I do think that 50’s/60’s song length is the ideal 2-3 minutes. The expansion of the pop song to a longer time only really works when there are extra ideas but for the most part serves as padding.

Once you getting over 3 minutes, if there is no bridge or instrumental break or coda or arrangement changes with the repeating verse/chorus, the pop song structure becomes overly repetitive. I think that’s one of the barrier of liking modern music even if it is well written as the expansion of song length isn’t justify by additional content.

I kinda think that The Beatles are the best rock group in the world because they are predominantly write songs less than 3 minutes and if they do go beyond that length they justify it with extra content. I mean every song in A Hard Day’s Night is less than 3 minutes and if that album is considered the gold standard of pure pop songs, I can’t see the benefit of that being longer

I remember listening to some late career Paul McCartney and thinking why do I think Driving Rain or Off the Ground are 12 to 13/15 album while The Beatles albums are 14 to 15/15. The answer is that despite how well-written Paul McCartney as a songwriter in his solo career he fell in the trap of the expansion of the pop song song length