Blondie · Parallel Lines
Picture This
Picture This is in A minor at 128.7 beats per minute.
Tempo
129 BPM · Allegromedian of 318 analyses · 128.4–129.5 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- A minorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 96%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 318people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 466.2milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 437.7Hz · -9 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 4.27dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.827Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.064Essentia's danceability, 0–3
Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.
What the numbers say
318 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 96% — put it in A minor, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 318 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 128.4 to 129.5 BPM.
At 128.7 BPM one beat lasts 466.2 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 116.6 ms and a dotted eighth 349.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 64.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 257.4. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 437.7 Hz, which is 9 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.
The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 4.27 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.827 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.
10 other recordings here are in A minor; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.
Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Keys that fit with A minor
Each of these differs from A minor by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.
Delay times at 129 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1864.8 | 0.54 |
| Half note | 2 | 932.4 | 1.07 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 699.3 | 1.43 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 466.2 | 2.15 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 310.8 | 3.22 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 349.7 | 2.86 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 233.1 | 4.29 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 155.4 | 6.44 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 174.8 | 5.72 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 116.6 | 8.58 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 77.7 | 12.87 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 58.3 | 17.16 |
Half time 64.4 BPM · double time 257.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (466.2 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- The Hardest Button to ButtonThe White StripesA minor129BPM
- Dance the Night AwayCreamA minor129BPM
- Love on the RocksNeil DiamondA minor129BPM
- OrionMetallicaA minor129BPM
- BreathePink FloydA minor129BPM
- Listen Through MeThriceA minor129BPM
- Speak to Me / Breathe in the AirPink FloydA minor128BPM
- Conversations With My 13 Year Old SelfP!nkA minor129BPM
- Human After All (Alter Ego remix)Daft PunkA minor129BPM
- Susie QCreedence Clearwater RevivalA minor129BPM
Recordings in A minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 129 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in A minorAll songs at 129 BPMA minor at 120–129 BPMBlondie
MusicBrainz collapses 18 recording ids into this one. Recording id 14a01e05-5291-4d17-966d-41c2cd1954aa.