Depeche Mode · Black Celebration

A Question of Time

A Question of Time is in C minor at 136.2 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

136 BPM · Allegromedian of 160 analyses · 136.1–140.3 across the middle eight tenths
Key
C minor3 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
95%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
160people who ran the extractor
One beat
440.5milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
440Hz · 0 cents from A 440
Dynamics
2.88dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.91Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.138Essentia'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

160 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 95% — put it in C minor, a key signature of 3 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 160 readings; 83% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 136.1 to 140.3 BPM.

At 136.2 BPM one beat lasts 440.5 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 110.1 ms and a dotted eighth 330.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 68.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 272.4. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440 Hz, which is 0 cents above 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 2.88 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 0.91 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 C 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 C minor

Each of these differs from C 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 136 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41762.10.57
Half note2881.11.14
Dotted quarter1.5660.81.51
Quarter note (one beat)1440.52.27
Quarter triplet0.667293.73.41
Dotted eighth0.75330.43.03
Eighth note0.5220.34.54
Eighth triplet0.333146.86.81
Dotted sixteenth0.375165.26.05
Sixteenth note0.25110.19.08
Sixteenth triplet0.16773.413.62
Thirty-second note0.12555.118.16

Half time 68.1 BPM · double time 272.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (440.5 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. A Lack of ColorDeath Cab for CutieC minor136BPM
  2. Yeat’s GraveThe CranberriesC minor136BPM
  3. Beautiful LifeAce of BaseC minor135BPM
  4. Beer Drinkers & Hell RaisersZZ TopC minor135BPM
  5. Keine LustRammsteinC minor138BPM
  6. Break & EnterThe ProdigyC minor138BPM
  7. Love ShackThe B‐52sC minor134BPM
  8. Black SabbathBlack SabbathC minor133BPM
  9. Fill Me InCraig DavidC minor133BPM
  10. Crank That (Soulja Boy)Soulja Boy Tell ’EmC minor140BPM

Recordings in C minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 136 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C minorAll songs at 136 BPMC minor at 130–139 BPMDepeche Mode

MusicBrainz collapses 89 recording ids into this one. Recording id e16ed270-f5f1-4ee2-9c08-0d70a605f52e.