We stumbled upon an interesting question in our latest episode, Top 5 Earworm Songs.
In Rebecca Black's "Friday," the singer celebrates the fact that it is indeed Friday, the start of the weekend. "Gotta get down on Friday," she sings. "Partyin' partyin' (Yeah!) Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun."
Similarly, Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" focuses on a party on a Friday evening. "Last Friday night, yeah we danced on tabletops. And we took too many shots," she admits.
So...
Did Rebecca Black and Katy Perry go to the same Friday night party?
Interestingly, both songs immediately reference waking up in the morning in the first line of lyrics. In "Friday," Rebecca Black wakes up early, 7 AM, and grabs a bowl of cereal before heading out to her bus stop. Whereas Katy Perry, in "Last Friday Night," wakes up confused and hungover. There's a stranger in her bed, her room is trashed with glitter and booze.
Katy Perry recovers to do an excellent job of remembering the events of the evening. Maxing out credit cards, getting kicked out of bars, streaking in the park, skinny dipping in the dark. It's all there.
Unfortunately, Rebecca Black is less specific. Besides deciding whether to sit in the front seat or the back seat, Rebecca Black spends most of her time reading a calendar. "Yesterday was Thursday. Today is Friday," she informs. "Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards."
Rebecca Black never outlines her intentions for the weekend, she doesn't specify what kind of party she's attending. We know she wakes up early for school, eats cereal, is nervous to pick who to sit next to in a car. At the risk of being judgmental, is she even capable of, or old enough to do, half the things that Katy Perry sings about in "Last Friday Night" anyway?
Rebecca Black was born in June of 1997. That would have made her 13 years old when her hit song "Friday" came out in early 2011. Katy Perry was born in October of 1984 and was therefore 26 in 2010 when her hit "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" was released on her album Teenage Dream.
That's a noticeable age gap.
Let's assume Rebecca Black hangs out with an older crowd. She hops into her friends' car after all, so some of her friends have to be at least 16 years old to drive. And some of those kids might be hanging out with 18-year-olds.
But it's doubtful a 26-year-old is going to be hanging out with a group of 18-year-olds, probably not 16-year-olds, and definitely not 13-year-olds literally half their age.
We might be able to assume that Katy Perry was playing some sort of character in these songs, however. The album is called Teenage Dream, after all, not Late-Twenties Dream.
So if we were to ignore the age difference, where would Rebecca Black and Katy Perry party on a Friday night?
At the time of the videos, Rebecca Black and her family lived in Irvine, California. Katy Perry was born about two hours north in Santa Barbara, California but she moved to Los Angeles in the early '00s to further her music career. The music company that made Rebecca Black's "Friday" is, indeed, based in LA.
With everyone involved in these scenarios based within the same geographical location, you'd think it is quite feasible the two could have met up at the same party. But, according to the 2010 Census, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had a population of more than 12.8 million residents, and the region over 18.1 million. The chances of them both being at the same party is staggeringly low.
So, taking all these facts in consideration, did Rebecca Black and Katy Perry go to the same Friday night party?
The Verdict Is In...
While most signs point to Rebecca Black and Katy Perry NOT going to the same Friday night party, they actually did!
I should have watched the video for Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) before doing all this research and discovered that yes, it is the same party.
Not only is Rebecca Black prominently featured in the entire video, she is explicitly named at the end by Katy Perry's character and her "parents" Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson.
"I didn't do it, it was Rebecca!" cries Perry. "She had a party."
"No, Rebecca Black is a nice girl," corrects Feldman. "I don't think she would have started this, honey," adds Gibson.
But they're wrong, Rebecca Black was there. She's even named in the credits as "Rebecca Black as Herself." It was actually her. It was the same party. Confirmed.
Check out the fun video for yourself:
Music video by Katy Perry performing Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F). (C) 2011 Capitol Records, LLC
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