Hit songs are getting shorter
The trend is not as bad as it sounds
WHAT IS the “song of the summer”? For more than a century, music fans and critics have considered which anthems capture the season of barbecues and suntans. In 1910 the New York Tribune wondered whether the year’s “summer song” would be “sentimental” or “humorous”, “unmitigated trash” or “at least bearable”.
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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Stay tuned”
From the June 7th 2025 edition
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What Superman tells you about American foreign policy
Should a man who can do anything choose to do nothing?
Handling feelings with rubber gloves: the odd life of Muriel Spark
An abandoned son, scorned lovers and dazzling, manipulative prose
Why the left gains nothing from pop stars’ support
Artists are entitled to share their views. Doing so is not always noble or wise
What to watch this weekend
Stories of tennis players, chefs and rock stars
Stop crying your heart out—for Oasis have returned to the stage
They are much more popular today than their Britpop peers
Inside the uneasy, incongruous coalition of the Big Three
A new book traces the wartime relationship between Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin