Why are most songs about 3:30mins long and not longer or shorter? Why is the standard length varying between genres (and during the time)?

Question

Why are most songs about 3:30mins long and not longer or shorter? Why is the standard length varying between genres (and during the time)?

In: Other

Answer 1

Radio stations don’t want songs to be too long or too short. So for a song to be considered radio friendly artists will stick to this time limit. Billy Joel famously lampooned this with his song The Entertainer where he says even though song is catchy he won’t stay relevant anymore because the radio stations won’t play it.