The most difficult form of music

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 As I was scrolling through some TV channels on a boring evening, I saw the name America's got Talent. I stopped mindlessly trying to find something interesting to watch and hoped that America's got Talent is actually a good show now. However, despite all of my hope, I was first presented with some weird comedian guy, then some kids doing normal talent show stuff, and then the classic: that one person that's going through a tough time and a judge hits the golden buzzer. Wow, totally did not see that coming. I was just about to click off this channel but finally a person holding an actual musical instrument walked in. As a mostly classical musician, I was so relieved to see that maybe finally I can cleanse my eyes and ears of those cringe "performances". The musician starts playing and I realize that he is actually pretty good. He played everything in tune and on time. He has a lot of dynamics and looks pretty professional. But as the camera switched to the judges and the audience, I was shocked. The judges are yawning and not enjoying the music. The close-up of the audience's faces are sleepy and unhappy with the performance. Obviously all the judges slapped with no button and sent the participant on his way after all of his practice and hard work. Then, a sketchy guy appeared on stage and started his "amazing" performance which was rapping. Except, from what I could hear there was ONE single note in the background for the entire rap and I swear the rapper was just playing random words together that barely forms a sentence. Somehow, he made it. That is when I realized how INSANELY difficult rap is.

First, you gotta write the background track. OK simple enough. Just throw in a bunch of notes that sounds dark and sinister when play together like Be Humble by Kendrick Lamar. Then add some percussion so that there is a rhythm and there you go, a great background track. Then you gotta pick the topic of your rap. While older rappers actually talk about important things like racial injustice or poverty, new and popular rappers resort to drugs, prostitution, gang violence, etc. After that you can finally start writing the lyrics. They don't even have to form a complete sentence or have good grammar. They just need to show that you are true to the streets and you have a lot of money. Then make a "chorus" section where you just pretty much repeat the title of the "song" with some different ad-libs every time. Finally comes the most important and difficult part of the whole thing: hiring an auto-tune specialist and pay him enough money so he doesn't accidentally cut off your auto-tune mid-concert and make you look like an idiot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCWcGiVD-78). There you go, time to make some big bucks and finally impress others with your incredible music skills. I was definitely impressed. 



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