A while ago, I had an email chat with Kamal about patience to listen to music. I can’t quote what he said here. However, now I’m pondering on it.

How long should a song be? There’s no exact answer to that. I guess, that will depend on your background and preference. Trained in classical music myself, 5-minute songs are normal. Even a sonata isn’t considered complete if any of the movement is omitted. To listen to all the movements, you need to spend around 15 minutes. However, pop songs are typically much shorter, usually under 4 minutes. Contemporary jazz pieces by Pat Metheny and/or Lyle Mays are usually around 6 minutes, and can span up to 10 minutes, or even an hour. Have you ever attended a whirling dervish ceremony? You will listen to about an hour of music.

Now, what sells well? Songs under 4 minutes. 5 minutes, tops. I just hopped to CD Baby to see the top 10 songs. At time of writing this, they’re around 3 to 4 minutes, with only one exception that spans up to a few seconds more than 5 minutes. I don’t remember having seen a crowd watching Pat Metheny, Mozart players, or a whirling dervish ceremony that is as big as a rock concert. What does this all mean? Have people in general rushed into things, even when listening to music? Have the “skip track” buttons been abused? I hope I’m wrong. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with patience, but taste instead.

In case you wonder, “ade, are you going to shorten your future music?”, the answer is yes and no. Some of my songs are “long” (whatever that means), and some are “short” (whatever that means). I have no intention to confine the length of my pieces (OK, maybe not two hours). Well, time will tell.

[Photo by flydime.]