PHF Song of the Week: Rebecca Black - Heart Full of Scars

Empowering anthems have been popular in the music industry throughout the decades. When I think of my favourite self-empowerment songs, my mind immediately goes to P!nk's 'Fucking Perfect', Miley's 'We Can't Stop', Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful', or Kelly Rowland's 'Stole'. People can relate to these songs for a variety of reasons, whether they feel insecure about themselves or are persecuted by their peers. Their catchy choruses and relatability allow them to stay in your mind for a long time.

Let's face it, being a teenager is hard. In the 90s and early 2000s, self-empowerment songs tended to be aimed mostly at teenage girls as they were the ones the media seemed to target the most. But if you're a teenager and gay, life is even harder. With all of the pressure on you to succeed, plus the fact that you might be ugly, fat, closeted, or a nerd, the world can completely destroy any ounce of confidence that you have. That's why artists have noticed this and started producing more and more self-empowerment songs focused on the LGBTQ community than you can shake a stick at.

It's not like teenage girls problems are no longer relevant whatsoever. They are and we still hear songs about them on a daily basis. We have Britney's 'Brave New Girl', Miley's 'Can't Be Tamed', Selena Gomez' 'Who Says', and Fifth Harmony's 'Bo$$'. My point was that the LGBTQ community's problems have become more visible recently and artists have tried to profit from them the most (and mostly succeeded). Of course, we cannot claim that they do it only for money. There are still musicians who really care about changing the world and fight with social injustices. 

Our fifth PHF Song of the Week is Rebecca Black's 'Heart Full of Scars'.

This song is not particularly aimed at girls or the LGBTQ community. It points its focus towards everyone who feels oppressed regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

Rebecca's first steps into the music industry weren't a perfect dream. She is probably still best-known for her infamous debut single 'Friday' which became a global sensation back in 2011. The music video has surpassed 2.7 million dislikes from YouTube uses making it the fourth most disliked video on the social media website. Not an accomplishment you would brag about to your relatives, huh?

Rebecca was fourteen back then. She faced international backlash. People were sending terrible things to this teenage girl including death threats. Can you imagine being fourteen years old and one of the most hated people on Earth? It took a long time for Rebecca to overcome this shame and re-establish herself as an artist. She continued uploading new covers of popular hits like Miley's 'Malibu' or Alessia Cara's 'Scars To Your Beautiful' on her YouTube channel and she also releases her own stuff which is a huge improvement to her debut single.

After dropping two singles entitled 'The Great Divide' and 'Foolish', Rebecca has come back with a brand new single called 'Heart Full of Scars'. All three songs are set to appear on her EP RE/BL which is to drop on September 15, 2017.

Buy the single on iTunes, and pre-order the EP on PledgeMusic!