Burke’s Blog

Do you ever wonder why all of the new songs on the radio are between 2.5 and 4 minutes long?  It’s because we, as a culture, can’t pay attention any longer than that.  Perhaps we can, but no radio station is willing to try playing longer songs while also trying to sell advertising space.

The original recording cones invented by Thomas Edision in the late 1800 recorded 2-3 minutes, and the earliest song recordings couldn’t be any longer than that.  The technical limitations of the recording medium defined the art form of recording songs.  As time went on people just got used to associating listening to records as only having to pay attentiton for three minues.

Songs and ballads of old, like Homer’s Odyssey, before they were written down and sung for generations, took sometimes days to finish.  The parts that make up Classical pieces can last for a half an hour or more.  In the 60’s and 70’s, when LP (long playing) records were perfected, longer songs like “Stairway to Heaven” (8:02)  and “Alice’s Restaurant” (18:20) were getting airplay and became even became iconic on the airways.

These examples show that human beings do have the capacity to listen to longer songs.  But radio stations have become expensive to keep up and not in the business of promoting art forms or artists - they are in the business of selling ads.

Advertisers want their ad to be heard, and they are only going to give their money to a station with a preset format, like songs that are never longer than 4 minutes.

We should be more aware of the length of a piece of music.  We should be willing to sit and listen, not knowing how long the song is until its over.  The same goes for the act of praying, which is a form of listening.