AC/DC · Ballbreaker
Hard as a Rock
Hard as a Rock is in E major at 116.8 beats per minute.
Tempo
117 BPM · Moderatomedian of 179 analyses · 116.7–116.9 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 96%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 179people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 513.7milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 3dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.829Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.199Essentia'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
179 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 96% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 179 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 116.8 BPM one beat lasts 513.7 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 128.4 ms and a dotted eighth 385.3 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 58.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 233.6. 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 3 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 0.829 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 117 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2054.8 | 0.49 |
| Half note | 2 | 1027.4 | 0.97 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 770.5 | 1.3 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 513.7 | 1.95 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 342.5 | 2.92 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 385.3 | 2.6 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 256.8 | 3.89 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 171.2 | 5.84 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 192.6 | 5.19 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 128.4 | 7.79 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 85.6 | 11.68 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 64.2 | 15.57 |
Half time 58.4 BPM · double time 233.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (513.7 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- CastawayGreen DayE major117BPM
- Winter WonderlandNeil DiamondE major117BPM
- Grantchester MeadowsRoger WatersE major117BPM
- Girl From Ipanema Goes to GreenlandThe B‐52sE major117BPM
- MutterRammsteinE major116BPM
- Guess I’m Doing FineBeckE major117BPM
- GracelandPaul SimonE major118BPM
- Get Up Offa That ThingJames BrownE major118BPM
- 49 Bye‐ByesCrosby, Stills & NashE major118BPM
- I Wanna Be Your LoverPrinceE major116BPM
Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 117 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in E majorAll songs at 117 BPME major at 110–119 BPMAC/DC
MusicBrainz collapses 31 recording ids into this one. Recording id e69763d5-dd38-418e-8b24-b51dc4f9df90.