Against the Beat: When Talent and Critique Collide    

"No wonder it's so short," Jaxon remarked, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Cain gave a slight shrug, unfazed. Sure, his performance clocked in at only a minute and thirty seconds — half the length of the others' three-minute showcases — but that didn't bother him.

He could tell Jaxon wasn't a fan, but Cain didn't care. He knew his performance hit harder in those ninety seconds than most could manage in three minutes. Quality over quantity. Always.

Of course it was short — he had only had a week to pull it together. He'd written the lyrics, fed them into an AI to generate the beat and melody, then layered in his own musical touches, adding instruments he had learned to play.

It was a mashup of styles, but it worked, bound together by the driving energy of Electronic Dance Music.