Pop Hits Are Picking Up the Tempo: A new analysis of top-10 hits finds instrumental introductions have dramatically diminished over the past three decades.
I appreciate that this may be another occasion for lamentation about the younger generations and their attention span, but this has been done time and time again in popular music. The so-called "Vegas style", back when performers in the gambling lounges were paid by the song, was to drop one verse from a song and "up" its tempo in order to squeeze more songs into a 45 minute set. Pop music survived.