Long Songs Are Wrong Songs

Are modern songs just too long? Please, before you bring up great long songs, realize that I listen to long songs more often than not. I'm not asking about jazz tunes. Nothing where there is improvisation am I suggesting be shortened. I'm talking about modern rock tunes.

Listen to the basic modern tune. No matter if you hear it recorded or see it live, it'll be basically the same song. Sure, they might put in a transition to the next song or something, but it's the same exact song. Now look through that song's artist and their other songs. If you look, there's really about 7 songs with slightly different parts; 4 fast songs, 1 medium song, and 2 slow songs. So, if you go see this group live, you might pay about fifty bucks to see four guys (lead guitar/singer, second guitar/singer, bass, drums) play variations on seven songs. Now, this is fine if you really like those seven songs, but for me it just doesn't cut it.

Dig this then; these bands can produce, before they fall into obscurity, maybe five albums. Each album has about 10-15 songs average, so we can assume that there's 2 of each song on that album. Unless you REALLY like those songs, is it worth it to pay a dollar for each one of those songs?

Here we come to what I suggested at the start; with these songs, you usually get the main idea within the first minute thirty. That's half the song; after that, it's usually got an instrumental break (prewritten) and several repetitions of the chorus. So why not just end the song after the main idea has been passed? That way you can just about double the number of songs on the CD. When you do them live, you can expand them past that first section to give live performances some difference from the CD played really loudly. So you'd get about four of each song on the CD. Isn't that a better value? I mean, unless these bands want to actually put some thought into their songs and expand them past the basic form.

Take Bohemian Rhapsody. If you haven't heard it, go buy some Queen albums and take a listen. With this song, you can't cut it anywhere and get across the main message. The song is an evolution through various styles. If modern groups would take the time and work their songs out past a short tidbit of an emotion, then I'd be all for lengthening their songs. I'd cheer if Linkin Park could put together a song that held my interest for seven minutes. How about if System of a Down made a collaborative song with Metallica and had a band duel? Maybe if ANY of these bands tried doing improvised guitar solos instead of just rhythm breaks we'd have something splendid. As we have it now, I turn on the radio just hoping I get through all seven songs before they start repeating.