Did you realize that the length of a 'mainstream song' of the traditional recorded music industry is approximately 3,5 minutes? Do you know why? I think there are two main reasons:Marketing. Radio stations don't like songs which are longer than 3,5 minutes. Listeners are shifting to other station when they are bored with a song that is played too long.
Technology. The length of songs were based on a combination of the capacity of sound carriers and the quality of the recording.
In theory 'traditional songs of 3,5 minutes' will be history within the digital environment. The length of a musical work is becoming less important.
Marketing. There are far more digital music providers than traditional radio stations. Listeners stick to digital music providers because of the uniqueness of the content. No more - middle of the road stations only - but niche markets. Every music lover can listen to his own music taste. It simple doesn't matter if the length of the content is a little longer.
Technology. It just doesn't matter if the data storage of the content is a little more. Storage capacity is almost endless these days.
Technology. The length of songs were based on a combination of the capacity of sound carriers and the quality of the recording.
In theory 'traditional songs of 3,5 minutes' will be history within the digital environment. The length of a musical work is becoming less important.
Marketing. There are far more digital music providers than traditional radio stations. Listeners stick to digital music providers because of the uniqueness of the content. No more - middle of the road stations only - but niche markets. Every music lover can listen to his own music taste. It simple doesn't matter if the length of the content is a little longer.
Technology. It just doesn't matter if the data storage of the content is a little more. Storage capacity is almost endless these days.
Product/service innovation can be seen as 'the result of bringing to life a new way to solve the customer's problem – through a new product or service development – that benefits both the customer and the sponsoring company.' Since the artist has more time to express himself and the music lover has access to more inspiring content, I think songs longer than 'standard' track length can be seen as product innovations.
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Well, in first place, music should be about art, emotions, or as said by Ray Charles, "about nice".
ReplyDeleteWhen the words music & business collided I think that the quality of music gradually started to go downwards. Now we have hits that last for a very short period and then fall into oblivion. The longevity is one of the clearest indicators of the quality in music - and in art in general. Just think how many hits (even one time wonder artists) you can hear nowdays on the TV and radio from the '80, '90 era...
As said by others, 10 min songs have been done a lot of time ago, so there is no "originality or innovation factor" in there.
However, I find diffiucult, or even impossible, if an artist is making a slow, ballad type song for example, to develop the idea in just 3/3,5 min. Listen to Tom Baxter's "Almost there" (5:57 min), you'll find that is not a second too long. On the other side, if you (or anyone for that matter) try (insincerely) just to fill the 10 min gap regardless what the musical idea needs itself, you'll probably end fooling yourself and become annoying to the listeners.
My modest suggestion is to try to think more as an artist and not as much as a manger - and paraphrasing Clinton: Don't ask what the song can do for you, but what you can do for the song:-))
I agree with Ivan that music is about art and emotions.
ReplyDeleteAlso, think about Pink Floyd, they created a lot of excellent music, and most of their songs were really long in minutes.
So, in my opinion a song of 10 mins is not going to be innovative, but it could be an interesting experiment to try.
You are right about the 3-3,5 minutes, though I guess I wouldn't really call it traditional. It's a 'pop' culture and it was probably introduced for reasons of getting more songs played on a show as well as the reasons you gave.
ReplyDeleteI am not too sure however about your technology reason. Sound carriers - yes - the length of a 45 single, or even a 78 rpm disk would have been about 3-3,5 minutes, but I am not sure about the quality argument. Artists have been making 10 minute (and longer) songs for a number of years - both on the rock side, and of course, the classical side. Bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple consistently brought out 'longer' songs, and as these were never deemed 'pop', never hit the marketing barrier of 3 minutes.
I agree with you that more and more artists are able to now experiment with longer tracks, and it seems as though radio stations are allowing longer tracks as well. However I would not call it an innovation but rather an evolution.