Is Short The New Long?

As a music lover (over 4,000 albums, over 2,000 CDs, a working Wurlitzer 1959 jukebox, countless 78s and 45s and don't even start with my iTunes and MP3s) and somewhat of a purist, I was ready to despise George Gimarc and his controversial Radio SASS song-shrinking concept. 

But after giving it a listen over the weekend, I gotta admit that this isn't the heresy I expected. SASS stands for Short Attention Span System, and what George does is...well, as he puts it:

...takes the (radio) playlist and musically condenses songs to their essence. Through time compression, you get the memorable heart of each song, with an average length of aproximately two minutes.

NO self indulgent guitar solos, NO long intros, NO repetition of choruses again and again. Radio returns to the snappy song length of the 1960s.  

To most musicians and fans, I suspect George is seen as the anti-Christ; a demon who is madly, unceremoniously hacking away at an artist's oeuvre.  But there's a method to his madness.  By slicing away at songs, he can cram 30 of 'em into a radio broadcast hour, compared to an average of 12 today.  And with commercial radio in the crapper, this may--and I repeat MAY--be a salvation format for the beleaguered industry.

I remember a similar outcry in the '70s when 15-minute opuses from bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Chicago, Jethro Tull and the like were edited down to 3:30 for AM Radio playlists.  Yeah, it was sometimes silly and blasphemous, and although it basically disrespected the originally-created songs, it exposed more of them to us.  And those it converted went on to buy the "real stuff" in album format, bought concert tickets, t-shirts and other assorted merch.

I listened to about an hour of SASS, and despite the fact I knew most of these songs cold, many times I didn't notice much of a change (except on Paul McCartney's Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey. Whoa, what a hatchet job!). It ain't pretty, but neither is the world of recorded music these days. 

This isn't about the music; it's about its packaging.  And in a faltering milieu grasping for new ideas, at least George has got one.