are my beats to short?

E

est19ninetyone

New member
I make hip hop beats, I generally start my intros anywhere from 4-6 bars, then a 16 bar verse, 8 bar hook 16 bar verse, 8 bar hook, then an outro anywhere from 2-4 bars, my beats usually stay around the 2:30-50 range and I've had some feedback saying they should be more around 3:30 min range, whats a good bar structure for a hip hop song? Are mine to short?
 
how long is that piece of string you want me to cut???

there are "rules" and the then there are "*rules*"

in the context of pop music and dance music, we usually follow the powers of 2 rule: bar lengths are likely to be 2 or 4 beats
number of bars in a section are likely to be 2 or 4 or 8 or 16 or even 32

time limits are different in that there are different Laws that govern how much radio stations must pay to play a song that is longer than 5' (it is significantly more than one that is under 5')

pop music has gone from a point where songs were 1:30 at most to now pushing the boundaries of 70 minutes plus. Average lengths have gone up to the 3:30 mark, which is about as long as a commercial radio station can go with running an ad if it is to pay its bills

time for your song will be dependent on your total bars, how many beats you have in the bar and the tempo (obvious I know but some folks forget it): giving you a structure may or not work: it comes back to what your tempo choice is
 
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What bandcoach (as always) said: you can have this structure on every song you make and have a 2 minute track with a tempo of 100bpm, but a longer track with a tempo og 50bpm.
 
MC's often expect to get three 16 bar verses usually with an 8 bar hook after each one. But sticking to a strict structure can and will limit creativity.. If you are in the game of leasing beats I would suggest going with the "intro - 16 bar verse - 8 bar hook - 16 bar verse - 8 bar hook - 16 bar verse - 8 bar hook - outro" structure as the people who lease beats most likely want that. If you collaborate instead, I would edit the beat depending on the need. And if you just make beats and instrumentals, maybe you could go with what feels like the right lenght for the beat you are making?
 
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Or just skip the intro and get your rapper to just go in hard and smash it!

I've heard quality hip hop albums that last less than a half hour... If it bumps the listener will play it again Sam...
 
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