I voted for "Don't mess with classic songs!"
It seems like a terrible idea to edit classic songs to fit some kind of new, trendy format. But, if new artists or folks writing new songs feel the urge to make them shorter, I guess that's OK as long as the quality is still high.
There are some good, old songs that are short, particularly good, old punk songs.
But, it's interesting if this really is a trend towards shorter songs these days. My Dad always tells me about the days in the '60s when it was radical for songs to become long and filled with complex lyrica, a la Bob Dylan. And, then there were the long, complex songs that highlighted instrumentals, a la Led Zeppelin. But, then you listen to the studio versions of folks like Hendrix and realize how short some of those songs were in studio-form vs. the really long live versions.
As far as today's market goes, I wonder if the shorter songs reflect shorter attention spans.
I'll admit that I really feel like my attention span is pretty short these days when it comes to things like watching TV or giving a new song a shot.
Don't even get me started on Bowin and song lengths....
It's really a pretty interesting topic Sister Mod!