Why do most songs last 3-4 Minutes?
Do you ever wonder why a piece of classical music lasts up to ten minutes or more, but most of the music tracks today average just three to four minutes? Have we become impatient? Is it A.D.D.? Nope. Blame it on the 78 RPM record. When the 78 came out over a hundred years ago, it could only hold three minutes worth of music. The artist back then had to make sure their songs were short enough, so it can be distributed using this medium. Even though we are now in the era of digital technology with CDs and MP3s, artist of today still produce most of their tracks less than 5 minutes. Kind of funny that something that is no longer used, still has such an impact. Guess you can say that old habits die hard. Take a listen to this insteresting segment from NPR - The Roots of Audio Recordings Turn at 78 RPM to get the whole story.
