JulesMaximus
No Lifer
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,584
- 985
- 126
I'm assuming it has to do with radio and most people's attention span since most trance songs would have a "radio edit" that fits that range. It's just not the same as their full versions either.
KB
Diamond Member
- Nov 8, 1999
- 5,406
- 389
- 126
It started a long time ago before radio. It has to do with the length of music allowable on a record.
"In the 1890s the early recording formats of discs were usually seven inches (nominally 17.5 cm) in diameter. By 1910 the 10-inch (25.4cm) record was by far the most popular standard, holding about three minutes of music or entertainment on a side. From 1903 onwards, 12-inch records (30.5cm) were also commercially sold, mostly of classical music or operatic selections, with four to five minutes of music per side."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record
"In the 1890s the early recording formats of discs were usually seven inches (nominally 17.5 cm) in diameter. By 1910 the 10-inch (25.4cm) record was by far the most popular standard, holding about three minutes of music or entertainment on a side. From 1903 onwards, 12-inch records (30.5cm) were also commercially sold, mostly of classical music or operatic selections, with four to five minutes of music per side."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record
Exactly, really had nothing to do with radio. Music distributors pushed the singles during the 50s and 60s and this general standard is still prevails today.
19th century popular songs and hymns (the stuff that regular people could and would sing to) were mostly sub 4 minutes before recorded music came into play though. I suspect they did whatever they could to get the early formats up to a length that would contain the bulk of the popular songs of the day, and left it at that. As the music industry came to be dominated by recordings rather than sheet music, then the recording formats did become a restriction. But based on history, you have to wonder how many pop musicians would have chosen to go against the grain of the 3:30 song anyway.
I think there's just an inherent attention span/repetition issue with songs based around a chorus. You can only repeat the hook so many times before people have had enough.
20/55 songs on my current playlist are between 3:00-4:00. I think you're just dreaming with respect to music, or you might listen to Nickelback. Either way that's a huge range and it probably just so happens that songs turn out to be that length.
3 mins didn't used to be the standard in music. Listen to 60s stuff (Beatles, Who, Stones), and all they're stuff is like 2 mins or less. Believe it or not, it has evolved.
Atomic Playboy
Lifer
- Feb 6, 2007
- 16,432
- 1
- 81
As far as TV is concerned, shows end on the :00 and :30 because it is advantageous to the networks to try to get as much traffic as possible. If a network had a show that was 45 minutes long, so they started at 9:15, they'll lose viewership because people will have switched on a show that starts at 9:00 and become engrossed in the plot. Without ratings there is no ad revenue, so networks want to keep viewership as high as possible. To do this, you need to capture channel-surfing traffic, which is always highest when other networks' shows are ending, ergo all TV networks tend to follow roughly the same schedule.
With music, yes, it started over a hundred years ago with the advent of records, but there's obvious examples of longer songs have trimmed down radio edits. From a radio station's standpoint, the shorter a song is, the better off you are. People will listen to something they like regardless of length, but they don't want to sit through 5 minutes of something they hate. If all the songs are relatively short, the odds are greater that people won't change the channel if a song comes on they dislike because it will be over soon enough. Again, more listeners equates to more ad revenue, so you don't want people changing the station. I'm sure there's probably research that shows that 3 to 3:30 minutes is the ideal length for a song based on how people react to it; long enough that you can get into it, short enough that you don't get bored. A song like Blur's Song 2 is great to rock out to, but at 2 minutes flat, it feels like it's over before it began. If it were 4 minutes, it would probably feel forced. Pop is all about striking a balance to reach the broadest audience at the lowest common denominator (and in the end, produce nothing of value).
A movie's length is far more fluid than TV or music (on the radio). People can't change channels in a theater, so you don't have to worry as much about attention span and keeping the audience entertained. Generally, anything less than an hour is taboo, considered a ripoff, and is often mentioned in reviews. Anything above three hours is ridiculous unless you're telling a particularly long tale (a la Lord of the Rings). 90 minutes is fairly standard for comedies, as the plot is generally only there to facilitate jokes, and audiences can only laugh for so long before becoming exhausted. Action films are roughly the same way, with more of a focus on watching things explode. Dramas tend to be longer, often 2 to 2 and a half hours or more, because there is a focus on delving in to a deep plot which may not be sufficiently explained in a shorter run time. Animated features generally have the shortest run times because they require vast amounts of work (drawing or rendering every individual frame), which gets very time consuming; it helps that they are primarily intended for children, who have a shorter attention span than adults. But nothing is set in stone; True Lies clocked in at 2 and a half hours, incredibly long for an action/comedy, and Pearl harbor ran to 3 hours (though most critics decried the length of the film as extremely off-putting).
In the end, it all comes down to men in suits sitting around a desk thinking how they can convert music and film recordings into money. Formulas are established, artistic expression is forsaken to the whim of the almighty dollar, and you end up with cookie cutter artists recycling the same old garbage ad nauseum.
With music, yes, it started over a hundred years ago with the advent of records, but there's obvious examples of longer songs have trimmed down radio edits. From a radio station's standpoint, the shorter a song is, the better off you are. People will listen to something they like regardless of length, but they don't want to sit through 5 minutes of something they hate. If all the songs are relatively short, the odds are greater that people won't change the channel if a song comes on they dislike because it will be over soon enough. Again, more listeners equates to more ad revenue, so you don't want people changing the station. I'm sure there's probably research that shows that 3 to 3:30 minutes is the ideal length for a song based on how people react to it; long enough that you can get into it, short enough that you don't get bored. A song like Blur's Song 2 is great to rock out to, but at 2 minutes flat, it feels like it's over before it began. If it were 4 minutes, it would probably feel forced. Pop is all about striking a balance to reach the broadest audience at the lowest common denominator (and in the end, produce nothing of value).
A movie's length is far more fluid than TV or music (on the radio). People can't change channels in a theater, so you don't have to worry as much about attention span and keeping the audience entertained. Generally, anything less than an hour is taboo, considered a ripoff, and is often mentioned in reviews. Anything above three hours is ridiculous unless you're telling a particularly long tale (a la Lord of the Rings). 90 minutes is fairly standard for comedies, as the plot is generally only there to facilitate jokes, and audiences can only laugh for so long before becoming exhausted. Action films are roughly the same way, with more of a focus on watching things explode. Dramas tend to be longer, often 2 to 2 and a half hours or more, because there is a focus on delving in to a deep plot which may not be sufficiently explained in a shorter run time. Animated features generally have the shortest run times because they require vast amounts of work (drawing or rendering every individual frame), which gets very time consuming; it helps that they are primarily intended for children, who have a shorter attention span than adults. But nothing is set in stone; True Lies clocked in at 2 and a half hours, incredibly long for an action/comedy, and Pearl harbor ran to 3 hours (though most critics decried the length of the film as extremely off-putting).
In the end, it all comes down to men in suits sitting around a desk thinking how they can convert music and film recordings into money. Formulas are established, artistic expression is forsaken to the whim of the almighty dollar, and you end up with cookie cutter artists recycling the same old garbage ad nauseum.
Hmm, I like Nickelback, mainly the way the vocals are sung. Any other artists with a similar sound?
BurnItDwn
Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
- 26,353
- 1,862
- 126
Yes, Beethoven was a genious. I know, people call the music a "piece" rather than a "song", but it's still essentially just a giant and very complex song.
I only listed what I like and what I know, not bands that I have never heard of or bands that play on the radio.
How did you find what you like and know if you didn't listen to anything you didn't know or know you liked?
BurnItDwn
Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
- 26,353
- 1,862
- 126
Well, I used to have free time. Back then I was an IRC adict and I would talk music on a couple of channels and listen to some recomendations from others. Also I used to frequently read reviews.
Prog Archives
Encyclopedia Metallum
These days, I don't listen to "new" bands very often, but I've already got quite a large collection of CDs and not enough time to listen to them ....
I'll have to agree that most songs today follow this format. You also forgot the chorus that repeats roughly 2 or 3 times in the song.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter