Songs under three minutes went from 3 to 31 in ten years: lengths of the 100 songs on the Bugs weekly chart, 2006, 2016 and 2026

Of the 100 songs on the Bugs weekly chart for the second week of October this year (October 5–11), 31 are under three minutes. On the chart for the same week ten years ago (October 3–9, 2016) there were 3, and twenty years ago (October 6–12, 2006) there were also 3. We gathered the running time listed in Bugs' track information for every song on the three charts and compared them.

At a glance

Chart week	Songs	Average	Median	Under 3:00	4:00 or longer	No. 1 song
2006.10.6–10.12	95	4:02	4:01	3	51	Son Ho-young '운다' ('Crying') 4:18
2016.10.3–10.9	100	3:51	3:46	3	35	SHINee '1 of 1' 3:23
2026.10.5–10.11	100	3:19	3:11	31	15	ONEW × ZICO 'Tic Tac Toe' 2:37

The median is the length of the song in the middle when all the songs are lined up from shortest to longest. It's less swayed by a few unusually long or short songs.

Five of this year's top 10 run under three minutes

Five songs in this year's top 10 are under three minutes: No. 1 ONEW × ZICO 'Tic Tac Toe' (2:37), No. 5 ALLDAY PROJECT 'CRASH' (2:53), No. 6 IU 'Dear my crazy soulmate' (2:36), No. 7 ATEEZ 'BAD' (2:36) and No. 9 D.O. 'Guitarist' (2:43). Ten years ago, the shortest song in the top 10 was 3:12; twenty years ago, 3:36.

The shortest songs and the longest

This year's shortest song is JENNIE's 'like JENNIE' (2:03), followed by ILLIT's 'NOT CUTE ANYMORE' (2:12) and 'It's Me' (2:18), KiiiKiii's 'Pop Off Pop Off' (2:21) and JENNIE's 'Less than a Lover' (2:25). Ten years ago the shortest was Kim Young Geun's 'Exhausted' (2:33), and twenty years ago only three songs ran under three minutes: Leon Lai's 'Try To Remember' (2:07), Susan Jacks' 'Evergreen' (2:51) and BIGBANG's 'La La La' (2:59).

The longest songs were Yoon Do Hyun's '그녀의 웃음소리 뿐' (6:12) twenty years ago, Park Hyo Shin's 'Home' (6:08) ten years ago and Parc Jae Jung's 'Epilogue' (5:26) this year. Songs of four minutes or longer went from 51 to 35 to 15. How 'Epilogue' uses all that time is in the October 4 NONOL Pick.

Half of this year's chart is over a year old

Fifty-two of this year's chart songs had been out for more than a year as of the chart week (one song without a listed release date is left out). They include DAY6's 'You Were Beautiful' from 2017 and AKMU's 'How can I love the heartbreak, you're the one I love' from 2019. Ten years ago, the chart had 8 songs over a year old, and twenty years ago, 4 of the 92 songs with a listed release date. Looking only at songs released within the past year, the gap grows. This year's 47 such songs average 3:10, 39 seconds shorter than ten years ago (92 songs, 3:49), and 20 of the 47 are under three minutes.

How we measured, and how far it goes

We looked at just one week in early October each year, which may differ from the trend over a whole year. Song lengths are the running times in Bugs' track information, and for 2006 we counted only the 95 of the 96 songs still viewable on Bugs that list a running time. When one artist has several songs on the chart, that artist's song lengths can pull the average. That week ten years ago, Park Hyo Shin had ten songs on the chart, most over four minutes; counted without Park Hyo Shin, the average is still 3:44, 25 seconds longer than this year. The Bugs chart ranks songs by plays from Bugs users, so it may differ from other streaming services or charts abroad.