Length of K-pop songs becoming shorter...'Around two minutes'

▲This photo, provided by Starship Entertainment, shows girl group IVE. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲This photo, an ilustrator from Choi Ja-yoon ,shows listening to music. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- There is something common among 2022 K-pop hit songs such as G-IDLE's "TOMBOY," IVE's "LOVE DIVE," PSY's "That That."

That is they are all short with length of around two minutes, not exceeding three. Over the years, the length of K-pop dance songs have been noticeably getting shorter.

According to comprehensive digital chart from Jan. to Aug. this year from Circle chart on Monday, there are a total of five dance songs listed on the "Top 10" including (G)I-DLE's "Tomboy" (1st), Ive's "Love Dive" (3rd), "ELEVEN" (7th), Psy's "That That" (8th), and Taeyeon's "INVU" (9th).

Digital comprehensive chart from Circle chart ranks songs based on streaming, download, and BGM sale numbers, and is known to be one of the best chart to show hit songs of the year.

Looking at the length of the dance songs listed on this year's "Top 10," "Tomboy" was 2 min. 54 sec., "Love Dive" 2 min. 57 sec., "Eleven" 2 min. and 58 sec., and "That That" 2 min. and 54 sec. Among them, "INVU" was the only one with a time of 3 min. and 24 sec.

Looking at "Top 10" from 2017 digital comprehensive chart, TWICE's "Knock Knock" (8th) was 3 min 15 sec. and WINNER's "REALLY REALLY" (10th) 3 min 23 sec., all in the early and mid 3 minutes.

Looking further back on time in 2012, dance songs that made the same "Top 10" chart were about a minute longer than today's hit songs: Psy's "Gangnam Style" (1st) 3 min 42 sec., Sistar's "I Alone" (3rd) 3 min 26 sec., "Loving U" (3rd) 3 min 38 sec., and Big Bang's "FANTASTIC BABY" 3 min 52 sec.

For the last 10 years, Length of songs that was around four minutes have shortened to two minutes, shrinking 25%.

One official said, "Considering that name of girl group 4 minute, who debuted in 2009, meant to 'capture heart of fans in 4 minute,' the atmosphere really has changed over 10 years."

Singer Kangta from legendary idol boy group H.O.T said, "Compared to 16 years ago, songs have gotten a lot short," adding, "Various expressions are needed in even in short parts to make the song not boring. While narrative is important, whether impact can be made even in short time has also become important."

Four minute songs in 2010s are still short compared to songs in 1990.

Once online music service became settled in late 2000, singers had to put main melody and chorus into free one min. preview to draw listeners' attention.

Rising popularity of short form contents such as TikTok and YouTube shorts are another reason music industry believes have contributed to the shortening of songs over the recent years. Time to impress songs have shortened from one minute preview to few seconds on TikTok.

One official from powerhouse music agency said, "TikTok or YouTube shorts are very effective way to attract audiences in their 10-20s, the main consumers of idol musics," adding, "This generation of listeners gets bored easily if songs are bit long."

Introduction of the song is the most cropped part as songs have become shorter. Long intro like "Alone" by Sistar in 2012 is hard to see recent days, and it has changed to the level of introducing only the main beat in two to four bars.

For example, Ive's "After LIKE," one of the best hits in the second half of this year, starts with lyrics "I don't know if my heart will change like that weather" just three seconds after the song begins.

This lyrics exquisitely match with the lyrics "It takes only three seconds to hesitate" in their previous song "Love Dive," giving K-pop fans freshness.

Another official from well-known K-pop agency said, "In the past when dance songs were long like ballads, there was often a war of nerves over shortening parts of songs in music programs," adding, "It is good that we don't have to worry about such thing anymore. It is also better to perform K-pop's intense choreography in shorter time.

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)

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