I used to listen to a lot of J-Rock, where it’s not uncommon to have songs ~ 6 min long. Therefore, I rather firmly believed I didn’t like the trend of songs getting shorter and shorter. When I had a look at my stats for the first half of this year (I used statsforspotify), I got curious and decided to analyse my data in a bit more detail.
Preface: I mainly listen to music while running or commuting (I don’t stream for the sake of streaming) and I tend to listen to songs on repeat. It’s not unusual I will listen to just one song when going for a 10k run. I create playlists, usually sorted according to artist (so I have a playlist called “BTS” or “GOT7”), but I also have random playlists such as “kpop” or “non kpop”. This means, I will not listen to random music because I have pre-selected songs that I definitely like. And now for the data!
First up, my top 10 from January to June 2025 (song length and year released taken from spotify):
Track list | Title | Artist | Song length | Year |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nanana | GOT7 | 03:07 | 2022 |
2 | Slow Mo | BamBam | 02:32 | 2022 |
3 | Bad Desire (English vs) | Enhypen | 02:21 | 2025 |
4 | Python | GOT7 | 02:31 | 2025 |
5 | Switch it up | Jay B | 03:35 | 2021 |
6 | Poet Artist | SHINee | 03:24 | 2025 |
7 | Hot | Seventeen | 03:17 | 2022 |
8 | Just right | GOT7 | 03:42 | 2015 |
9 | Thunder | Seventeen | 02:44 | 2025 |
10 | Darling | GOT7 | 02:41 | 2025 |
What caught my attention:
– 5 songs under 3 min
– 4 out of those “under 3 min songs” are from 2025
– Shortest song: 02:21 (2025, Enhypen – Bad Desire)
– Longest song: 03:42 (2015, GOT7 – Just right)
Conclusion: Surprisingly, I don’t seem to have a preference for shorter or longer songs.
Next, my top 30:
Track list | Title | Artist | Song length | Year |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nanana | GOT7 | 03:07 | 2022 |
2 | Slow Mo | BamBam | 02:32 | 2022 |
3 | Bad Desire (English vs) | Enhypen | 02:21 | 2025 |
4 | Python | GOT7 | 02:31 | 2025 |
5 | Switch it up | Jay B | 03:35 | 2021 |
6 | Poet Artist | SHINee | 03:24 | 2025 |
7 | Hot | Seventeen | 03:17 | 2022 |
8 | Just right | GOT7 | 03:42 | 2015 |
9 | Thunder | Seventeen | 02:44 | 2025 |
10 | Darling | GOT7 | 02:41 | 2025 |
11 | Ribbon | BamBam | 03:07 | 2021 |
12 | Don’t Wanna Cry | Seventeen | 03:23 | 2017 |
13 | Super | Seventeen | 03:20 | 2024 |
14 | Love Loop | GOT7 | 03:42 | 2019 |
15 | So 4 more | BTS | 03:55 | 2014 |
16 | You calling my name | GOT7 | 03:14 | 2019 |
17 | Last Friday Night | Katy Perry | 03:50 | 2010 |
18 | Take it easy | BamBam | 02:07 | 2023 |
19 | Rebirth | Jimin | 02:24 | 2024 |
20 | Love Hangover | Jennie | 03:00 | 2025 |
21 | Out the door | GOT7 | 03:34 | 2025 |
22 | Ghost | BamBam | 02:37 | 2023 |
23 | Slow Dance | Jimin | 03:08 | 2024 |
24 | Let me love you | BamBam | 03:13 | 2022 |
25 | Ball like that | BamBam | 02:42 | 2024 |
26 | Face | GOT7 | 03:28 | 2017 |
27 | Good things go | Linkin Park | 03:29 | 2024 |
28 | Wild Flower | RM | 04:33 | 2022 |
29 | Sherlock | SHINee | 03:59 | 2012 |
30 | Drunk | GOT7 | 03:21 | 2019 |
Mean length | 03:12 |
What caught my attention this time?
– 10 songs under or equal 3 min, all of these songs are from 2022 to 2025. Interestingly, 6 songs from BamBam made it into the list – out of which 4 are sub 3 min. Does he have a tendency to create shorter songs? And does he skew my results?
– 8 songs are over 3:30 min, released between 2010 and 2025
– Shortest song 02:07 min (2023, BamBam – Take it easy)
– Longest song 04:33 (2022, RM – Wild Flower)
– Only 2 songs are non kpop and only 3 feature female singers. Again, does this skew my results?
Conclusion: I don’t seem to care about how long the song actually is. There is a wide range between the shortest and longest song. I’ve had a look at the longer songs and asked myself if I would still listen to them if they didn’t have a bridge. And yes, I absolutely would, because they’d still be bangers.
So what would be my take away as an artist? As I don’t seem to care about the length of the song, it makes sense for the artist to create shorter songs. A 2:30 min song will get played 24x within one hour. A 3:00 min song 20x, a 3:30 min song 17x. I can listen to BamBam’s “Take it easy” 28x within an hour, whereas RM’s “Wild flower” would only get played 13x!
I am in the process of analysing data from several groups (will try both kpop and non kpop and also include girl groups) to see if the songs are really getting shorter over time. I might make a separate post about this in case there is any interest for that.
submitted by /u/Anni3401
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