BPMcountR → BPM by genre
BPM by genre
Every genre has a tempo it tends to live at. House is around 128, drum and bass around 174, hip-hop around 90 — not as rules, but as the range where a record sounds like the thing it is trying to be. Here are those ranges for about forty styles, and the reason a few of them come out at half or double what you expect.
If you want the number for one particular track, tap it out on the counter — it takes four taps.
Electronic and dance
| Genre | BPM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Downtempo, chillout | 60–90 | Built to sit under a room rather than move it. |
| Trip-hop | 60–90 | Hip-hop drums slowed down and given more space. |
| Lo-fi hip-hop | 70–90 | The study-playlist tempo. |
| Moombahton | 106–112 | House slowed to reggaeton speed — that was the whole idea. |
| Disco | 110–130 | The four-to-the-floor everything else was built on. |
| Deep house | 115–125 | |
| House | 118–130 | 128 is the club standard. |
| Tech house | 122–128 | Tighter than house proper, rarely outside this window. |
| Progressive house | 124–130 | |
| Breakbeat, big beat | 125–140 | |
| UK garage, 2-step | 130–140 | Shuffled, so it counts slower than it feels. |
| Trance | 130–145 | Uplifting trance sits at the top of that. |
| Techno | 130–150 | Berlin club techno mostly 132–140. |
| Dubstep | 140 | Almost always exactly 140 — but felt at 70. |
| Trap (EDM) | 140–160 | Felt at 70–80. |
| Future bass | 140–160 | |
| Hardstyle | 145–160 | |
| Jungle | 160–180 | Same tempo as drum and bass, busier breaks. |
| Drum and bass | 165–180 | 174 is close to a standard. |
| Hardcore, gabber | 160–200+ | Speedcore goes past 300 and stops meaning much. |
Bands, songs and everything else
| Genre | BPM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ballad | 60–80 | Slow enough that the singer sets the time, not the drummer. |
| R&B, soul ballad | 60–90 | |
| Reggae | 60–90 | The skank falls between the beats, so tap the bass drum. |
| Blues | 60–100 | Shuffle blues counts slower than it feels. |
| Hip-hop, boom bap | 80–100 | 90 is the middle of the road. |
| Cumbia | 85–110 | |
| Reggaeton | 90–100 | The dembow pattern barely varies in tempo. |
| Dancehall | 90–110 | |
| Country | 90–130 | |
| Samba | 96–104 | Often written at half and counted in two. |
| Funk, soul | 100–120 | |
| Pop | 100–130 | Chart singles cluster around 120. |
| Rock | 100–140 | |
| Afrobeats | 100–115 | |
| Amapiano | 110–115 | Narrow on purpose — the log drum needs the space. |
| Bachata | 120–140 | |
| Jazz, swing | 120–200 | Ballad to up-tempo covers everything; the feel matters more than the number. |
| Drill | 138–145 | Written fast, felt at half — around 70. |
| Metal | 100–180 | Blast beats are counted at double. |
| Salsa | 150–250 | Counted in fast quarter notes, which is why the number looks extreme. |
| Punk | 150–200 |
Ranges, not rules. Every one of these has records outside its range that are still unmistakably the genre.
Why some genres come out at half speed
Dubstep is written at 140 BPM. Tap along to it and you will probably get 70. Neither number is wrong — the snare lands on beat three instead of on two and four, so the pattern takes twice as long to come round while the hi-hats keep the faster pulse. A producer working in a DAW needs 140; a drummer playing along counts 70.
The same split runs through trap, drill and half-time drum and bass. If your reading is exactly half or double what you expected, that is what happened: you tapped a real pulse, just not the one the producer wrote to. Halve it or double it and both are true.
The app takes this off your hands. It notices when a run of taps is landing at half or double the tempo you started with, corrects it, and can show both numbers at once so you never have to do the arithmetic on a stage.
The eight bands BPMcountR colours by
The app puts a colour and a one-line description on whatever tempo you measure, so you know roughly what world you are in before you have thought about it. These are the boundaries it uses — the same table that colours the counter on the front page.
| BPM | Band | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| under 70 | Slow / ambient | Ballads, downtempo |
| 70–89 | Head-nod | Lo-fi and hip-hop grooves |
| 90–109 | Pop / mid-tempo | Relaxed dance feel |
| 110–130 | House | Club-ready groove |
| 131–139 | Techno | Driving, hypnotic |
| 140–159 | Trap / dubstep / future bass | Heavy bass drops |
| 160–179 | Drum and bass | Fast breakbeats |
| 180 and up | Hardcore / speedcore | Extreme tempo |
House runs to 130 rather than stopping at 128 on purpose: 128 is the single most common club tempo there is, and an edge below it would have put half of house music on the techno side.
Common questions
What BPM is house music?
House sits between 118 and 130 BPM, and 128 is the tempo most club records land on. Deep house runs slower, around 115 to 125; tech house clusters tightly at 122 to 128. Below about 115 it starts to feel like disco or nu-disco, and above 130 the four-to-the-floor pulse reads as techno.
What BPM is drum and bass?
Drum and bass runs from 165 to 180 BPM, and 174 is close to a standard. The breakbeat moves at that speed while the bassline underneath moves at half of it, which is why the music feels fast and heavy at the same time. Jungle uses the same range with busier breaks.
What BPM is hip-hop?
Classic hip-hop and boom bap sit between 80 and 100 BPM, with 90 as the middle of the road. Lo-fi leans slower at 70 to 90. Modern trap and drill are written at 130 to 160 BPM but felt at half that, which is why a trap beat at 140 counts the same as a hip-hop beat at 70.
What BPM is dubstep?
Dubstep is written at 140 BPM almost without exception, but the snare lands on beat three rather than on two and four, so it feels like 70. Both numbers describe the same record. If you tap along to the snare you get 70; if you tap the hi-hats you get 140.
What is a typical BPM for a pop song?
Most pop sits between 100 and 130 BPM. Chart singles cluster around 120, ballads drop to 60 to 80, and anything built on a dance production borrows house tempo at 120 to 128.
Why does my BPM reading come out at half or double?
Because you tapped a different pulse than the one the producer counted. Both readings are correct — 140 and 70 describe the same dubstep track, they just count it differently. Pick the pulse you would nod your head to, and if you need the other number, halve or double it.
Find the tempo of your own track
The table gets you close. For an actual record, tap along on the counter — four taps and you have the number.
Or let the app do it: BPMcountR hears the beat through the microphone, plays it back as a metronome in any time signature, and keeps every tempo you have measured for the next rehearsal.
BPMcountR — Tap BPM & Metronome
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