I've seen this at least four times. An album with the usual 4/5 minute songs has a last track of about 15 minutes, of which 10 are silence in the middle of the track.
Is there a meme I'm not aware of? Is it a reference to something?
Sound Design Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for sound engineers, producers, editors, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityIt's called a hidden track.
Back in the day when CDs first came out, many artists put an extra song on the CD that was not available on the cassette version. It was probably a marketing thing to get people to buy the CDs.
Later when CDs were more popular, some CDs started including a hidden track in the manner you described in your question. Some are placed as a surprise or joke. This could have started because a typical CD only includes about 45 minutes worth of music, but has a capacity of well over an hour and costs the same to produce no matter how full it is.