Radio songs should be, like, two minutes twenty, get in, get out, everybody just get on with your life. | | | | Héloïse Letissier, aka Christine and the Queens, and Charli XCX on "The Tonight Show," Sept. 16, 2019.
(Andrew Lipovsky/NBC Universal/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "Radio songs should be, like, two minutes twenty, get in, get out, everybody just get on with your life."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// Meet the new pop, same as the old pop. Artists releasing singles that may or may not have anything to do with an album! Artists recording super short songs that start, middle and end with the hook to maximize their pop potential (and their streaming service royalties)! Artists petrified of being out of the public eye for more than a few weeks! Oh dear! This hasn't happened since—when? The '50s and '60s, which a lot of people who sniff at this strange new behavior probably consider a golden age of pop music? The '70s and '80s, when disco and punk and hip-hop pioneers DIY'd singles like there was no tomorrow, which, in many cases, there wasn't? (OK, those disco singles weren't actually super short, because 12-inches and dance clubs, but you get the point, stop nitpicking.) The grunge '90s? VOX's SWITCHED ON POP and the VERGE team up on a podcast and interview exploring the changing rules of pop songwriting and production through the eyes of CHARLI XCX. Both insightful, both sympathetic to the ever-changing sound of pop and both worth your time. And both had me jotting mental notes on how sometimes we change by not changing at all. Here's Charli XCX explaining to the Verge's DANI DEAHL how to write a pop song circa 2019: "Chorus within, like, the first 30 seconds. No weird self-indulgent intro. Hook at the top in the intro. Maybe even start with the chorus. Second verse half as long, probably no pre-chorus after the second verse, straight into the chorus, done." Designed to hook you immediately on SPOTIFY, to make sure you stay for at least 30 seconds (at which point a play is officially registered) and to get you to the next song as fast as possible. And here's DAVE GROHL, god of authentic rock and roll, explaining to TENACIOUS D's KYLE GASS a decade or so earlier how AEROSMITH songs work: "Chorus, chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, verse kinda, chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus, finale, chorus." Designed to get you on pop and rock radio. Grohl's exaggerating, but just a little. Oh, and I edited one important aside from Charli's version. Despite her "no weird self-indulgent intro" rule for her outside songwriting work, she points out that her own new album is overflowing with indulgent intros. Because like generations of pop stars before her, Charli, who's really good at this, knows she has a choice: Play by the rules to get on the radio or playlist or TV show; make up your own rules if that isn't important to you. You can change from song to song. Sometimes you might get lucky and score a hit when you weren't trying. But it's up to you, almost always. MUSIC WEEK, meanwhile, reports that the average length of a #1 single has shrunk by 38 seconds, to 3:04, in the past 10 years. Editor MARK SUTHERLAND blames "streaming and the tyranny of the skip rate." But what if it was a different kind of tyranny dictating those half-marathon song lengths a decade ago? Did radio songs routinely exceed 4 minutes because that's what artists' inner muses compelled them to do? Or was it that radio DJs, back when they were actual people, needed intros and outros to talk over, or time to go to the bathroom? Or did record companies, who pay the same royalties on a song whether it's 2, 3 or 4 minutes long, want to pay fewer of them? Or maybe people hadn't learned to edit themselves back in those prehistoric times when TWITTER was just a startup. Songs should be as long or as short as they need to be. Shorter is always better. Except when it's not... New management at PAISLEY PARK... CONCORD buys VICTORY... I have a strange feeling MOBY is going to keep popping up in the randomest of places for the rest of our lives... 4th of July, Asbury Park (Shana Tova)... ANGELA LANSBURY is "thrilled to be part of reggae. Of course"... Sending love to MATHEW KNOWLES... RIP LOUIE RANKIN and MARTIN BERNHEIMER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | Switched On Pop | | For Charli XCX, collaboration is more than just an artistic choice; and release strategy is much more than a major label playbook. There's a total freedom in the way Charli releases music, and we love it. | | | |  | DJBooth | | Follow us down the digital rabbit hole. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | As streaming takes over the entertainment production world, musicians are being left behind. | | | |  | The New York Times | | The great soprano, who died on Monday at 74, had a regal, even haughty presence, but also vocal charisma to spare. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | How the band's scathing 1969 antiwar epic raised the bar for rock composition -- and helped launch an entire musical movement. | | | |  | Billboard | | "I still run into people today on the train who say, 'Because of you, I lost my job.'" While most New York stories that begin this way don't tend to end well, David DePino sounds warm, even delighted as he shares this information with Billboard. | | | |  | Jacobs Media Strategies | | New apps and websistes are changing the way consumers acccess concert information. Here's how radio can stay in the game. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | Genius' Director of Content Elizabeth 'Liz' Milch discusses music industry bugbears and addresses the Google dispute. | | | |  | Broken Record | | Jack White and Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs play through some songs off their new record, "Help Me Stranger" and talk with Malcolm Gladwell from Jack's Detroit home. Rick Rubin joins by phone. | | | |  | Variety | | In Nashville, Busbee was considered one of the good guys. That may go without saying for a lot of writer-producers in a town where being a bad guy isn't really allowed, but there was a special affection for the personability, diversity and sensitivity that Busbee brought to both the records he worked on and the personal relationships he forged alongside them. | | | |  | The Music Network | | "Labels, artists and digital platforms are learning once again how to sell music in the digital era," writes Sam Murphy. | | | |  | The New Yorker | | Isaac Hayes's legacy remains elusive. Even now, over a decade after the singer's death, there is still no biography of him. Younger fans might remember him chiefly as the voice of Chef on "South Park," while older ones might picture Hayes in his prime: as the hypermasculine Shaft, or the sultry Casanova who seduced fans with songs about heartache and fathered fourteen children. | | | |  | Remezcla | | Today, Remezcla is partnering up with 'El Bloque' for an exclusive premiere the seventh episode of their ongoing second season. | | | |  | Synchtank | | Ben Gilbert takes a deep dive into the subject of AI to explore the increasingly central role technology has to play in the influx of information surrounding digital music. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | The rise of streaming may be dominating the headlines, but millions of people still purchase their music as MP3s. | | | |  | The Atlantic | | He may be Catholic, but to many fans--including this one--his lyrics speak to a different creed. | | | |  | Vulture | | Charlotte rhymer DaBaby's breakout hit "Suge" is like a tiny Hadron Collider, all light-speed bars racing through claustrophobic space. It shouldn't work; like those skeletal middle aughts Neptunes tracks, it seems like assembly was achieved with pieces missing. The rapper keeps time, filling out spaces in the drum programming. | | | |  | Dazed Digital | | The curators of a new exhibition, Use Hearing Protection: FAC 1 - 50 / 40, highlight items from the legendary Manchester label. | | | |  | Mass Law Blog | | I have a few observations on the Ninth Circuit September 23, 2019 en banc hearing in Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin. Video of the oral argument is embedded at the bottom of this post, and the transcriptions below are mine -- I've left out a few words here and there to make this easier to read, but I didn't leave out anything material. | | | |  | Real Life | | Billie Eilish is the perfect music for a silent disco | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | "F*** rules." My favorite 72-second song of the decade, 15-second outro included. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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