By: Keaton Patti
The Math Checks Out: That ‘Rent’ Song Is Right About The Number Of Minutes In A Year

? Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes ?
? How do you measure – measure a year? ?
‘ “Seasons Of Love”
Most songs are normally wildly inaccurate with the facts they state. ‘Eight Days A Week ‘ by The Beatles is wrong about the number of days in a week, which is commonly accepted as seven. Springsteen ‘s ‘Born To Run ‘ has been constantly refuted by biologists about what humans are really born to do. Elton John sings ‘Saturday Night ‘s Alright For Fighting, ‘ when, in fact, it is not alright. Thursday, sure, but not Saturday. Then there ‘s ‘Happy Birthday, ‘ a song that incorrectly asserts the possibility of being happy on one ‘s birthday.
Music rarely tells the truth.
That ‘s why I decided to put ‘Seasons Of Love ‘ from the musical Rent to the test. It claims to know how many minutes are in a year, but is this just another musical lie like ‘And I ‘m Proud To Be An American ‘ or an actual fact? Let ‘s see!
The Math:
1 year = 365 days (unless it ‘s a Leap Year, then nobody knows how many days there are)
1 day = 24 hours (like in the show 24)
1 hour = 60 minutes (like in the show 60 Minutes – TV is a lot more factual than music)
Minutes In A Year = (Minutes In A Hour) x (Hours In A Day) x (Days In A Year)
Minutes In A Year = (60) x (24) x (365)
Minutes In A Year = 525,600
Conclusion:
The Rent song is indeed correct in the number of minutes in a day! In fact all of the songs from Rent are factually accurate, especially the final number, ‘AIDS Is A Bad Thing To Have. ‘
Please check back next week when I put another tune to the test and find out if Sisq ‘s ‘Thong Song ‘ is actually about thongs. I doubt it.