The Economics of Streaming is Making Songs Shorter (qz.com)

Popular music is shrinking. From 2013 to 2018, the average song on the Billboard Hot 100 fell from 3 minutes and 50 seconds to about 3 minutes and 30 seconds. From a report: Six percent of hit songs were 2 minutes 30 seconds or shorter in 2018, up from just 1% five years before. Take Kendrick Lamar. One of the world's most popular musicians right now. The average track length on Lamar's breakout 2013 album good kid, m.A.A.d city is 5 minutes 37 seconds. All are 3 minutes 30 seconds or longer. On Lamar's most recent album DAMN., the average song is 3 minutes and 57 seconds. DAMN. won the Pulitzer Prize for music, going to show that this trend isn't necessarily lowering the quality of music. It's not just Lamar. The trend can be seen in albums of music's biggest stars, like the rapper and singer Drake, perhaps pop music's most dominant force.

Comments

rap isn't a song

[doginthewoods]

a song has melody and lyrics with some sort of form to it, like verse chorus bridge. Rap is "poetry" yapped over Loopz. Yo.

Re:THis is stupid

[Powercntrl]

Old bands like Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, hell even David Lee Roth get on stage and put on a god damned show whereas Lady Gaga gets on stage and sings some songs while people that dont matter and wont be seen by you ever again dance beside her.

Translation: "Today's music sucks because I'm old".

There was a lot of shitty music in the past too, it's just that the crap tends to get forgotten. Also, while Lady Gaga might not be your cup of tea, she is actually a very talented, classically trained musician. The vapid pop star thing is just an act*, which she's clearly very good at, because you obviously fell for it.

* Also, Taylor Swift was never a poor ole country gal, with bills to pay and nothing figured out, in case you fell for that one too.