Black Sabbath · Paranoid
Iron Man
Iron Man is in A major at 154.7 beats per minute.
Tempo
155 BPM · Allegromedian of 392 analyses · 154.6–154.8 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- A major3 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 94%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 392people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 387.8milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 447.9Hz · +31 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 2.78dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.876Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.178Essentia'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
392 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 94% — put it in A major, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 392 readings; 95% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 154.7 BPM one beat lasts 387.8 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 97 ms and a dotted eighth 290.9 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 77.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 309.4. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 447.9 Hz, which is 31 cents above 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 2.78 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 0.876 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 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 A major
Each of these differs from A 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 155 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1551.4 | 0.64 |
| Half note | 2 | 775.7 | 1.29 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 581.8 | 1.72 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 387.8 | 2.58 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 258.6 | 3.87 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 290.9 | 3.44 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 193.9 | 5.16 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 129.3 | 7.74 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 145.4 | 6.88 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 97 | 10.31 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 64.6 | 15.47 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 48.5 | 20.63 |
Half time 77.4 BPM · double time 309.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (387.8 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- There’s No Home for You HereThe White StripesA major155BPM
- All the TimeGreen DayA major155BPM
- Fistful of SteelRage Against the MachineA major155BPM
- In God’s HandsNelly FurtadoA major155BPM
- SpitMeat PuppetsA major155BPM
- The Name of the GameABBAA major154BPM
- Another Rainy Day in New York CityChicagoA major154BPM
- Radio Free EuropeR.E.M.A major155BPM
- My HeroFoo FightersA major154BPM
- Breaking BreadJohnny CashA major155BPM
Recordings in A major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 155 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in A majorAll songs at 155 BPMA major at 150–159 BPMBlack Sabbath
MusicBrainz collapses 135 recording ids into this one. Recording id a15e2d0a-efcb-4f4f-ad54-22a4879bbcf9.