Episode 969: Rebecca Black Predicted The Rapture!

Read a bit of Shakespeare tonight, until revision got totally derailed by an impromptu barbecue. Guess it won't matter though, since the Rapture is scheduled for Saturday apparently. So did not get the memo for that. Also, the Rapture before the new episode of Doctor Who? Not cool. Seriously though, the horrible thing is that there are people who have basically sold everything in the belief that they're not going to be needing anything beyond Saturday. Lucy brought up an excellent point, by the way. Rebecca Black's 'Friday' is absolutely about predicting the Rapture. Right from its first line. See, the reference to an ark is meant to remind us of Noah's ark, in which a fraction of humanity escapes the wrath of God. It's important that she wakes up at 7 am, as seven is the number of spiritual perfection and holiness. The line 'gotta go downstairs' may possibly reference the Incarnation, a descent from the heavenly realm to earthly realities like needing to 'have [your] bowl' and 'have cereal'. I suppose 'Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends' could be talking about fellow believers in the Rapture. Alternatively, it could point to a reunion in Heaven with those who have already passed on. The pre-chorus, 'Kickin' in the front seat / Sittin' in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up / Which seat can I take?' is a lot clearer. It's obviously a challenge to believers to take a stand for their belief in the Rapture, and she's advocating active promotion of it, rather than being a passive backbencher. When you get to 'Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend' in the chorus, it's patently clear what the song's agenda is. Curiously, her theology gets a bit muddled in the bridge, where she sings 'Tomorrow is Saturday / And Sunday comes afterwards / I don't want this weekend to end'. Perhaps her prediction of the Rapture is purely on a subconscious level, and she's in denial of it? Or is she cannily suggesting that we need to exist in this state of perpetual preparedness for the final reckoning?