List of average genre tempo (BPM) levels?

Question

I've been told before that a genre such as drum and bass averages a BPM of 160-180, whereas dubstep is around 140 BPM and hip-hop is around 115 BPM.

Does anyone know where I can get a list of popular genres with their average BPM?

the stupid protection status of this question doesn't allow me to post this as an answer (if I don't lose a week or something pretending to bother about other people's ignorance) but [here's a very good list of tempos: classical, jazz, and organized by dance genre](http://www2.siba.fi/muste1/index.php?id=102&la=en). It also specifies a catch with songs that tend to be written "alla breve". — ZJR, Aug 16 '16 at 17:51
I think the [BPM Database](http://www.bpmdatabase.com/) could help you, but you'll have to carry out the computation of the average yourself by retrieving all songs under a given genre. — Anthony Labarre, Nov 09 '11 at 13:00

score 46 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 30 '20 at 20:04

Let's start a list!

Hip Hop is around 80-115 BPM
Triphop / Downtempo around 90-110 BPM
Concert marches are typically ~120 BPM.
House varies between 118 and 135 BPM
- UK garage/2-step is usually between 130-135 BPM
- UK funky is around 130 BPM
Techno 120-160 BPM
- Generally around 120-135
- Acid Techno 135-150
- Schranz around 150
Dubstep is around ~~140 BPM~~ 70's to 100 (mostly 80-90)
- Dubstep is not 140 BPM. I don't know why that number gets thrown around, but most dubstep is from the 70's to 100, with most falling in-between 80 and 90. In many songs it's often for a double-time break to happen, at which point it will reach 140~200, respectively, but it shouldn't be timed that way. – n_b
- *Dubstep is 70 - 75 BPM, which is equivalent to 140 - 150 BPM depending on if you count the snare on the 2 and 4 or the 3 of the measure.
Screamers are usually 130-150 BPM
Hardstyle is around 150 BPM
Juke/Footwork is around 160 BPM
Drum and Bass averages a BPM of 160-180
- Oldschool jungle is around 160-170
- Drum & Bass and Drumstep and Neurofunk 170-180
Grime 140 BPM

Some of the basic tempo markings

Good list, but the ones from "Largo" and down are tempo notations itself, although a lot of composers have used the notations as part of the piece name. — awe, Aug 28 '13 at 09:01
Also, take a look at [Wikipedia article about Tempo (markings)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Italian_tempo_markings) and [BPM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Beats_per_minute). Some genre like [Speedcore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedcore) can achieve extreme tempo above 300 BPM. — Andrew T., Oct 13 '14 at 05:36
Dubstep is produced with DAWs at 140BPM, But If you see how the Rhythm goes Musically it's actually 70BPM — RishiNandha Vanchi, Mar 03 '20 at 08:22

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 12 '16 at 16:42

Classical music averages around 120-140 BPM.

When you consider the tempos there's an even broader range.

2 Answers2