The Beatles · Rubber Soul

Nowhere Man

Nowhere Man is in E major at 121.1 beats per minute.

Tempo

121 BPM · Allegromedian of 157 analyses · 121–122.2 across the middle eight tenths

Key: E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 42%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 157people who ran the extractor
One beat: 495.5milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 438Hz · -8 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 2.73dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.95Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.089Essentia'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

157 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Fewer than half of them — 42% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 157 readings; 98% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 121 to 122.2 BPM.

At 121.1 BPM one beat lasts 495.5 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 123.9 ms and a dotted eighth 371.6 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 60.6 BPM, counted twice as fast 242.2. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438 Hz, which is 8 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 2.73 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 0.95 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 E 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 E major

Each of these differs from E 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 121 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1981.8	0.5
Half note	2	990.9	1.01
Dotted quarter	1.5	743.2	1.35
Quarter note (one beat)	1	495.5	2.02
Quarter triplet	0.667	330.3	3.03
Dotted eighth	0.75	371.6	2.69
Eighth note	0.5	247.7	4.04
Eighth triplet	0.333	165.2	6.06
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	185.8	5.38
Sixteenth note	0.25	123.9	8.07
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	82.6	12.11
Thirty-second note	0.125	61.9	16.15

Half time 60.6 BPM · double time 242.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (495.5 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 121 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E major All songs at 121 BPM E major at 120–129 BPM The Beatles

MusicBrainz collapses 86 recording ids into this one. Recording id 684252b0-f52f-4e09-b81e-65aa84dfc20f.