Surely what matters is how well the song is sung and the quality of the song itself? I've been at singarounds/sessions/clubs where a long ballad held the audience rapt because the person performing it had chosen a song with great content, a good tune - and sung it with passion and feeling. In short, done their homework.

I've also lost the will to live when someone performs an equally long ballad, head down, from several sheets of paper in a toneless voice. A lighter in such circumstances would have put us all out of our misery.