Backstreet Boys · Unbreakable
Helpless When She Smiles
Helpless When She Smiles is in E major at 148 beats per minute.
Tempo
148 BPM · Allegromedian of 150 analyses · 148–148 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 100%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 150people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 405.4milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 440.5Hz · +2 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 3.73dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.9Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.036Essentia'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
150 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 150 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 148 BPM one beat lasts 405.4 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 101.4 ms and a dotted eighth 304.1 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 74 BPM, counted twice as fast 296. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.5 Hz, which is 2 cents above 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 3.73 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 0.9 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 148 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1621.6 | 0.62 |
| Half note | 2 | 810.8 | 1.23 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 608.1 | 1.64 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 405.4 | 2.47 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 270.3 | 3.7 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 304.1 | 3.29 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 202.7 | 4.93 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 135.1 | 7.4 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 152 | 6.58 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 101.4 | 9.87 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 67.6 | 14.8 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 50.7 | 19.73 |
Half time 74 BPM · double time 296 BPM. Every row is one beat (405.4 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- How Can You Mend a Broken HeartAl GreenE major148BPM
- King for a DayGreen DayE major148BPM
- Let’s Go Trippin’Dick Dale and His Del‐TonesE major148BPM
- Poison HeartRamonesE major149BPM
- Born to RunBruce SpringsteenE major147BPM
- The Last SongFoo FightersE major149BPM
- Planet TelexRadioheadE major149BPM
- Mama’s BoyRamonesE major147BPM
- The Ballad of Curtis LoewLynyrd SkynyrdE major147BPM
- Got My Mind Set on YouGeorge HarrisonE major149BPM
Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 148 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in E majorAll songs at 148 BPME major at 140–149 BPMBackstreet Boys
MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id dea95ca1-f8b3-4b23-9ada-f39cf97bfa94.