Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band · Darkness on the Edge of Town

Badlands

Badlands is in E major at 122.5 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

123 BPM · Allegromedian of 335 analyses · 122.4–122.7 across the middle eight tenths
Key
E major4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
95%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
335people who ran the extractor
One beat
489.8milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
440.3Hz · +1 cents from A 440
Dynamics
3.42dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.572Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.331Essentia'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

335 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 95% — put it in E major, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 335 readings; 85% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 122.5 BPM one beat lasts 489.8 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 122.4 ms and a dotted eighth 367.3 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 61.3 BPM, counted twice as fast 245. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.3 Hz, which is 1 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 3.42 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 0.572 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 123 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41959.20.51
Half note2979.61.02
Dotted quarter1.5734.71.36
Quarter note (one beat)1489.82.04
Quarter triplet0.667326.53.06
Dotted eighth0.75367.32.72
Eighth note0.5244.94.08
Eighth triplet0.333163.36.13
Dotted sixteenth0.375183.75.44
Sixteenth note0.25122.48.17
Sixteenth triplet0.16781.612.25
Thirty-second note0.12561.216.33

Half time 61.3 BPM · double time 245 BPM. Every row is one beat (489.8 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

The same title by somebody else

  1. BadlandsAC/DCG minor107BPM

Matched on the title alone, so this list can hold a different song that happens to share a name. Nothing here claims one is a cover of the other.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. Little MarthaThe Allman Brothers BandE major123BPM
  2. A Head Full of DreamsColdplayE major123BPM
  3. Heaven Is a Place on EarthBelinda CarlisleE major123BPM
  4. It’s All Over Now, Baby BlueBob DylanE major123BPM
  5. Counting StarsOneRepublicE major122BPM
  6. Be With YouEnrique IglesiasE major122BPM
  7. Drive ByTrainE major122BPM
  8. Can’t WaitForeignerE major123BPM
  9. Kingdom ComeDavid BowieE major122BPM
  10. Rock’n MeSteve Miller BandE major122BPM

Recordings in E major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 123 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E majorAll songs at 123 BPME major at 120–129 BPMBruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

MusicBrainz collapses 1,419 recording ids into this one. Recording id 6719f5e8-9b80-4956-8e11-ee1614a6693a.