The 2 minute song. What is it?

[son of lockman]

In the old day a 2 minute song was the record, radio, and advertisers dream.

The record companies could jam more songs on vinyl and listeners would buy more. The radio station could play 2 maybe 3 then run a commercials for several minutes and make money from their advertisers. And the advertisers cold make much more money also.

Love songs didn't cut it as much as they were more like 4 minutes. Not good for business.

Run those commercials as many as you can. Maybe 20 minutes an hour.

You see there's much more than writing song, performing and singing it.

It's got to be short and sweet.

[SrslySirius]

The old fool says "This is old, therefore it is good."

The young fool says "This is new, therefore it is better."

Composers from the Romantic era and prior didn't write 3-minute songs. This came about because of engineering limitations with gramophone discs. It persisted because people got used to it and for the commercial reasons you noted.

But technology marches on. We got more efficient records, then tapes, then compact discs, and now digital storage and interwebs streaming. Radio becomes less relevant every day, and artists are less dependent on parasitic record companies. Musicians have been given more creative liberty to vary song lengths.

This is beginning to happen in the video medium as well. Web series and Netflix original programming are not restricted to specific lengths for advertising purposes nor do they need to force cliffhangers every episode for week-to-week viewing.

Call me a young fool, but I say it's better this way.

[son of lockman]

The old fool says "This is old, therefore it is good."

The young fool says "This is new, therefore it is better."

Composers from the Romantic era and prior didn't write 3-minute songs. This came about because of engineering limitations with gramophone discs. It persisted because people got used to it and for the commercial reasons you noted.

But technology marches on. We got more efficient records, then tapes, then compact discs, and now digital storage and interwebs streaming. Radio becomes less relevant every day, and artists are less dependent on parasitic record companies. Musicians have been given more creative liberty to vary song lengths.

This is beginning to happen in the video medium as well. Web series and Netflix original programming are not restricted to specific lengths for advertising purposes nor do they need to force cliffhangers every episode for week-to-week viewing.

Call me a young fool, but I say it's better this way.

Correcto you are about the limitations in the 50s and 60s.

Here now at this cyber place I'm at thousands of miles south of the border I can take this whatever the f#ck they call it from my pocket and cram it into the PC here. Little thing that it is. It's got about a 1000 songs on it that the whole thing cost me maybe 10 bucks. Did I spend too much on it? Heck vinyls cost me more that that in the 60s.

[SrslySirius]

The old fool says "This is old, therefore it is good."

The young fool says "This is new, therefore it is better."

Composers from the Romantic era and prior didn't write 3-minute songs. This came about because of engineering limitations with gramophone discs. It persisted because people got used to it and for the commercial reasons you noted.

But technology marches on. We got more efficient records, then tapes, then compact discs, and now digital storage and interwebs streaming. Radio becomes less relevant every day, and artists are less dependent on parasitic record companies. Musicians have been given more creative liberty to vary song lengths.

This is beginning to happen in the video medium as well. Web series and Netflix original programming are not restricted to specific lengths for advertising purposes nor do they need to force cliffhangers every episode for week-to-week viewing.

Call me a young fool, but I say it's better this way.

Correcto you are about the limitations in the 50s and 60s.

I was referring to discs from around 1900-1930, which commonly held about 3-4 minutes per side. I think that improved to ~40 minutes per side by the 50s.

[son of lockman]

Correcto you are about the limitations in the 50s and 60s.

I was referring to discs from around 1900-1930, which commonly held about 3-4 minutes per side. I think that improved to ~40 minutes per side by the 50s.

Use to have some 78s and they'd spin fast. You had to handle them carefully because if use didn't they'd break real easily.

But I'll tell you when I played 45s I never thought music coud get as advanced as it is today. Just amazing and what will it be like in 20 years?

And yes this would happen.

[Zap_the_Fractions_Giraffe]

[4Dragons]