U2 · How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Vertigo
Vertigo is in A minor at 140 beats per minute.
Tempo
140 BPM · Allegromedian of 183 analyses · 139.8–140 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- A minorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 68%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 183people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 428.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 439Hz · -4 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 2.86dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.952Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.01Essentia'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
183 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. A bare majority of them — 68% — put it in A minor, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 183 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 140 BPM one beat lasts 428.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 107.1 ms and a dotted eighth 321.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 70 BPM, counted twice as fast 280. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 439 Hz, which is 4 cents below 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 2.86 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 0.952 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 A 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 A minor
Each of these differs from A 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 140 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1714.3 | 0.58 |
| Half note | 2 | 857.1 | 1.17 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 642.9 | 1.56 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 428.6 | 2.33 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 285.7 | 3.5 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 321.4 | 3.11 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 214.3 | 4.67 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 142.9 | 7 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 160.7 | 6.22 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 107.1 | 9.33 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 71.4 | 14 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 53.6 | 18.67 |
Half time 70 BPM · double time 280 BPM. Every row is one beat (428.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- LovesongThe CureA minor140BPM
- Happiness Is a Warm GunThe BeatlesA minor140BPM
- JihadShotgun MessiahA minor140BPM
- Cosmic LoveFlorence + the MachineA minor140BPM
- SehnsuchtRammsteinA minor140BPM
- New EyesClean Bandit feat. LizzoA minor140BPM
- Up the KhyberPink FloydA minor140BPM
- See YouDepeche ModeA minor140BPM
- What’s Next to the MoonAC/DCA minor140BPM
- Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)The DelfonicsA minor140BPM
Recordings in A minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 140 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in A minorAll songs at 140 BPMA minor at 140–149 BPMU2
MusicBrainz collapses 150 recording ids into this one. Recording id 3d0fdfc3-81b6-4705-afab-3b5ba31c423a.