Brooklyn Girls is a 2014 song by
Catey Shaw
Catherine Elizabeth Shaw (born April 2, 1991) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. She gained prominence with her 2014 song " Brooklyn Girls", which went viral and was covered by numerous news media outlets.
Early l ...
that went
viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
and received over 300,000 views on
YouTube. It is one of the tracks on her ''Brooklyn EP''.
Reception
Brooklyn Girls was widely criticized for its stereotypical portrayal of
Brooklyn, and Shaw received several online death threats. She said that she "was hoping it would receive attention, but ... hoped it would have been more positively received" and that it was "intended as a compliment to Brooklyn". According to Ben Barna, the Brooklyn references were "pretty accurate", and he described the song as "bouncy and undeniably catchy". ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' magazine described Brooklyn Girls as "the anthem nobody wanted" and predicted that it would be "a huge hit among suburban teenage girls and people who have never been to Brooklyn". ''
Entertainment Weekly'' described it as "the most hated song on the internet". Dan Ozzi of
Noisey
''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...
described Brooklyn Girls as "the
Rebecca Black '
Friday' video of Brooklyn gentrification" and that "every fucking thing in this video is an ugly stereotype of the worst elements of Brooklyn".
According to Lily Rothman of ''
Time'' magazine, Shaw "isn't actually singing about Brooklyn the ''place''. She's singing about Brooklyn the ''adjective''". Shaw said in a teaser video that "the whole thing about a Brooklyn girl is you don't have to be from Brooklyn. It's more the whole idea of the strong female." Marc Spitz says in his book ''Twee'' that Brooklyn is a "faux neighborhood with a prefabricated culture", and Rothman says in relation to this that, when one sees this faux neighborhood as different from the real neighborhood, Shaw's song "doesn't seem worth the hate". Shaw said that her video represents "the real Brooklyn" but also that "the song is self-portraiture. It's my view of Brooklyn".
References
External links
"Brooklyn Girls" video on YouTube
{{authority control
2014 songs
American songs
Viral videos