Nirvana · Nevermind

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Smells Like Teen Spirit is in F minor at 117.6 beats per minute.

Tempo

118 BPM · Moderatomedian of 192 analyses · 117.2–126.4 across the middle eight tenths

Key: F minor4 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 85%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 192people who ran the extractor
One beat: 510.2milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 2.95dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.948Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.217Essentia'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

192 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 85% — put it in F minor, a key signature of 4 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 192 readings; 75% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 117.2 to 126.4 BPM.

At 117.6 BPM one beat lasts 510.2 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 127.6 ms and a dotted eighth 382.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 58.8 BPM, counted twice as fast 235.2. A score would mark that Moderato, 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 2.95 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 0.948 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 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 F minor

Each of these differs from F 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 118 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2040.8	0.49
Half note	2	1020.4	0.98
Dotted quarter	1.5	765.3	1.31
Quarter note (one beat)	1	510.2	1.96
Quarter triplet	0.667	340.1	2.94
Dotted eighth	0.75	382.7	2.61
Eighth note	0.5	255.1	3.92
Eighth triplet	0.333	170.1	5.88
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	191.3	5.23
Sixteenth note	0.25	127.6	7.84
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	85	11.76
Thirty-second note	0.125	63.8	15.68

Half time 58.8 BPM · double time 235.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (510.2 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

Smells Like Teen Spirit2CELLOSG minor126BPM

Matched on the title alone, so this list can hold a different song that happens to share a name. Nothing here claims one is a cover of the other.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in F minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 118 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in F minor All songs at 118 BPM F minor at 110–119 BPM Nirvana

MusicBrainz collapses 420 recording ids into this one. Recording id 0ebe2d92-a11d-4b2b-9922-806383074ed7.