Top

The Good:

Save for the comments re the intro and third verse in the Structure Analysis section of the report, “Friday’s” overall song structure is comparable to what’s currently popular in today’s Pop genre.

The Bad:

The lyrics as extremely basic and ineffective.

The music, and vocals especially, severely lack in eliciting emotion for the listener.

The vocal phrasing is poor.

The production needs improvement – especially in the vocal processing.

All of the sections need a lot of melodic work.

The bridge is extremely weak, both melodically and lyrically.

Etc…

Why it’s a Phenomenon Back to Top

People love train wrecks, and there is no doubt that in its current state, “Friday” is THE train wreck of the moment. At the time of this writing, “Friday” has received more than 84 million hits on You Tube, and is currently #58 on Billboard’s Hot 100. You can make the argument that any press is good press, but I can guarantee you that Rebecca Black is going to have a very difficult time being taken seriously as an artist after the “Friday” phenomenon passes. I can’t name one artist that had their career start off as a joke and then turn it around to become a “star” who’s taken seriously. Can you? That being said, I personally hope that she works on

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her craft, gets in with the right “group” and does have a chance at real success in the future.

As for the song, all negativity aside, I do think that it has potential. There is no reason why, after re-writing some of (ok, a lot of) the parts, that this song can’t be featured for a young tween audience via Disney or Nickelodeon. The framework of the song is there. It just needs to be fleshed out. FIN.

10 / 10

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