While the phenomenon is as much of a product of its time as memes like Nyan Cat or Scumbag Steve, it laid the groundwork for things to come in a way that cannot be said of everything that was popular at the time. The tune may still have its haters, but an ironic appreciation for it has developed as screen times have increased and the appetite for stupid viral content has both weirder and more rapacious.
The most obvious influence that Friday has had on the internet is the way in which we treat viral celebrity. Real people had found meme fame through music before, with Antoine Dodson and the Bed Intruder Song happening a year earlier, but rarely had such a large audience come together to specifically marvel at how bad something was. Everybody on social media deciding that they're a critic starts here.
It also paved the way for an era of sh*tposting and the growth of a more unhinged kind of humor. Friday inspired numerous YouTube Poops at the time, and proved that the source material for making jokes on the internet could be more diverse than we first thought. This ties in with the fact that even with all the very real people that were involved in the creation of the song and video, the finished result undeniably has some parallels with some of the more amusing AI slop that many a social media feed is bombarded with these days.
Despite her first brush with fame being a nightmarish experience for anybody, let alone a teenager, it's fair to say that Rebecca Black has achieved a lot since becoming a meme. Hot on the heels of the hatred, she made a cameo in the music video for Katy Perry's Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). She continued to work on music throughout the 2010s, including a follow-up single, Saturday. Nowadays, she has a music career that people actually take seriously, with her second album, Salvation, released late last year.
She also has a wry sense of humor about the song everybody associates her with, as displayed in the hyperpop-influenced remix that dropped when it turned 10. She has every right to enjoy the legacy, not just because of the backlash she endured, but because every day is Friday now.
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