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I've been told before that a genre such as drum and bass averages a BPM of 160-180, whereas dubstep is around 140 BPM and hip-hop is around 115 BPM.

Does anyone know where I can get a list of popular genres with their average BPM?

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2 Answers

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Let's start a list!

  • drum and bass averages a BPM of 160-180
  • dubstep is around 140 BPM
  • House varies between 118 and 135 BPM
  • hip-hop is around 115 BPM
  • Concert marches are typically ~120 BPM.
  • Screamers are usually 130-150 BPM
  • Largo is 40-60 BPM
  • Larghetto is 60-66 BPM
  • Adagio is 66-76 BPM
  • Andante is 76-108 BPM
  • Moderato is 108-120 BPM
  • Allegro is 120-168 BPM
  • Presto is 168-200 BPM
  • Prestissimo is 200+ BPM (These last according to my Sabine Zipbeat.)

Also, be sure to see the answers to this question discussing the terms Lento and Agitato as they relate to tempo.

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Nice idea! Cheers @luser droog – Curt Nov 14 '11 at 14:04
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I think the BPM Database could help you, but you'll have to carry out the computation of the average yourself by retrieving all songs under a given genre.

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Instead of just providing the link, you should really summarize what the OP is looking for as well. What if that link breaks down the road? Then this answer is not very useful to the community – jadarnel27 Nov 9 '11 at 20:40
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The name is pretty self-explanatory and the OP knows what he's looking for. I must be missing something. – Anthony Labarre Nov 9 '11 at 23:24
Sorry for the confusion, I meant summarize the answer (actually listing genres and there average tempos), rather than just linking to an external answer that might not always be there. – jadarnel27 Nov 9 '11 at 23:26
@jadarnel27: So Anthony should list all the popular genres, find a representative sample from each genre, and average the BPM's from those samples?!? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I don't think that suggestion is useful to the community. – The Chaz 2.0 Nov 11 '11 at 16:30
@TheChaz I think Anthony has found a great resource there, I just know that on SE sites in general link-only answers are frowned upon (for the reasons discussed in this meta post). – jadarnel27 Nov 11 '11 at 16:43
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