There’s something rotten in the city of L.A. After watching the official video for Rebecca Black’s cringe inducing uber-produced YouTube smash, “Friday,” there’s definitely something molding at the core of the Los Angeles music-machine.And that fungi is the Ark Music Factory.What is the Ark Music Factory? Read this. Don’t get me wrong, their interest in facilitating the dreams and desires of all young hopefuls to be stars in some capacity is admirable – it could even be seen as commendable – but there’s certainly something insidious lurking behind the mountains of autotune and crisp, high definition music videos.It was Rebecca Black’s “Friday” that first came to my attention, sent to me by a friend, and at first I was unsure whether it was a joke or a fluke or even some disturbance in the space-time continuum. I couldn’t laugh, because I was too confused, and because I was confused, I got angry.As it turns out, Rebecca Black is only one amongst a growing cadre of artists that is being turned out by the Ark Music Factory in a strange, Bieber-set friendly approach.The Ark Music Factory mirrors the classic industry trope of “hit factories” – churning out artist after artist, single after single, generating sales across the board and over-saturating an emerging market demographic.But I’ll remind you: this is the 21st Century. In only a month Black’s video has generated close to 6 million views, and that number continues to rise, putting her up there as a bonified “YouTube Star.”This includes the likes of Justin Bieber and various other “tween” sensations that has snared an entire generation of kids growing up as Digital Natives.The notion of the “tween” can easily be traced back to pop-culture and industry-defining phenomena such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (amongst the biggest names) and how those groups came to capture a whole demographic in a few short years.It was not until recently though, when the Disney channel unleashed it’s own pop-blitz which peaked around 2007 with the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, Demi Lovato and more, that the trend became a distinct part of the music industry and cultural landscape – it wasn’t marketed towards youth, but rather the youth of the youth.Now, Ark Music Factory has taken that market share and given it a wholesale, Web 2.0-savy approach. Instead of letting Usher find the new Bieber, why not let Ark make one for you for a couple hundred bucks?Ark Music Factory’s appeal might lie somewhere between a G-rating and the cringe-worthy laughs of the try-out portion of “American Idol”, but that is the view of an entirely different generation (mine).But still, there’s something discernibly odd about the whole thing that begs the question: is this where pop music is headed next and is this the kind of “new-industry” model we should be looking at?If anything, this strange aberration is very L.A. and a bit “Uncanny Valley” as far as I’m concerned – the more “stars” Ark Music Factory accrues and produces, the more we get away from the old ways, though that’s supposed to be a good thing, right?It is the trend becoming a market, and establishing it’s place in the order of all things, and we can only watch as it becomes more commonplace. The music industry has been floundering for some time, but this might just be another answer from the Internet on how to fix what’s been broken for too long.Me, I’ll stick to the Lil B’s and Odd Future’s out there, but the kids have spoken and Ark Music Factory, as bizarre as it seems now, might have the upperhand.
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