Is this some kind of record?

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2025

Context? Because i've certainly heard longer and shorter.

 

Which one is shorter?

 

0 secconds

 

Well, conventional song structure, intro - verse(s) - prechorus - chorus, etc.

My intros are usually longer than 15 seconds, and I don't do straight to chorus as that is the musical equivalent of premature ejaculation.

I might have to rethink this

PS the song in the OP was 12 bars to the chorus @ 113 bpm.

 

Last edited: Feb 10, 2025

.

 

Also 0 seconds

 

You're right, most of the stuff i remmeber being shorter is either straight to the chorus or conventional structure but just a bit over 25 to the chorus. Anyway, here's one with 20 secconds (no prechorus though), i imagine you can find more in faster paced music.

 

15 seconds from intro to verse to chorus, if you ignore the "1234" count in.

 

Per Gessle's (from Roxette) principle was "Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!". That's what Roxette's Greatest Hits album is also named after.

 

Chorus as intro has been used by most writers at some point, if not multiple times. The Beatles were especially fond of it.

I'm not a songwriter so conventional structures are not something I've ever adhered to. If I was though, repeating the old intro-verse-bridge-chorus-etc formula for every song, along with a I-V-vi-IV progression would very quickly drive me nuts - starting with the chorus would be the most obvious way of circumventing that cliché. Personally I'd prefer it if songwriters changed up the formulas more often, particularly these days as pop music (and the "rock" music that is in fact completely pop) has become extremely tedious and repetitive on the whole. I'd like to hear a few surprises here and there.

I guess the greatest commercial success of a song that broke all the conventions is Bohemian Rhapsody. I don't think there's many going to disagree on the brilliance of that song, no matter what their preferred genre. It's still as popular now as it was in its day, all the kids know it, so it proves that non-conventional writing can have commercial viability. You just have to be as talented as Queen...

So...
Help!
Wild Thing
Dancing Queen
Jolene
I Shot The Sherriff
Dreamer
Le Freak
The list is pretty extensive...