Why did Rock & Roll songs used to be so short?

[LostInAnomie]

I've been listening to a lot of early Rock & Roll lately and I've noticed that it's rare for a song to go over 2:45. I was taking a look at my collection of Elvis's 75 greatest hits and the vast majority of them are under and well under 3 minutes. I read somewhere that the average rock song is over 4 minutes anymore.

What happened?

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. Top 20/30/40 radio stations wanted it that way

For years, the standard on AM radio was about 15 songs per hour, no doubt because of some marketing guru's calculation. That left about 20 minutes per hour for commercials, news, etc. There was, and still is, another standard for commercials, since every hour on the air has to pay for itself.

In those days, if a record didn't get airplay, it didn't sell. So, the recording industry conformed.

[jobycom]

2. I'm sorry, but that answer must be wrong.

All I ever hear around here is that the music industry used to be free and open and wonderful and full of rainbows or artistic integrity, and that the radio stations and record labels have only since the 80s commercialized it and made all music crap.

So you must be wrong. you can't honestly be telling me that monetary concerns affected the actual production of music in the pre-80s era, can you?

[BurtWorm]

6. I think Oeditpus Rex was saying that early rock songs are short to make room for commercials

It wasn't until FM came along in the sixties that radio stations became free and open to attract listeners away from AM. And it really was free and open until about the mid-seventies. I remember hearing songs from the Wizard of Oz and John Coltrane jams alternating with Creedence Clearwater Revival and Utopia on my local "progressive" station.

[vi5]

3. Prog Rock....

...When guys who had no chance of getting laid started making rock and roll, they had a lot more time to actually play their instruments and flesh out ideas. Because really....what else did they have to do?

[hobbit709]

4. Limitation of how much music you could put on an old 45 record.

[old mark]

5. Stop - you're both right!

Look at the 45 RPM single record - it can physically contain only so much information.
Look at the '50 DJ - he can only grasp money with both hands.

Back in those days, they used to call it "Payola".
Then came album-oriented radio and 30 minute versions of 2.5 minute music.

Then came The Ramones.


mark