Elvis Costello & The Attractions · Armed Forces
Accidents Will Happen
Accidents Will Happen is in D minor at 120.4 beats per minute.
Tempo
120 BPM · Allegromedian of 161 analyses · 120.2–120.4 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- D minor1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 95%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 161people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 498.3milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 440.5Hz · +2 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 2.97dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.824Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.061Essentia'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
161 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 95% — put it in D minor, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 161 readings; 96% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 120.4 BPM one beat lasts 498.3 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 124.6 ms and a dotted eighth 373.8 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 60.2 BPM, counted twice as fast 240.8. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.5 Hz, which is 2 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 2.97 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 D 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 D minor
Each of these differs from D 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 120 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1993.4 | 0.5 |
| Half note | 2 | 996.7 | 1 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 747.5 | 1.34 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 498.3 | 2.01 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 332.2 | 3.01 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 373.8 | 2.68 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 249.2 | 4.01 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 166.1 | 6.02 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 186.9 | 5.35 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 124.6 | 8.03 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 83.1 | 12.04 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 62.3 | 16.05 |
Half time 60.2 BPM · double time 240.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (498.3 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- All MinePortisheadD minor120BPM
- Two StepDave Matthews BandD minor120BPM
- One VisionQueenD minor120BPM
- Wrong NumberThe CureD minor120BPM
- RunAirD minor120BPM
- Beautiful, Dirty, RichLady GagaD minor120BPM
- One TribeThe Black Eyed PeasD minor120BPM
- Revolution 9The BeatlesD minor120BPM
- ShowerBecky GD minor120BPM
- Roller SkateNatasha BedingfieldD minor120BPM
Recordings in D minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 120 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in D minorAll songs at 120 BPMD minor at 120–129 BPMElvis Costello & The Attractions
MusicBrainz collapses 7 recording ids into this one. Recording id 082c4cb8-b49e-448c-9396-50ba4acfcb0a.