Short songs

#1

sometimes i scroll through my music library looking for tracks of a particular length- its kind of fun when i need something that is 20 minutes or more, or then extremely short like i’m looking for now…

wondering if anyone has a favorite song that is about 30 seconds long or less? of course we all define what a “song” is differently, but just curious in a casual way if someone has something they really like which they find compelling as a “full composition” loosely speaking… maybe something a step above the brian eno microsoft start up sound, but those kinds of things are also fun too!

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#2

Honestly, if you move things up to ‘under a minute and a half’, there’s bunches of them. But I like grindcore a lot. “You Suffer” is just about the most fully realized composition you’re going to pack into a second.

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#3

ha! first thing i thought seeing the title of the thread was “grindcore”. Nasum was a great band in that genre (if anyone wants to explore it).

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#4

doubt i’ll find anything good < 30s

plenty within 30s and 1m

#5

The first one that came to mind was They Might Be Giants’ Minimum Wage. Technically, it’s 48 seconds. 48 seconds should qualify. I’d say generally speaking a short song is a song less than 2’30"

Melt Banana also have about 10 short songs and those kicked ass. They went over well at concerts and everything Melt Banana does kicks ass anyway.

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#6

no surprise i’m not the first person to suggest tmbg, they have so many excellent examples of intelligent brevity. this one came to mind:

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#7

That was the first song that popped into my head when I read the thread title!

#8
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#9

Also good:


This is the “Extended Mix”. The original ends at the :14 mark.

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#10

From one of my very very favorite records,
combatwoundedveteran’s this is not an erect, all-red neon body

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#11

Sweet Times by The Chills is just over 30 seconds (with the fade out on the last note lasting close to 10 seconds), but I’ve always been partial to it.

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#12

How has no one already posted this?! Short songs for short people! 101 songs under 30 seconds.

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#13

On the back of this I contributed to Calm Down Kidder’s Chip reboot of the concept: Micro Music For Micro people. My track is number 29 of 101:

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#14
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#15

oh my god, i used to play this at the record store i worked at in high school. hadn’t thought about that comp in forever!

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#16

The Rebel Orthodontics are another great band who’s songs titles take longer to read than the tracks themselves. Kinda surf rock / garage.

Hard to find, but great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A1Sh7HBJvs

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#17

Probably my favorite Beatles’ song:

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#18

Let’s not forget about John Zorn’s contribution to the ‘really short songs’ genre with Naked City’s album “Torture Garden”. Longest song on it was like 1:10:

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#19

Cheney by Brakes. When I’ve seen them do it live, they sometimes do it twice in a row.

It’s borderline-novelty, but I appreciate their commitment to performing it identically every time; that makes it more like a song for me, because it emphasises formality.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=brakes+cheney

#20

And right at the 1 minute mark (happy 50th bday to mr. Kurt Cobain):

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