37
votes
Accepted
Why is the length of a song in much modern music between 3 and 4 minutes?
In addition to the other answers provided here, many point to the development of the medium for popular songs. Early recordings were made primarily on 78s, with the two most common sizes being 10" and ...
- 968
28
votes
Why doesn't anyone write great symphonies any more?
Symphonies were historically commissioned pieces of work. The commission was to pay for the writing and then the performing. Commissioning for symphonies has mostly disappeared so orchestras are not ...
- 1,824
26
votes
Why is the length of a song in much modern music between 3 and 4 minutes?
I think of it from a more technical approach. Let's take the most common structure of a modern song:
Intro (4 or 8 bars)
Verse (8 or 12 bars)
Chorus (8 or 12 bars)
Verse (8 or 12 bars)
Chorus (8 or ...
- 507
24
votes
Accepted
What is considered to be the first music video?
The first music video-like would be The Little Lost Child in 1894 (!!). This is considered more like the first illustrated song. Using a magic lantern, a series of still images were projected on a ...
- 3,005
23
votes
Where did the "rock on" hand sign come from?
It was started by Ronnie James Dio. It originates from an old Italian symbol called a Malocchio, or "Evil Eye". It's all explained pretty well here.
R.J. Dio – "I doubt very much if I would be ...
- 7,109
22
votes
Accepted
What are the historical roots of auto-tune?
Was Cher's Believe the first production to use auto-tune as a noticeable effect? Yes, at least in mainstream big-production music.
Was Cher's Believe the first production to use auto-tune at all? ...
- 4,302
22
votes
Accepted
When did the "standard drumkit" become popular in music
In marching bands from the late 1800's (like that of John Phillip Sousa), the percussion parts were played by separate musicians: one with cymbals, one with a snare drum, one with bass drum, etc.
...
- 1,636
22
votes
Why doesn't anyone write great symphonies any more?
All musical forms, from Gregorian chant to hip hop, are most closely associated with a particular time and place, they go in and out of popularity. Older forms become a niche product, created and ...
- 14.9k
21
votes
Accepted
Why is Axl Rose the only original member left in Guns N' Roses?
The simplest reason is that Axl doesn't have the best character (to put it mildly). Most of the members started disliking, even hating him after some years.
He was known for being at least 2 hours ...
- 3,005
20
votes
Accepted
Why did Elvis Presley never tour overseas?
Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker (whose real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk) was an illegal alien. Sending Elvis overseas, where Parker would have needed a passport to travel, would have ...
- 7,109
19
votes
Why is the length of a song in much modern music between 3 and 4 minutes?
There's a few reasons for it, but one of the most notable is related to how most of us start listening to music which is the radio. Think about it from a radio station's perspective. They can only ...
Dom♦
- 4,345
19
votes
How did music propagate before recordings?
Oh, I see. Here's that story:
During the time before music printing, and well into it, the vast majority of people didn't know about any music that wasn't being made right in their town or village. ...
- 2,073
19
votes
Accepted
Why exactly did the jury find copyright infringement in the case of Blurred Lines?
The jury bought into the Gaye's attorney's arguments that they should consider a "constellation" of features when comparing the two songs. This legal standard will likely be challenged on appeal ...
- 1,636
19
votes
Accepted
Was Freddie Mercury's voice range over 4 octaves?
Apparently it's not:
the late singer's inimitable voice was the subject of a study by a
team of Austrian, Czech and Swedish authors who set out to analyze
Mercury's voice from archived ...
- 2,815
19
votes
How do I play a 16⅔ RPM record?
While 16⅔ RPM might be rare, some DJ turntables have a pitch adjustment going as low as -50% (also known as ultrapitch). Note that "33" is really 33⅓, so 16⅔ is exactly half of it. A ...
- 291
18
votes
Who influenced The Beatles?
The Beatles started out as a rock'n'roll band. Their most admiration went to the rock'n'roll legend Elvis Presley. Another rock'n'roll legend that inspired and influenced the Beatles was Chuck Berry.
...
- 3,005
17
votes
Accepted
Is the music played in silent films considered to be a soundtrack? Why or why not?
The word "soundtrack" dates back to 1928, which is about the time that "talkie" movies were picking up momentum. Talkies were either presented with a sound-on-disc system or a sound-on-film system. ...
17
votes
How do I play a 16⅔ RPM record?
You need something more ancient or actually, more specialist.
To give longer playback times, spoken word was often cut at 16 2/3, or even 8 1/3. Radio stations used to use them for pre-recorded shows. ...
- 7,521
16
votes
Accepted
Where does this famous rhythm pattern come from (oftenly used to knock on a door)?
This pattern comes from a fanfare often used at the end of a musical performance called "Shave and a Haircut- Two Bits"
I found this reference to it on Wikipedia:
In music, the call "...
15
votes
Who influenced The Beatles?
From The Beatles we can see some of their influences:
Earlier Influences:
Elvis Presley
Of Presley, Lennon said, "Nothing really affected me until I heard
Elvis. If there hadn't been Elvis, ...
- 1,050
15
votes
Why doesn't anyone write great symphonies any more?
There are still symphonic compositions being made but most are created as scores for movies. John Williams is one of the most prolific soundtrack composers, writing scores for Star Wars, Indiana Jones,...
- 251
15
votes
Accepted
Where is this "overused" piece of ending originated from?
Ah, the “shave and a haircut, two bits” ending! From what I found it was first used over 120 years ago (with no lyrics) in an 1899 song by Charles Hale, called “At a Darktown Cakewalk.”
Your pitches ...
- 306
15
votes
Are there any examples in classical music history of "mashups" of two unrelated works?
The technical term is "quodlibet" (meaning "whatever you please"). A famous example is Bach's "Goldberg Variations" in which two folksongs are combined in various ways. ...
- 261
14
votes
Accepted
In simple layman terms, what is the Loudness War?
To explain the 'Loudness War' you need to first understand one simple fact…
Digital audio has an absolute 'loudest noise' - it is not like old analog, where you can always 'push the fader' a bit to ...
- 7,521
14
votes
Why do music genres exist?
In answering your title question, I agree with the other answer here (from Tetsujin): genres exist because classification Is What We Do and our brains our wired for the use of heuristics (see, for ...
- 968
13
votes
Why is the length of a song in much modern music between 3 and 4 minutes?
This is mainly due to the popularity of radio edits. Radio edits often shorten a long song in order to make it more commercially viable for radio stations. This gives radio stations greater ...
- 1,176
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