The poverty of musicians?

[VisitasKeat]

I was listening to "Sugar Shack" song from the song game thread. In one sentence, the singer says he visits the coffee shop just for the beautiful girl serving there. In the next sentence, he is married to the girl!

Oh, come on!

Just brought back showing vs telling debate in my mind!

Even though the song is awesome, I couldn't help note that even flash fiction accommodates a little bit of showing.

Space Oddity is another great song and a very good example, but strangely, the apparent lack of showing fades away. I ended up crying for Major Tom.

So, is it the poverty of musicians that they tell stories in a compact way so that the tune isn't compromised?

If so, can the average length of songs never be increased?

[LilyBLily]

As a kid, any song I heard on the radio was no more than three minutes. Why? I don't know. The music unions? The limits of 45 RPM technology? Some FCC ruling?

[Tom Wood]

Bob Dylan's Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts is almost nine minutes long in the original version from his Blood on the Tracks album. It's a complete story that shows and tells. It's been optioned for a movie adaptation on and off over the years, but nothing ever came of that.

[Mark Gardner]

As a kid, any song I heard on the radio was no more than three minutes. Why? I don't know. The music unions? The limits of 45 RPM technology? Some FCC ruling?

It has to do with scheduling a certain number of songs per hour and including commercial breaks. A 3-minute song has the best formula for song rest, so it doesn't get oversaturated. At the radio station I work for, I program 22-23 songs an hour, and usually 3 - 4 are "resync" or deleted to make room for commercials. Most of our instrumentals are in the 2:30 to 3:30 range, and vocals are usually in the 3:00 - 4:00 range. An artist or title isn't supposed to play less than eight hours apart.

[PJ Post]

Lyricists are writers (poets), so style is going to vary - a lot. And while I'm not all that sure Sugar Shack (1963) is terribly representative, songs do tend to lean rather heavily on the storytelling tradition of, well...telling. Song length doesn't really have anything to do with it; even though Dylan's Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts may be hip deep in metaphor (like most good music/poetry), it's still pretty much telling straight through.

So, is it the poverty of musicians that they tell stories in a compact way so that the tune isn't compromised?

No, it's so the emotion isn't compromised.

[Lysmata Debelius]

Show don't tell is a rule of thumb guideline that will often help a writer improve their work, assuming they are writing a certain kind of book. It's not a universal rule of story telling.

Folk tales, poetry, children's stories, song lyrics, all of these use exposition (telling) to create powerful, compelling stories.

Even in a novel, telling can be the better choice. It depends on the needs of the story. Sometimes it's better to just say straight out who a character is, or what they are feeling, rather than spending paragraphs describing their clothing and facial expression.

"Show don't tell" is often good writing advice, but it's become the hammer for all those who are not aware that there are other tools available. And if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.