THREE MINUTES OF MAGIC
Justin says:
Justin, in almost all cases, anything that goes much longer than three minutes is simply tuned out in the mind of the average listener. So while you can write ten minute songs if you want, you are mostly going to be completely tuned out and ignored. You may be 'satisfied with it" but the majority of your audience is bored to death, and you end up being like those people you sit next to that bore the crap out of you. has nothing to do with RADIO. Has everything to do with human nature and attention span.
Before you understand WHY we have to do something, you need to understand HOW we got here. Ready for the history lesson?
When music actually got started (not just melodic folk tales passed down from generation to generation) started around the Rennisance, in the 1500's. As music began to be written down on paper, and instruments, orchestras read from the same page, the primary use was for dancing. Aside from Operas, classical pieces, etc. the main use was for people to dance to. Three minutes are basically about the time most people could expend energy without needing to rest or be refreshed. Waltzes, then dances of the day were around three minutes. They would stop, get something to drink,switch partners, and repeat. most of those songs were like the "Munuet in "D'. MINUET, get it? "Minute."
So as popular music progressed, that was the format established. Songs would actually be ordered into sections or movements of thirty seconds each. As commercial radio began in the 20's and 30's, it was not designed for music. It was designed for COMMERICAL ADVERTISING. "COMMERCIALS" get it? The insurance companies, and other major companies paid for the broadcasting, the buildings that housed them, the radio equipment, the personel, the radio towers, and all things involved, so they could call the shots. That is why people like "L&C' insurance started the Grand Old Opry and why Nashville became Nashville. Companies like Martha White flour found it a good source of advertising and all jumped on board.
The shorter the song, the more commercials they could get on radio. Most early songs were about two minutes long. Even up to the Beatles era, songs rarely even got to three minutes. Most formats fit the same thing:
Intro-first verse- 30 seconds.
Chorus- 30 seconds
Second verse 30 seconds
second chorus 30 seconds
Bridge or solo 30 seconds.
Outro, repeat chorus 30 seconds.
So most everything as it developed came down to about three minutes and thirty seconds.This was the space of the attention span of 95% of all listeners. Why we talk about the THIRTY SECOND ATTENTION SPAN.
Everyone picks this abberation that happened from around 1967 to the end of the 70's That was the era of the DRUG CULTURE, experiemental music, the advent of FM radio, and things that happened at that time. Then everything went back to three minutes and change. The closer to three minutes you are, the better.
Texans, came from a culture of storytelling and sitting around the campfire. That continues today,but not really any place outside of Texas. Which is why they aleays come here, get pissed off about the "Nashville formula" and go off on their tangents about hating Nashville. They go back, bad mouth us, then get upset because the rest of the world doesn't revolve around their time frames. Whatever. For the most part they are incredibly boring.
The majority of hit songs, lasting songs, classic songs, are right around three minutes and thirty seconds. If you check out those songs from your hero, Allen SHamblin, you will probably find they fit right in there. Even songs that are longer, don't FEEL longer because they don't belabor the point, there is always somthing going on that rachets up the interest in the song. But if you put a stop wacth on it, you will find it divided into thirty second segments.
As far as your own songs go Justin, you are satisfied with the product, because it is just you. If you were to be around a lot of writers all trying to do their songs, you would find it differently. If you were waiting in line behind dozens of them all doing their four and five minute songs, you would be getting restless. After three or four hours of it, you would be frustrated as Hell. When there were three people in the audience, who want you to finish so they can close the bar and go home, you would be really hacked off.
Is it REALLY nessasary? Depends on how fast you want to be ignored. But if you are out there and start seeing cel phones coming out, people walking out, talking over you, then you will re-think the length of your songs. Why you continue to hit that four minute mark, is because of tempo, you are repeating yourself throughout the song, saying the same thing, you have too many words and have not learned economy yet. What you think is nessasary is usually not, and you have superfelous things that you could do without. And if you are writing beyond two verses, choruses, and maybe a bridge, you are overwriting. Period.
Again, it is just inexperience and that should change the more you are around other people. But as long as you are not sitting there all night, waiting on your turn to play and watching audiences walk out on you, you will never appreciate the ability to constrain your songs.
That is WHY it is nessasary.
MAB