Question time everyone! What is the perfect pop song length? I'm currently leaning towards 2:27 (Teenage Kicks by The Undertones and Communication Breakdown by Led Zepplin). It's either that or somewhere around the 2:55 (Monkey Gone To Heaven and Debaser both by the Pixies, and Pop by N*Sync). This is an important question that needs answering!
(8) Ben Folds Five - Song For The Dumped
I can't decide. However, I do know that the ideal album length is 40mins, give or take 1.7mins.
It's worth noting that, generally, track lengths have got longer as time has gone by. For example, most of the songs on The Beatle's 1 collection are under 3 minutes, whilst on almost all the albums I own that were published in the last 5 years, the majority of songs are 4 minutes plus. I'm sure this means something, but I don't know what.
Maybe it just means you've stopped buying pop. I'd love to know what the average length of a number one single is.
A Scottish duo (who got a number one single in the eighties I think) wrote a book entitled something like "How to write a perfect pop song or your money back" and claimed that if you followed their instructions to the letter and didn't get a number one hit they'd give you the money you paid for the book. They also covered Abba's "Dancing Queen" with kazoos and burnt rather a lot of money near some Scottish loch in a publicity stunt, and ended up broke. They claim 3 minutes 30, hence my answer. They're obviously very trustworthy.
the perfect pop song length would have to be however long the la's there she goes is
the perfect pop song length would have to be however long the la's there she goes is
the perfect pop song length would have to be however long the la's there she goes is
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Matthew
3 minutes 30 seconds. Long enough for everything a good pop song leads, but short enough so that radio DJs don't talk over the ending.