David Bowie · The Man Who Sold the World
All the Madmen
All the Madmen is in A major at 135.5 beats per minute.
Tempo
136 BPM · Allegromedian of 269 analyses · 135.5–135.9 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- A major3 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 98%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 269people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 442.8milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 8dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.588Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.041Essentia'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
269 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 98% — put it in A major, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 269 readings; 98% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 135.5 BPM one beat lasts 442.8 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 110.7 ms and a dotted eighth 332.1 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 67.8 BPM, counted twice as fast 271. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 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 8 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 0.588 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 major; 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 major
Each of these differs from A major 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 136 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1771.2 | 0.56 |
| Half note | 2 | 885.6 | 1.13 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 664.2 | 1.51 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 442.8 | 2.26 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 295.2 | 3.39 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 332.1 | 3.01 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 221.4 | 4.52 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 147.6 | 6.78 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 166.1 | 6.02 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 110.7 | 9.03 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 73.8 | 13.55 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 55.4 | 18.07 |
Half time 67.8 BPM · double time 271 BPM. Every row is one beat (442.8 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- Pre‐Road DownsCrosby, Stills, Nash & YoungA major135BPM
- Everything’s Not Lost / Life Is for LivingColdplayA major136BPM
- I’ll Feel a Whole Lot BetterThe ByrdsA major135BPM
- Someone Like YouAdeleA major135BPM
- Never Say GoodbyeBon JoviA major136BPM
- Rock Is DeadMarilyn MansonA major135BPM
- Smack My Bitch UpProdigyA major136BPM
- It’s So EasyThe Crickets feat. Buddy HollyA major136BPM
- RadioactiveImagine DragonsA major136BPM
- Put the Finger on YouAC/DCA major135BPM
Recordings in A major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 136 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in A majorAll songs at 136 BPMA major at 130–139 BPMDavid Bowie
MusicBrainz collapses 19 recording ids into this one. Recording id 6f142b95-997c-4bc0-92f6-33c9c7c32a95.