Michael Jackson · HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I

Earth Song

Earth Song is in D flat major at 138.3 beats per minute.

Tempo

138 BPM · Allegromedian of 150 analyses · 138.2–138.4 across the middle eight tenths

Key: D♭ major5 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 99%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 150people who ran the extractor
One beat: 433.8milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 440.8Hz · +3 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 7.25dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.409Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.073Essentia'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

150 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in D flat major, a key signature of 5 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 150 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 138.3 BPM one beat lasts 433.8 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 108.5 ms and a dotted eighth 325.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 69.2 BPM, counted twice as fast 276.6. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.8 Hz, which is 3 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 7.25 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 0.409 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 flat 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 D♭ major

Each of these differs from D♭ 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 138 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1735.4	0.58
Half note	2	867.7	1.15
Dotted quarter	1.5	650.8	1.54
Quarter note (one beat)	1	433.8	2.31
Quarter triplet	0.667	289.2	3.46
Dotted eighth	0.75	325.4	3.07
Eighth note	0.5	216.9	4.61
Eighth triplet	0.333	144.6	6.92
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	162.7	6.15
Sixteenth note	0.25	108.5	9.22
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	72.3	13.83
Thirty-second note	0.125	54.2	18.44

Half time 69.2 BPM · double time 276.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (433.8 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in D flat major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 138 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in D flat major All songs at 138 BPM D♭ major at 130–139 BPM Michael Jackson

MusicBrainz collapses 16 recording ids into this one. Recording id 2deea94b-4556-46da-8f1b-f546157a6b2f.