Hey everyone, when rock and roll started back on old terrestrial radio, songs were rarely over two or two and a half minutes long.  (And DJs usually talked over the intro until the vocal started!).  In the 70’s and 80’s songs became longer – three or four minutes were common, and a few giant hits were much longer.  This continued after the Internet was created and streaming began.   But now….

Tunes are becoming much shorter again.  The intro hits, the vocal begins, and almost immediately the hook arrives.  Is this because that now due to the Internet, people have shorter attention spans or is it something else?

The opening seconds of a song have now become the most valuable.  Notice how hooks arrive in eight seconds?  In the old days thirty seconds was the normal.  Intros are shrinking.  It’s not because songwriters can’t write longer tunes – it’s because a two minute song that gets played TWICE on the Internet earns more than a four minute song played ONCE.  That is an incentive to the artist that the public probably never realizes.  Producers are now thinking in seven to twelve second segments that can live on Tiktok.  Bottom line, streaming platforms are reshaping song structure.

I suppose shorter songs may feel exciting or be addictive to some, but they leave less room for storytelling or instrumental sections.  If a LIVE audience becomes accustomed to shorter songs, will this mean that a band who currently plays 35 songs per gig will instead need to play 70 or 80 short songs per gig in the future?  Yikes!  Do you miss the long intros of yesteryear or do you love the immediacy of tracks today?