system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why did people start to overwhelmingly prefer much shorter, singing music over long classical pieces?
gpt
The normal folks _always_ had short music. Folk songs. Madrigals. Any form of minstrel work.

Three to six minutes is about as long as a single performer of average skill can be expected to go without a break and still keep the quality up.

So long orchestral pieces are the tasks of the "professional athletes" of music. People who can afford to spend all their time working on their skills and stamina.

Also most catchy story-songs don't have enough material to go for more than a couple of minutes.

So you've got a historical misunderstanding. Virtually all music for all of history was short-form. We just _remember_ and _note_ the classical ages peices because of their literal rarity. There are few of them. The probable millions of songs that were never written down or preserved are simply lost to time. And the few that were written down were not particularly sought out or preserved.

So its not that the long form was preferred. Indeed those long pieces were reserved for special occasions for the wealthy.

But any well-appointed house had a "music room" and any lady or gentleman was expected to be able to play at least one common instrument.

Meanwhile in inns, and tap rooms, and campfires there was the songs of the day just like today.