David Bowie · The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Hang On to Yourself

Hang On to Yourself is in D major at 89.9 beats per minute.

Tempo

90 BPM · Andantemedian of 374 analyses · 89.9–92.4 across the middle eight tenths

Key: D major2 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 95%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 374people who ran the extractor
One beat: 667.4milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 438.5Hz · -6 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 4.33dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.955Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.247Essentia'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

374 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 95% — put it in D major, a key signature of 2 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 374 readings; 87% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 89.9 to 92.4 BPM.

At 89.9 BPM one beat lasts 667.4 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 166.9 ms and a dotted eighth 500.6 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 45 BPM, counted twice as fast 179.8. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438.5 Hz, which is 6 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 4.33 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 0.955 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 D 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 D major

Each of these differs from D 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 90 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2669.6	0.37
Half note	2	1334.8	0.75
Dotted quarter	1.5	1001.1	1
Quarter note (one beat)	1	667.4	1.5
Quarter triplet	0.667	444.9	2.25
Dotted eighth	0.75	500.6	2
Eighth note	0.5	333.7	3
Eighth triplet	0.333	222.5	4.5
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	250.3	4
Sixteenth note	0.25	166.9	5.99
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	111.2	8.99
Thirty-second note	0.125	83.4	11.99

Half time 45 BPM · double time 179.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (667.4 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in D major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 90 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in D major All songs at 90 BPM D major at 80–89 BPM David Bowie

MusicBrainz collapses 76 recording ids into this one. Recording id d76c72e3-3338-4d66-a3e1-7e9f5f71f95b.