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Hooks now get three seconds
The Shrinking Intro
The older songs still reach the current generation, which knows Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and old Hindi songs, far more melodious than what is made now. The song would take two minutes to open. A reel gets scrolled away if the hook is late, and nobody watches it.
Everything Becomes Commerce
So everything becomes commerce. What the artist really wants to say is no longer the criterion, and what will sell is. Anybody can pick up a phone and become a creator and get more views than a movie, and stand-up comics get millions of views. Everything is about likes and views, though, and true pathos is not being created because of the commercial pressure.
Pressure On Authors
The pressure reaches even established authors. Chetan Bhagat's publisher wants him to sell, and a podcast raises the question of which topic will get views. He is at a stage in life where he refuses to play that game.
How have song intros shrunk over time?
A study of hit songs by music researcher Hubert Léveillé Gauvin found that the average intro fell from about twenty seconds in 1986 to about five seconds in 2015. Songs also began naming the title and bringing in vocals sooner. Spotify counts a stream as a play once thirty seconds have elapsed.
Why do short videos reward an instant hook?
Feeds rank videos partly by how long people watch and whether they scroll away. A clip that loses viewers in its first seconds is shown to fewer people. Creators therefore put the most striking moment first instead of building toward it. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts all use some version of watch-time signals.
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