I suppose you could have a song that doesn't actually exist, it would be like
1 2 3 4 THANK YOU
And where do you go from there without a wormhole

 

Little Richard's first album:
Tutti Frutti 2:24
True, Fine Mama 2:41
Can't Believe You Wanna Leave 2:23
Ready Teddy 2:07
Baby 2:03
Slippin' and Slidin' 2:38
Long Tall Sally 2:07
Miss Ann 2:15
Oh Why? 2:06
Rip It Up 2:22
Jenny, Jenny 2:00
She's Got It 2:25

 

There are few of the Beatles original songs off the first couple albums over 2 minutes long, two and a half was practically an epic.

 

The same with Elvis.

 

great pop songs are precious, tiny gems.

 

I try to keep my tracks less than 1 second long so the listener can't hit the stop button before it ends.

 

You are not the first one lol:

 

The record for the shortest song has been held by Napalm Death since 1987:
“You Suffer” is just 1.316 seconds long according to the Guinness Book.

The 69-minute song “The Devil Glitch” by Chris Butler is the longest piece in the world.

Chris Butler - The Devil Glitch (full version) (formerly the LONGEST SONG EVER!)

 

The songs represent exactly what the people are:
Little idea of music, street ghetto language, little education, little intelligence...!

 

A musically original tune will have its own length, long or short. You can't be thinking about the length it 'needs' to be when you're working, let it be whatever it ends up being. The entire process of pop music is manufactured now, it's crazy to try and follow that. It isn't just about the music, it's actually more about image, about the video, the whole artiste's persona and their money-making potential. Queen weren't thinking about jukeboxes when they created Bohemian Rhapsody and it was a huge hit - let the industry follow you, don't follow the industry.

 

Eh, nuke

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2025

They are bad, I agree. But not because they are short.
I do not like pop in general, most of it is crap (IMHO), but there are good songs, great and memorable songs in every style, genre, etc. and this is not length dependent, that is my point.

Rock and roll pioneers (and I am sure this happened in other genres too) developed great memorable popish songs in less than 2 and a half minutes.

PS: and yes, I also think tiktokization is disrupting our ability to appreciate more complex things (be it music, videos, movies, artworks, etc)

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2025

It's in His Kiss (Shoop Shoop Song) is around 2:30

 

Violent Femmes - Fat (Time: 1:49)

 

Outside pop music, a lot of the shorter ones that I like are more like brief sketches or vignettes, like theme tunes to a show or something.

I think it's a skill (something I personally don't possess) to make a short musical statement in just a minute or two. All of this reminds me of what Brian Eno said when he was doing the Windows 95 startup sound:

 

for more modern pop songs, this came out in 2023; beautiful song that had me in a chokehold that year. very drenched in this intoxicating and tender feeling with a fantastic hook melody, charted on billboard here in the U.S. also. she knocked it out of the park with this one

My Love Mine All Mine by Mitski - 02:18

i also like her short explanation of the inspiration behind the song

 

Have you seen the Diane Warren video that was recently posted? I liked it a lot.