Inside the 'It's Corn' Song Craze: How Tariq's Wholesome Interview Took over the Internet

Discover expert perspectives about Inside the 'It's Corn' Song Craze: How Tariq's Wholesome Interview Took over the Internet.

Turning speech into song requires technical precision, an art form perfected by The Gregory Brothers. Known online for their Schmoyoho moniker and their pioneering 2009, 2012 web series Autotune the News, the Brooklyn-based musical quartet had previously engineered cultural milestones like the "Bed Intruder Song" and "Double Rainbow Song."

When the group discovered the Recess Therapy clip, they recognized its harmonic potential. Rather than smothering Tariq’s voice under heavy synthesis, they preserved his original inflections, subtly nudging his vowels toward a major scale. They composed a bouncy acoustic folk-pop rhythm underneath, complete with syncopated drums and call-and-response backing vocals. The resulting track turned "It's corn! A big lump with knobs, it has the juice!" into an inescapable hook that stayed lodged in listeners' heads for months.