R.E.M. · Automatic for the People

Drive

Drive is in G major at 142.3 beats per minute.

Tempo

142 BPM · Allegromedian of 160 analyses · 142.2–142.5 across the middle eight tenths

Key: G major1 sharp · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 93%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 160people who ran the extractor
One beat: 421.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 441.8Hz · +7 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 5.79dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.604Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 0.871Essentia'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. Most of them — 93% — put it in G major, a key signature of 1 sharp. The tempo printed above is the median of the 160 readings; 96% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 142.3 BPM one beat lasts 421.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 105.4 ms and a dotted eighth 316.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 71.2 BPM, counted twice as fast 284.6. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 441.8 Hz, which is 7 cents above 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 5.79 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 0.604 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 G 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 G major

Each of these differs from G 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 142 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1686.6	0.59
Half note	2	843.3	1.19
Dotted quarter	1.5	632.5	1.58
Quarter note (one beat)	1	421.6	2.37
Quarter triplet	0.667	281.1	3.56
Dotted eighth	0.75	316.2	3.16
Eighth note	0.5	210.8	4.74
Eighth triplet	0.333	140.5	7.12
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	158.1	6.32
Sixteenth note	0.25	105.4	9.49
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	70.3	14.23
Thirty-second note	0.125	52.7	18.97

Half time 71.2 BPM · double time 284.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (421.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

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 G major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 142 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in G major All songs at 142 BPM G major at 140–149 BPM R.E.M.

MusicBrainz collapses 49 recording ids into this one. Recording id 79f7dc21-3ccf-40eb-abb4-30ef41ca999b.