David Bowie · Lodger

African Night Flight

African Night Flight is in F sharp minor at 161.7 beats per minute.

Tempo

162 BPM · Vivacemedian of 136 analyses · 161.7–161.9 across the middle eight tenths

Key: F♯ minor3 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 70%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 136people who ran the extractor
One beat: 371.1milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 447.2Hz · +28 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 4.46dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.914Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.427Essentia'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

136 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. A bare majority of them — 70% — put it in F sharp minor, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 136 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 161.7 BPM one beat lasts 371.1 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 92.8 ms and a dotted eighth 278.3 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 80.9 BPM, counted twice as fast 323.4. A score would mark that Vivace, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 447.2 Hz, which is 28 cents above 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 4.46 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 0.914 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 F sharp 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 F♯ minor

Each of these differs from F♯ 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 162 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1484.2	0.67
Half note	2	742.1	1.35
Dotted quarter	1.5	556.6	1.8
Quarter note (one beat)	1	371.1	2.7
Quarter triplet	0.667	247.4	4.04
Dotted eighth	0.75	278.3	3.59
Eighth note	0.5	185.5	5.39
Eighth triplet	0.333	123.7	8.08
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	139.1	7.19
Sixteenth note	0.25	92.8	10.78
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	61.8	16.17
Thirty-second note	0.125	46.4	21.56

Half time 80.9 BPM · double time 323.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (371.1 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in F sharp minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 162 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in F sharp minor All songs at 162 BPM F♯ minor at 160–169 BPM David Bowie

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 27e36996-7b49-44fe-a4dd-24445ce34327.