It's no secret that pop songs have been progressively decreasing in length for the past few decades: the Washington Post recently found that since 1990, the average length of a song on the Billboad Hot 100 has decreased by almost a minute, from over four to around three.
One of the artists spearheading this Great Truncation is PinkPantheress, who averaged a song length of 1 minute and 18 seconds on her 2021 album to hell with it, which came to a total runtime of only 18 minutes. Her latest single, Turn it up, comes in at 2 minutes and 27 seconds, while her longest so far is 2023's Capable of love, which clocks in at three minutes and 43 seconds.
PinkPantheress has shed some light on her preference for shorter songs in a new interview with ABC News. Speaking to ABC's Ashan Singh, the British star said that "making short songs was just a result of me experimenting".
"A song doesn't need to be longer than 2 minutes 30, in my opinion," she continued. "We don't need to repeat a verse. We don't need to have a bridge. We don't need it! We don't need a long outro."
PinkPantheress' comments ignited heated debate on social media, prompting Grammy-winning artist Dionne Warwick to respond. "Artists are allowed to create their art in any way they choose," Warwick wrote. "However, I do believe a bridge is important".
Many others on social media voiced opposing points of view. Twitter/X user @zaqrider suggested that "longer songs have the potential to explore deeper emotions and themes," while @KarmaIsAFad said "this TikTokification needs to be banned immediately. Nobody wants this!"
