Cage the Elephant · Thank You, Happy Birthday

Sell Yourself

Sell Yourself is in C minor at 154.7 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

155 BPM · Allegromedian of 132 analyses · 152.7–154.7 across the middle eight tenths
Key
C minor3 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
61%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
132people who ran the extractor
One beat
387.8milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics
1.89dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.972Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.084Essentia'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

132 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. A bare majority of them — 61% — put it in C minor, a key signature of 3 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 132 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 152.7 to 154.7 BPM.

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 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 1.89 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 0.972 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 C minor; 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 C minor

Each of these differs from C minor 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 valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41551.40.64
Half note2775.71.29
Dotted quarter1.5581.81.72
Quarter note (one beat)1387.82.58
Quarter triplet0.667258.63.87
Dotted eighth0.75290.93.44
Eighth note0.5193.95.16
Eighth triplet0.333129.37.74
Dotted sixteenth0.375145.46.88
Sixteenth note0.259710.31
Sixteenth triplet0.16764.615.47
Thirty-second note0.12548.520.63

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

  1. High SpeedColdplayC minor155BPM
  2. Get Up, Stand UpThe WailersC minor155BPM
  3. Pastime ParadiseStevie WonderC minor156BPM
  4. Super LoveCéline DionC minor157BPM
  5. The Rockafeller SkankFatboy SlimC minor153BPM
  6. Hanging on the TelephoneBlondieC minor152BPM
  7. MustaphaQueenC minor152BPM
  8. A New Machine, Part 1Pink FloydC minor151BPM
  9. SkyfallAdeleC minor151BPM
  10. Breakfast in AmericaSupertrampC minor151BPM

Recordings in C minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 155 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C minorAll songs at 155 BPMC minor at 150–159 BPMCage the Elephant

MusicBrainz collapses 2 recording ids into this one. Recording id 52dda09b-5b25-4b4e-be75-253c315b6929.