ELi5: Why are there child prodigies in classical music, but no rap or rock child prodigies?

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Is it simply a matter of labels? Are we socialized into reserving the label of *prodigy* for fields that are traditionally held high regard? Or is classical music actually more complicated than rap and rock music, therefore warranting the use of the word *prodigy* to describe any child that excels in it?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Rock and Rap *tend to be* simpler genres. Not saying there aren’t exceptions, as there certainly are, but for maybe 80-90% of popular Rock Bands they just play some simple chords, and the vocals are often looser with some distortion that helps mask imperfections. Same with Rap, where there are definitely exceptions, but most keep the backing music and vocals pretty standard.

This results in upcoming child prodigies who are only beginning to learn their instrument of choice getting pushed towards more complex genres (i.e. classical, jazz, etc.) by the adults in their life as a way to both develop their skill and show off their talents.

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