Initially, this post was going to be an album review of Mastodon’s 2021 album Hushed and Grim (so much to say; a real review is coming in the future), but as I started to do some research on the general reception of this album, I ran into something that has been bothering me for quite some time now.

Runtime

Runtime has been sort of a hot topic these days, not just in music but in film as well. The consistent three-hour-long movies that are being released regularly seem to be taxing the viewers. I will admit this includes myself. I am an advocate for the 90-minute movie, as so many of my favorite films are a fun 90-minute romp, straight forward, too the point, powerful and the impact is lasting. Don’t get me wrong, I am also an avid supporter of the three hour movie, as again, many of my favorite films are three hours long. These are contradictory beliefs but this is clearly a much bigger revelation that there is a place for both short movies and long movies, there is an audience for both, and a lot of times that audience overlaps.

But this website is called Just Music, so let’s get to the point.

According to Econlife, the average song released today in the 20s is three minutes and 15 seconds. They compare this statistic directly to the average song length in the 90s, four minutes and 14 seconds. What does this mean?

Well, I’m not sure.

The easy judgment to make is:

Old = Longer = Good, therefore better than modern music.

Or…

Longer = Better

But I find that lazy.

I think it’s a lot more nuanced than an equation like that. So let’s go through it.

A Single contains roughly one to three songs, it varies from release to release. I’ve seen some singles that have four versions of the same song, whether they are different mixes or just completely different styles. The sources I’ve found say that a single should be under ten minutes.

An EP (Extended Play) has four to six songs that roughly hit a 30-minute runtime. It’s not quite an album, but it’s certainly longer than a single.

Previously, an LP (Long Play) more closely resembled what the modern album looks like. 45-minute run, a cohesive theme. Really, the difference between an EP and an LP originally referred to the size of the vinyl you were working with. An EP was always pressed onto a 10-in record, and an LP could be on a 10-in or the Standard LP 12-in.

(This EP vs. LP thing is confusing, but the lack of a clear difference in today’s standard has only really come around because of streaming.)

An Album in the United States, according to the Grammy Awards, is either a runtime of 15 minutes of at least five different tracks or a runtime of at least 30 minutes that has no track requirement.

A Double Album is any release that is too long to be put onto a single vinyl or CD. So, the release would need to include two LP vinyl or CDs.

TO SUMMARIZE

These terms are much easier to understand within the context of the strictly physical world and industry that used to be.

By those standards:

A Single is a 7-inch vinyl (10 – fifteen minuets),

An EP is a longer ten-inch record (twenty-thirty minutes). [The in-between of the Single and Album]

An LP is longer than an EP but, most of the time, shorter than an Album (twenty-thirty minutes). [Another kind of in-between]

Finally, an Album is on 12-inch vinyl, averaging a 45-minute total run.

If the release can not fit on one record’s A and B sides, it then becomes a Double Album.

I would also like to mention a cool promotion that was done in the 70s where they printed 45 records on cereal boxes to get kids to buy cereal and further become fans of the artists, including The Monkees, The Jackson 5, and more!

In the streaming world, what we find is the Single remains untouched 1-3 songs. An EP is still the in-between of an Album and a Single. But the term LP has become entirely void as we use the term Album more often, but these terms are also loosely interchangeable.

I’ve read that if an artist uploads a body of work that is less than 7 songs or so, the streaming service will automatically categorize it as an EP. The term LP is now only used in reference to vinyl releases, still referencing the size of vinyl and the amount of content included.

Now that we’ve covered the technicalities of releases, lets get back to the point.

Personally, I’ve never really considered the length of any given release. In most cases, a longer release excites me. I’ve also never thought that any song’s length was negative or positive per se. The only time the length of a track has bothered me is when the track is too short and I want more!

So this loose thing of a longer song being better, therefore; older music is better because it is longer. Now, that’s not the entire argument, surely, but there are people out there who feel that way.

But to directly contrast this, modern releases are criticized for being “too long.”

I have a friend who told me that they will not listen to an album if it is over 45 minutes long.

This confession blew my mind and made me mad for a number of reasons. I find the statement ignorant and almost selfish. I chalked the whole thing up to “well, it’s your loss.” Some of the greatest albums are well over 45 minutes long, and if you aren’t willing to listen and experience that, then thats genuinely your loss.

One of the most iconic Albums of all time, with some of the most iconic rock songs of all time, is Pink Floyd’s 26-track, hour and 20-minute run double album The Wall.

If you live by my friend’s opinion, you will have never experienced this masterwork album.

But then again, to play devil’s advocate, an artist having a big enough ego to expect their fan base to dedicate THAT much time to an album could be overwhelming, and it would be wrong for the artist to expect no critique in regard to the work’s length.

I remember when Sleep Token’s song, The Summoning, reached a certain streaming milestone, and everyone was saying, “Wow, can we talk about how a seven-minute song has become so popular?” This confused me as well. Why does it matter that it’s seven minutes long? I didn’t understand what the deal was then, and I don’t now.

I don’t think size matters here, whether we’re talking about a Cassette, CD, Single, Double, or EP. Music is music, and in my opinion, the more, the merrier.