Commentary: Pop songs are shortening again to around 3 minutes, and why it may not be a bad thing

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Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero”, which has dominated the UK and US singles charts for the past month, is a song of its times.

It has a five-second musical introduction before Swift starts singing, reaches the first chorus at 45 seconds, has three verses and concludes quite abruptly after three minutes and 20 seconds.

Not only that: the average time to reach a single’s chorus has fallen to about 40 seconds , their titles have become shorter , and many use quite similar four-chord chorus loops. It recalls the philosopher Theodor Adorno’s scornful dismissal of popular music in 1941: “The hit will lead back to the same familiar experience, and nothing fundamentally novel will be introduced.”

“Nessun dorma”, the famous aria from Puccini’s Turandot, is three minutes long, as is the Queen of the Night’s aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.Nor are three minutes especially short by the standard of other eras of musical recording. Most songs were briefer in the early 20th century, partly because of the limits of shellac gramophone records.

The growth of radio and 45rpm vinyl singles, which could easily hold three-minute songs, encouraged the shift to longer verse-chorus tunes that could be played loudly in dance halls.

 

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