Meet the new pop, same as the old pop. Artists releasing singles that may or may not have anything to do with an album! Artists recording super short songs that start, middle and end with the hook to maximize their pop potential (and their streaming service royalties)! Artists petrified of being out of the public eye for more than a few weeks! Oh dear! This hasn't happened since—when? The '50s and '60s, which a lot of people who sniff at this strange new behavior probably consider a golden age of pop music? The '70s and '80s, when disco and punk and hip-hop pioneers DIY'd singles like there was no tomorrow, which, in many cases, there wasn't? (OK, those disco singles weren't actually super short, because 12-inches and dance clubs, but you get the point, stop nitpicking.) The grunge '90s? VOX's SWITCHED ON POP and the VERGE team up on a podcast and interview exploring the changing rules of pop songwriting and production through the eyes of CHARLI XCX. Both insightful, both sympathetic to the ever-changing sound of pop and both worth your time. And both had me jotting mental notes on how sometimes we change by not changing at all. Here's Charli XCX explaining to the Verge's DANI DEAHL how to write a pop song circa 2019: "Chorus within, like, the first 30 seconds. No weird self-indulgent intro. Hook at the top in the intro. Maybe even start with the chorus. Second verse half as long, probably no pre-chorus after the second verse, straight into the chorus, done." Designed to hook you immediately on SPOTIFY, to make sure you stay for at least 30 seconds (at which point a play is officially registered) and to get you to the next song as fast as possible. And here's DAVE GROHL, god of authentic rock and roll, explaining to TENACIOUS D's KYLE GASS a decade or so earlier how AEROSMITH songs work: "Chorus, chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, verse kinda, chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus, finale, chorus." Designed to get you on pop and rock radio. Grohl's exaggerating, but just a little. Oh, and I edited one important aside from Charli's version. Despite her "no weird self-indulgent intro" rule for her outside songwriting work, she points out that her own new album is overflowing with indulgent intros. Because like generations of pop stars before her, Charli, who's really good at this, knows she has a choice: Play by the rules to get on the radio or playlist or TV show; make up your own rules if that isn't important to you. You can change from song to song. Sometimes you might get lucky and score a hit when you weren't trying. But it's up to you, almost always. MUSIC WEEK, meanwhile, reports that the average length of a #1 single has shrunk by 38 seconds, to 3:04, in the past 10 years. Editor MARK SUTHERLAND blames "streaming and the tyranny of the skip rate." But what if it was a different kind of tyranny dictating those half-marathon song lengths a decade ago? Did radio songs routinely exceed 4 minutes because that's what artists' inner muses compelled them to do? Or was it that radio DJs, back when they were actual people, needed intros and outros to talk over, or time to go to the bathroom? Or did record companies, who pay the same royalties on a song whether it's 2, 3 or 4 minutes long, want to pay fewer of them? Or maybe people hadn't learned to edit themselves back in those prehistoric times when TWITTER was just a startup. Songs should be as long or as short as they need to be. Shorter is always better. Except when it's not... New management at PAISLEY PARK... CONCORD buys VICTORY... I have a strange feeling MOBY is going to keep popping up in the randomest of places for the rest of our lives... 4th of July, Asbury Park (Shana Tova)... ANGELA LANSBURY is "thrilled to be part of reggae. Of course"... Sending love to MATHEW KNOWLES... RIP LOUIE RANKIN and MARTIN BERNHEIMER.