album length trends?
 

I pulled out some albums from the mid-90s that I haven't listened to in years and was really enjoying them, but i hadn't remembered how SHORT they were! I'm thinking primarily of albums by Green Day and Weezer, but there are probably others too. To be honest, I was surprised how well Dookie and Pinkerton have stood up--they're still great albums. (although to be honest, I didn't remember how repetitive Dookie and especially Insomiac were)

Were lots of albums significantly shorter (ie, ~30minutes) a few years ago? Or did I just happen to pick out some artists with short albums? It seems like albums are rarely much under 50 minutes these days and usually much longer than that.

Edited to add: Helmet's "Meantime" was another album I loved in high school, but now seems really short.

Well, in the "old" days (read: vinyl) albums could only be about 45 minutes or so in length. Anything longer would have to be a double LP set, or the band/artist would release some exclusive singles that weren't album tracks to get the "extra" songs out there if they wanted.

Even after CDs took over the marketplace, the "standard" album length still remained the same for a while. Nowadays, it's a bit less defined and you'll find albums anywhere from 30 minutes to 80 minutes.

When I buy a regular studio album I usually don't check the length first. There is that sense that getting 30 minutes isn't as good as 50, but filler and longer than needed songs can really hurt a recording. The Strokes discs are pretty short, but I don't feel ripped off at all.

When I buy a compilation of an artist then I am more concerned with the length.

I think it is the artists you chose. I love the Offspring. But all of theirs are around 30 minutes. Sometimes I see it as a rip, but then again, I don't think I could listen to an hour straight of them. Just not that kind of music. And on the same token, up until Conspiracy, they were all solid albums that got plenty of play time. So I got my money's worth. Smash and Ixnay still get regular spins in my car.

That's the way it was with rap,in the early 90's most record's where only 45-55 minute's long but now you see alot of artist's are makeing them 70-80 minute's long,and alot of them put bonus cut's on them now or a free DVD,this stuff was unheard of 10 year's ago.

Unfortunately, a lot of that extra time is taken up by mindless skits and interludes. Somebody needs to tell these guys that just because something is funny to you when you're high in the studio at 3:00 in the morning, it isn't going to be funny or entertaining to anybody else.

I blame Prince Paul. He practically invented the "hip-hop skit" on De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising. Those were actually kind of funny, but damn him for what he's done!

I think during the mid 90's punk became big. Punk albums have always been shorter, in the 30 minute range. Both Green Day and Weezer's roots lie in punk, short songs, catchy hooks, chorus to sing along to and therefore you had shorter albums. As what was popular changed away from punk albums became longer not so much so because it was the trend but becasue it was a different style of music.

I was just thinking about this the other day. Pink Floyds the Wall clocks in at around 77 min...that is the length of a full cd today.

I was thinking about how bands like Rush have slowed down their output over the years...going from an album a year, to an album every 2...then every 3. I kinda wonder if it is age or just the fact that instead of putting out 1 30 min album every year they are putting out 70-80 min albums every few years.

If that's the case (and I believe you) why does it still come on 2 CDs?

Mordred

Not sure if it even fits on 1 CD but would it be easier to keep the count up since a 2x album is counted as 2 sales rather than 1? Just a guess.

Also, wasn't there some rules about the record company only paying up to 10 songs an album? After 10 there was some sort of monertary loss or non-payment? I'm sure someone knows about this...or maybe I am totally off base.

the cd is technically 81 minutes, 2 minutes too long for one long cd. you could easilly get rid of "vera", or "bring the boys back home" to make the album limit

One of the many underhanded acts of record labels is to only want to pay publishing rights for about 10 songs on a CD.
That leaves the artist not getting publishing dollars for any additional songs that they put on it.

It was originally released as a double-LP, so they've put it on two discs so they can still justify the double-album price, most likely.

Thanks, I thought there was something to the 10 song rule.