The shrinking and growing of song lengths

Along with propelling many new emerging artists to fame such as Lola Young, Sombr, and Olivia Dean, 2025 has also seen a growth in song lengths. In a recent article released by the BBC, Mark Savage and Jess Carr discuss how during the streaming era songs had gotten noticeably shorter, yet now it seems that our trusty three-minute tracks have made a comeback.

With 60% of TikTok users belonging to Gen Z, such that they have now been coined the ‘TikTok Generation’, it is no coincidence that they are also the most avid streamers of music. Many artists in fact utilise the platform of TikTok to find their target audience, using its tailored algorithms to ensure that their music lands directly on the ‘FYP’ of their chosen demographic. Pop-rap artist professionally known as Doja Cat, for example, owes her career to TikTok. The creation of a viral dance to her track ‘Say So’ catalysed her career, even leading her to incorporate the dance into its very own music video.

Just two years after the launch of TikTok, the average song length of the top 40 songs in the UK shrunk to a mere three minutes and 12 seconds

However, while TikTok has provided artists with a platform to promote their music, it has also caused a shrinkage in song lengths. Due to short excerpts of songs going viral, people’s attention spans seem to have withered, only listening to tracks because of its popular chorus or verse. Artists have responded to this trend, such as Maisie Peters and Mimi Webb, producing hits around two minutes in length to ensure its listeners’ attention is captured for the entirety of the track. In 2019, just two years after the launch of TikTok, the average song length of the top 40 songs in the UK shrunk to a mere three minutes and 12 seconds.

Supposedly, one could question if it is really worth artists working tirelessly to curate lengthy ballads to match Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, a six-minute suite, or ‘Comfortably Numb’ by Pink Floyd? Thankfully, the average length of a hit single in the first six months of 2025 increased to almost three and half minutes. It seems that rather than mindlessly repetitive dance music and superficial trends attracting popularity, a desire for heartful, meaningful lyrics has emerged, even at the cost of a lengthy listen.

Let’s take Taylor Swift’s album Red (Taylor’s Version) as an example. It was released in November 2021 and featured the vault track ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’. Despite the original track lasting five minutes and twenty-nine seconds, Swift clearly identified a demand for the unedited version, such that fans tirelessly petitioned for the original to be released. The ‘10 Minute Version’ in fact has three times more streams than the original on Spotify, evidencing a desire among listeners for uncut, original songs, prioritising authenticity rather than virality.

Audiences’ attention spans have indeed not been poisoned by TikTok

Songwriter Ines Dunn, known for her collaborations with artists Rachel Chinouriri and Dylan, claims: “Perspective is coming back. Taste is coming back. People’s uniqueness is making them successful.” So, although virality is key to popularity, recent releases have defied the trend of diminution, proving that it is not the only way to succeed as an artist.

2025 Reading Festival headliner Chappell Roan has arguably spearheaded this mission to revive organic storytelling within music, her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess having been praised by NME Magazine as a display of her “bold and brazen pen, where she places searing revelations alongside some deliciously cheeky choruses”. The album features tracks varying in length from three minutes and three seconds to four minutes and 18 seconds, once again proving that audiences’ attention spans have indeed not been poisoned by TikTok. Roan, similarly to Doja Cat, utilises TikTok by liking, commenting, and resharing fan videos, encouraging users to interact with herself as well as her music. This suggests that TikTok has retained its pertinent role in music promotion, even if it hasn’t permanently impacted song lengths.

All that aside, can we definitively claim that there is such a thing as a perfect song length? As Lady Gaga states, “Whatever length the artist wants is the perfect length.” Artists deliberately produce their music for their own enjoyment as well as the entertainment of others. Song lengths will continue to fluctuate along with changing trends and styles of music, and we must simply go along for the ride!