David Bowie · Aladdin Sane
The Prettiest Star
The Prettiest Star is in F major at 118.1 beats per minute.
Tempo
118 BPM · Moderatomedian of 282 analyses · 118.1–118.4 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- F major1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 97%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 282people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 508milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 439.7Hz · -1 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 5.97dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.824Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.086Essentia'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
282 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 97% — put it in F major, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 282 readings; 95% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 118.1 BPM one beat lasts 508 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 127 ms and a dotted eighth 381 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 59.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 236.2. A score would mark that Moderato, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 439.7 Hz, which is 1 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — close enough to standard that a tuner would not argue. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.
The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 5.97 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 0.824 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 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 F major
Each of these differs from F 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 118 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2032.2 | 0.49 |
| Half note | 2 | 1016.1 | 0.98 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 762.1 | 1.31 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 508 | 1.97 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 338.7 | 2.95 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 381 | 2.62 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 254 | 3.94 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 169.3 | 5.9 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 190.5 | 5.25 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 127 | 7.87 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 84.7 | 11.81 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 63.5 | 15.75 |
Half time 59.1 BPM · double time 236.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (508 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- What Have I Done to Deserve This?Pet Shop BoysF major118BPM
- DisarmedThriceF major118BPM
- Too GoodDrake feat. RihannaF major118BPM
- Never GoneBackstreet BoysF major118BPM
- I Wish You WouldTaylor SwiftF major118BPM
- HeartbeatMadonnaF major118BPM
- Time Is Running OutMuseF major118BPM
- Ain’t Nothing Like the Real ThingAretha FranklinF major118BPM
- The Power of LoveHuey Lewis and the NewsF major119BPM
- Foreplay / Long TimeBostonF major119BPM
Recordings in F major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 118 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in F majorAll songs at 118 BPMF major at 110–119 BPMDavid Bowie
MusicBrainz collapses 11 recording ids into this one. Recording id ebdfd170-9841-4cdb-8945-8b864b956aed.