Collateral Genius

Bibi—born Bianca Heinicke, known online as BibisBeautyPalace, at one point the most-subscribed YouTuber in Germany—released her debut single in 2017 and it was, without qualification, one of the worst pieces of recorded music I have ever encountered. How It Is (wap bap…) is a legitimate contender for the title of worst song of the twenty-first century, and I say that with the seriousness it deserves. I’ve thought about the competition. Nothing comes close.

What she does possess, I’ll grant her, is an extraordinary talent for polarization. On one side: twelve-year-old girls flooding her mentions with heart emoji and moral support. On the other: everyone else, armed with cameras and a sense of mission.

Because the real gift of How It Is was the parody economy it generated. What people built in response on YouTube stopped being parody at some point and became something closer to genuine craft. They came, they listened once, and then they made something better. It’s almost poetic—a song so catastrophically bad it turned half the platform into satirists overnight.

I expect mail about this. Someone will tell me I should try making something myself before I run my mouth, or ideally jump out a window, because Biiiiibi. Fine. But anyone who finances their life on something that terrible has already made the first move. I’d genuinely rather put on Helene Fischer.