Albums are getting too long...
Albums are getting too long...
On the week of June 28, three out of the top five albums on the Billboard 200 had a duration of 50 minutes or more. Polo G’s Hall of Fame has a total of 20 songs, clocking in at 54 minutes; Migos’ Culture III has 19 tracks and runs for one hour and 15 minutes; and Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s joint project The Voice of the Heroes runs for one hour with 18 tracks. This isn’t a new phenomenon, either. In the streaming era, there are no physical limitations on the length of an album, and it’s become common for tracklists to reach or exceed 20 songs.
For years, fans have complained about long albums, and yet artists keep releasing 20-plus-track projects. Minimalism is taking over the fashion and architecture industries, but it seems to have skipped the music industry. So, if less is more everywhere else, why are albums getting longer?
For artists, there are obvious benefits in putting out an extended body of work—more songs usually means more streams. For fans, though, consuming an excessive amount of music from the same artist in one sitting is often tedious and doesn’t make for a great listening experience. The longer a tracklist gets, the more likely there will be redundancies and songs that should have been left on the cutting room floor.
I remember when The Clash complained that Springsteen was allowed to put out The River - a double album. The River is only 39 minutes long.
Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album is 46 minutes long.
https://www.complex.com/music/albums..._medium=social
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Peter1469
