I’m listening right now to Gojira’s Flying Whales, this song is 07:46. Previously I listened to the Art of Dying which was 09:54. That got me thinking about this discrepancy between some metal songs and the pop available on the radio. Why is everything around 3 minutes long?
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The root of the “three-minute” length is likely derived from the original format of 78 rpm-speed phonograph records. The 78 comes in two sizes: a 10-inch that holds three minutes of music and a 12-inch that holds four. Later, they introduced 45 rpm disks (like the 78, the 45 also holds about three minutes of music) that overtook the 78 ones. For a band to get its songs played on the radio, it needed to have a 45. The songs that came out immediately after the creation of the 45 defined American popular music for decades, including that of Elvis, singles of Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc.
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