We've all heard that quality matters more than length - but how many of us really believe that? With the increasing dominance of the 79p iTunes single-track download, many music fans will be disregarding one-minute wonders as frivolous money-wasting and going instead for the drawn-out prog-rock epic.
Not only are albums as full bodies of work being sacrilegiously ripped apart by the single-song download system but there is a danger of short songs being seen by the music industry as commercial suicide in our brave new digital world. Some bloggers and commentators have already concluded that short length equals poor value for money.
Unlike miniature portraits in galleries and the haiku in Japanese poetry anthologies - both rightly celebrated for their concise qualities - the short song faces extinction as the album or EP becomes more irrelevant.
In the 60s and 70s, releasing a track that was under 60 seconds long was a revolutionary act - a means of encapsulating a theory eloquently and abruptly - though the Beatles posthumously saw them as embarrassments. Paul McCartney claimed that the unlisted 23-second acoustic ode Her Majesty only made it on to Abbey Road by mistake.
What's more, a good short song can be hard to find - so many merely sound like fragments or half-baked fillers, and still more act as intros, outros and incidental interludes. In the hip-hop sphere, many are spoken-word skits, and not really songs at all. The self-parodying Short Songs by the Dead Kennedys is just a waste of 28 seconds.
But here are some gems, each under a minute long. If you are downloading them from iTunes or elsewhere, you won't get much change from a tenner for 10 minutes of music. But like the early-morning hit you get from a sip of espresso, or a nightcap nip of single malt, a little goes a long way. Try them and see - and for more brief but spectacular thrills, check out the recent short songs edition of Readers Recommend.
Fascist - the Minutemen The Minutemen were not named for their short songs but the anti-immigration vigilantes that patrol the US border with Mexico. Fascist manages to demolish a political creed in 55 seconds, while encapsulating a strident folk-song melody with bebop and punk stylings.
Field Day for the Sundays - Wire Parent album Pink Flag was the most devastatingly different release of 1977. Minimalist and diverse, this song is economy-class situationism.
The Sound of John Denver being Strangled - Monty Python Incorporating the opening bars of Annie's Song and the words "you came on my pillow" followed by choking, this appeared on the comedy troupe's 1980 Contractual Obligation Album.
Passive Manipulation - the White Stripes Meg White, too often pushed out of the limelight by faux-brother Jack, gets a brief chance to warn against the subjugation of women, on this, the highlight of 2005's album Get Behind Me Satan.
The Phantom (Peel Session) - Cat Power The most delicious short songs don't sound hurried. Here Cat boils down the essence of Lynyrd Skynyrd with this guitar-egoism-free abridgement of Free Bird.
Five Percent for Nothing - Yes Yes are synonymous with elongated symphonic rock horrors, but this 35-second track tagged on as a bonus track on the CD version of the 1975 El Dorado album is pure essence of prog.
A Little Bit of Soap - De La Soul Much more than a skit, this sliver from their classic Three Feet High and Rising album incorporated a plea for personal hygiene and a dig at Right Guard with a chance to sample the Marvells' soul gem of the same name.
Elizabeth my Dear - the Stone Roses Ian Brown calls for the Queen's abdication over a madrigal-like arrangement of Scarborough Fair. As bassist Mani said at the time: "Six hundred years of piss-taking is long enough, don't you agree?"
Hyperactive Child - Dead Kennedys It takes 37 seconds for a problematic child, that's "too destructive and too wild", to be sedated and brainwashed in just one of the rapido cuts on the 1981 mini-album In God We Trust Inc.
You Suffer - Napalm Death At 1.316 seconds, Birmingham 's most famous grindcore band claim the record for the shortest-ever recorded song. "You suffer - but why?" they ask. Having been left temporarily deaf in one ear following a Napalm Death gig, maybe it was a rhetorical question.
