10 Great Hard Rock Songs Under 2 Minutes Long
Insert joke about size not mattering here.
The three-minute pop song is a trend so prevalent in music that it has its own Wikipedia page.
Basically, back in the old days, 78rpm records couldn't realistically handle a song longer than 180 seconds. It just so happened that was about as long as people were interested in hearing a song, so tracks have stayed roughly that length ever since.
The more you know.
Obviously, we don't live in a world of 78rpm records anymore. Music is now free to be as long or as short as it likes, even if that is against conventional wisdom.
Anything under three minutes is still considered too short, but what about when artists go even shorter than that?
These songs all prove that it is possible to write great music that lasts for less time than it takes to brush your teeth. A lot of them are just album tracks, which makes a lot of sense, but that doesn't diminish their quality whatsoever.
Also, some of them actually did get the single treatment! That means that some people paid full price for a song that lasted less than two minutes!
What a bunch of suckers.
10. Hello There - Cheap Trick
We're starting off this list with an incredibly appropriate song.
In 1977, US rock band Cheap Trick put out their sophomore album In Color. Alongside singles like I Want You to Want Me and Southern Girls, the album also contained a very short song called Hello There.
Hello There serves as the album's opener and might just be the most functional track in the history of music.
It lasts for one minute and 41 seconds and it's mostly just lead singer Robin Zander greeting his audience and asking them if they're "ready to rock?" That makes it sound bad, but it's actually a lot of fun.
So fun in fact that it was often used to open the band's live concerts, making it their fifth most-played song on stage. It's also the first thing you hear on their record Cheap Trick at Budokan, widely regarded as one of the best live rock albums of all time.
For such a short and simple song, Hello There has really taken on a life of its own and is a firm favourite amongst the band's most devoted followers.
It even received a companion piece called... Goodbye Now.
Of course.