Are Japanese Pop/Rock Songs Getting Shorter?

[Steven]

I really only listen to Japanese mucis, which is how I can bring this up. More of the modern songs I listen to are rather short. I guess the way I would put this is short being about 2:30 to 3:45/4:00 minutes long, and long being longer than 4:00 mintes. As many have probably seen, I listen to Yui, and bless her heart, most of her songs are so dang short! I'll listen to older groups like L'arc~en~Ciel and dream and theirs will be usually around five minutes long. (A dream song I listen to is over six!)

NTM, the full versions for many anime openings nowadays aren't extended that much beyond what you hear on t.v. For example, I just discovered the newly released MP3 for the full version of FLOW "Sign", which turned out to be not as good as I wanted it to be. It's short, repetitive, and a little too in-your-face when compared to it's t.v. size. I think the longest one I've listened to in a long while from an anime was Tegami Bachi's "Hatenaki Michi", which was surprisingly long to me. It surprised me because I expected it to follow suit with the apparent trend.

I have more to say, but I would just like to get this conversation underway. What do you think?

 

[Ho-oh]

Um... well...

Perhaps it's got something to do with the Japanese economy right now. They can cut time on writing, recording and perhaps doing a video as well. Afterwards, the music is sold either online or on CDs - if it takes less space, then the CDs will 1) have greater efficiency and life, due to shorter read/write times 2) cheaper to produce 3) more room for more music.

BTW, I've never been a fan of this style (more of an English/instrumental person).

 

[Steven]

Um... well...

Perhaps it's got something to do with the Japanese economy right now. They can cut time on writing, recording and perhaps doing a video as well. Afterwards, the music is sold either online or on CDs - if it takes less space, then the CDs will 1) have greater efficiency and life, due to shorter read/write times 2) cheaper to produce 3) more room for more music.

BTW, I've never been a fan of this style (more of an English/instrumental person).

I was wondering whether their economy had something to do with it as well. But their economy hasn't been very good since that bang at the end of the century, so what does that have to say for the people that released songs long after that that are longer than 4:00?

 

[Yoshi-san]

I completely agree with you! Lately j-pop/rock are getting shorter! D:

I mostly listen to j-pop/rock and it's annoying that all the songs I like are really short...(like Pokemon opening 10 "Spurt!").

 

[Takoto]

Not that I've noticed, then again, I only really listen to remixed of Touhou songs... I need to expand my music collection.

 

[SSJ_Jup81]

To be honest, I haven't noticed. I guess I can attributed that to the fact that I haven't really been keeping up with the more popular music. Been mostly sticking to the artists/groups I already liked.

 

[Scarlet Devil]

I prob. hadn't noticed it at all... mainly, the ones I've listened too were around 3-5 minutes long...

 

[Daxdiv]

Not that I've noticed, but then again I do watch the series who theme seems to clock in for almost 2:30, and then the full version is like a minute or two longer.

 

[bell02+]

No, the average song is between 3 and 5 mins. If you look at most songs in most countries they are usually between there with the occasional song over 6 mins or a shot song under 3. Also, I've noticed that Rock songs tend to be shorter than Pop Songs, and electronic songs tend to be the longest.

So I think the pattern you are noticing is coincidence.

(I mean, what is the length that you consider a short song? Flow's "Sign" being about 4 mins is the average length of a song, especially rock songs)