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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / parappayo's music / We Want Sharper Kids

We Want Sharper Kids

By parappayo on April 29, 2026 11:37 pm

The testimony of this Dr. Horvath dude went viral among my peer group last week. I don't like being too boxed in by generational stereotypes, but I'm an elder millenial with a young kid and my immediate reaction was "like, man, why do you have to throw kids under the bus like that?" Maybe there's something to it, maybe not. Two things I'm confident of are 1) every generation tends to say that young people these days are somehow under-performing, and 2) a scientists or researcher who broadcasts this kind of alarming news to the public is usually trying to make themselves famous above any other motive they may have. So as a little ritual to bleach my brain, I edited Dr. Horvath's statement into words of positive affirmation about Gen Z and made a little jam out of it. This was all done in Bitwig with some of my usual favs: Lush 2 for chords, Basimulus Iteritas for kick, Tekno for drums, and SketchCassette for compression and warmth.

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial (BY-NC)

If you look at the last 3 to 4 generations the world has rapidly changed. Making the way kids grow up, and what is expected from them vastly different from generation to generation. So it's hard to make a good and fair comparison between them. And like you said, it's a human trope to complain about the youth of today. Conveniently forgetting they, we, exhibited the same kind of general behaviors.

Anyway, sweet little tune. If you don't mind me saying, I do feel it might be missing a bassline. I feel like it's floating a bit now. And I think that a bass line could tie the tune together a bit more. As well as provide some forward momentum. That's just how I feel about it, so feel free to ignore it.

And yes, making music is an excellent way to get away from the noise, nonsense and fear mongering that's streamed at us 24/7.

I hate when adults use kids as weapons. Sharp weapons at that. Mild humor haha.
Nice cognitive song, creates discussion.

Kid sharpening must end, it's unethical!

Love this, it's got kind of a late 80's proto house chill out vibe.

I'm expecting to see it at 3am on a cable channel with a load of random cut up VHS images.

hell yeah. and i appreciate the thoughts you shared.

electronic_tiger wrote:

IIf you don't mind me saying, I do feel it might be missing a bassline.


Yes! I can always use more basseline. I often have the opposite problem of only a bassline and nothing else going on. lol

franky wrote:

Nice cognitive song, creates discussion.


Thanks for checking it out. I've been enjoying your work. Your support means a lot.

NickLong wrote:

I'm expecting to see it at 3am on a cable channel with a load of random cut up VHS images.


Hah! That would be amazing. The lofi vibe is so much thanks to SketchCassette. It's the only mastering plug-in that I really need. (Only joking, though. I love SketchCassette and I do sometimes use it as the final "master" stage but really I'd be lost without at least some help from Bitwig's compressor and limiter. Also I have a long ways to go in learning how to mix and master at all.)

jwh wrote:

hell yeah. and i appreciate the thoughts you shared.


Thank you very much!

Very creative and appreciate taking something frustrating and transforming it in a positive way!

I'm a little worried about reading comprehension, I've heard that's gone out the window, and I've seen it on my profession too, where imo younger folks typically prefer audiobooks and video content. Those things are great, but they don't engage the brain the same way...

anyway, I don't know what it all means. we're speed running so many experiments at the same time.

nice track!

Super lush pads! Dig how punchy the track is, while keeping a mellow/warm vibe.

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