Ever since the birth of the pop record, the attention span of the average audience member has dropped to about 3.45mins. Anything over that (including the time spent tuning up at the beginning) and the attention is lost, unless the material is something special and your audience is enthralled. Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' at 8.00 mins, Woody Guthrie's 'Alices' Restaurant' at 18.32 mins and Show of Hands 'Tall Ships' at 22.00 mins are good examples of something special.

The modern lifestyle is geared towards soundbytes. If you can't say it in 3 mins, it's not worth listening to, because there is always something else to go and do. Gone are the days when the only news came from travelling people and the only stories those passed down and around by families. We no longer have the *time* to sit and listen to a 20-30 minute song or story... our lifestyles have changed so much that we are always being goaded onwards to fill deadlines, beat others and hit targets, at the expense of attention to detail and the time to sit and really relax into a song or a programme. I bet that if you put on one of the above mentioned records now, you'd be doing something else before the end of it.

LTS