Genre BPM & Keys
A quick reference for starting a track in a new genre: the usual tempo, the rhythmic feel, the sounds that define it, and the keys and modes producers tend to choose. At the end you'll find a tempo-to-delay chart for syncing effects by hand.
Genres overlap and change constantly. These ranges describe what is common, not what is allowed. Many great tracks break them on purpose. For how to build each groove, see Genre Beats.
Key Terms
- Four on the floor: a kick on every beat of a 4/4 bar.
- Half-time: the snare lands on beat 3 instead of 2 and 4, so the track feels half as fast as its BPM. Trap at 140 BPM often feels like 70.
- Breakbeat: a syncopated drum pattern, often chopped from old funk records, that avoids a straight four-on-the-floor kick.
- Swing / shuffle: off-beat notes are delayed for a bouncing feel. See Groove & Swing.
- Mode tendency: whether a genre leans toward major, minor or modes such as Dorian and Phrygian. See Notes & Scales.
Electronic Dance Genres
| Genre | Typical BPM | Time feel | Characteristic elements | Key / mode tendencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | 120–128 | Four on the floor, off-beat open hats | Claps on 2 and 4, piano or organ stabs, soulful vocals | Often minor; Dorian is common; major in more uplifting styles |
| Deep house | 118–124 | Four on the floor, laid-back | Warm pads, extended jazzy chords (7ths, 9ths), round basslines | Minor and Dorian with extended chords |
| Tech house | 124–128 | Four on the floor, tight groove | Punchy kick, rolling percussive bass, vocal chops, minimal chords | Minor, often few chord changes |
| Techno | 125–140 (harder styles faster) | Four on the floor, hypnotic | Driving kick, rumbling bass, repetitive synth loops, industrial textures | Minor or atonal; often one-note or one-chord |
| Trance | 130–140 | Four on the floor, rolling off-beat bass | Supersaw leads, long breakdowns, big emotional builds, arpeggios | Mostly minor, with epic progressions |
| Progressive house | 122–130 | Four on the floor | Gradual builds, layered plucks, long arrangements | Minor and major both common |
| Big room / EDM | 126–130 | Four on the floor, sparse drops | Huge kick, simple lead melodies, festival-style risers | Often minor |
| Future bass | 130–160 (often half-time) | Half-time drops | Wobbling supersaw chords, sidechain pumping, vocal chops | Major and minor; lush 7th and 9th chords |
| Dubstep | 140 (half-time ~70) | Half-time, snare on beat 3 | Heavy wobble or growl bass, sub weight, sparse drums | Minor; Phrygian flavor is common |
| Drum & bass | 160–180 (often 170–174) | Fast breakbeats, two-step kick–snare | Chopped breaks, deep sub or Reese bass, rolling energy | Mostly minor |
| Jungle | 160–175 | Heavily chopped breakbeats | Amen-style breaks, reggae-influenced sub bass, ragga vocal samples | Minor |
| UK garage (2-step) | 130–135 | Shuffled, skippy, kick avoids some beats | Swung hats, pitched vocal chops, organ bass | Minor, soulful extended chords |
| Hardstyle | 150–160 | Four on the floor | Distorted, pitched "reverse bass" kick, epic leads | Minor |
| Amapiano | 110–115 | Laid-back, syncopated | Log drum bass, shakers, jazzy piano, soulful vocals | Minor and Dorian; jazzy extensions |
| Synthwave | 80–118 | Straight 4/4, gated snare | Analog-style pads and arps, big 1980s reverb on drums | Minor, nostalgic progressions |
Hip-Hop, R&B & Urban Genres
| Genre | Typical BPM | Time feel | Characteristic elements | Key / mode tendencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boom bap | 85–95 | Swung, head-nodding | Punchy sampled drums, chopped soul or jazz samples, vinyl texture | Minor; key often set by the sample |
| Trap | 130–160 (felt as 65–80) | Half-time with fast hi-hat rolls | 808 bass with glides, triplet and 1/32 hat rolls, sparse snare/clap on 3 | Strongly minor; harmonic minor and Phrygian flavors |
| UK drill | 138–145 | Half-time, syncopated | Sliding 808s, off-beat snares, dark melodies | Minor, dark |
| Lo-fi hip-hop | 70–90 | Lazy swing, behind the beat | Dusty drums, jazzy chords, vinyl crackle, tape wobble | Major 7th and minor 7th chords; jazzy |
| Modern R&B | 60–80 (or 120–160 felt half) | Slow, laid-back | Smooth vocals, lush chords, sub bass, crisp hats | Minor and major with extended chords |
| Neo-soul | 70–95 | Loose, swung | Rhodes, live bass, unquantized drums | Extended jazz harmony (9ths, 11ths), Dorian |
| Grime | ~140 | Sparse, syncopated | Square-wave basses, cold synths, aggressive MC vocals | Minor |
| Jersey club | 130–145 | Rapid kick patterns in fives | Bed-squeak and vocal chops, triplet kick bursts | Often minor |
Pop, Rock, Latin & Global Genres
| Genre | Typical BPM | Time feel | Characteristic elements | Key / mode tendencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop | 100–130 | Straight 4/4 | Strong vocal hook, clear verse–chorus structure, polished production | Both major and minor; four-chord loops are common |
| Disco / nu-disco | 110–125 | Four on the floor, open hats | Octave basslines, strings, funky guitar | Major and minor; Dorian grooves |
| Funk | 95–120 | Tight 16th-note groove, "the one" | Slap bass, muted guitar, horn stabs | Dominant 7th chords, Mixolydian and Dorian |
| Rock | 110–140 | Straight 4/4, backbeat on 2 and 4 | Distorted guitars, live drums, bass guitar | Major and minor; power chords; Mixolydian common |
| Punk | 160–200 | Fast, driving 8ths | Fast power chords, simple energetic drums | Major and minor; simple progressions |
| Metal | 100–200+ (varies widely) | Often double kick, breakdowns | Heavily distorted, tuned-down guitars, aggressive drums | Minor, Phrygian and harmonic minor |
| Reggaeton | 88–100 | Dembow rhythm (3+3+2 feel) | Dembow kick–snare pattern, deep bass, Latin vocals | Mostly minor; i–VI–III–VII loops are common |
| Afrobeats | 95–115 | Syncopated, bouncing | Percussive grooves, shakers, log or conga patterns, melodic vocals | Major and minor; often bright |
| Dancehall | 90–110 | Syncopated riddims | Distinctive riddim patterns, bass weight, vocal-led | Minor and major |
| Reggae | 60–90 | One drop (kick and snare on 3), off-beat skank | Off-beat guitar or organ chops, heavy bass melodies | Major and minor; simple chord loops |
| Ambient | Free or 60–90 | Often no strong pulse | Long pads, field recordings, slow evolving textures | Major, Lydian and modal; drones |
Many genres are related by tempo. Dubstep, grime and trap sit around 140 BPM; drum and bass at 174 is double the 87 BPM of a slow hip-hop beat. DJs and producers use these relationships to mix genres and write half-time or double-time sections.
- Pick a genre from the tables that you've never produced. Set your project tempo to the middle of its BPM range.
- Program the time feel described (four on the floor, half-time, dembow and so on) using your DAW's drum rack or sampler (Ableton: Drum Rack; FL Studio: Channel Rack; Logic: Drum Machine Designer).
- Add one characteristic element from the table, such as off-beat open hats for house or 808 glides for trap.
- Compare with a reference track in that genre and adjust the tempo and swing until the feel matches.
Tempo-to-Delay Time Chart
To set a delay or reverb pre-delay in milliseconds that matches your tempo, use:
The formula
Most DAW delays can sync to tempo automatically, but this chart is useful for hardware, for plugins without sync, and for setting compressor release and reverb pre-delay by tempo.
| BPM | 1/4 (ms) | Dotted 1/8 (ms) | 1/8 (ms) | 1/16 (ms) | Dotted 1/4 (ms) | 1 bar (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70 | 857 | 643 | 429 | 214 | 1286 | 3429 |
| 80 | 750 | 563 | 375 | 188 | 1125 | 3000 |
| 85 | 706 | 529 | 353 | 176 | 1059 | 2824 |
| 90 | 667 | 500 | 333 | 167 | 1000 | 2667 |
| 95 | 632 | 474 | 316 | 158 | 947 | 2526 |
| 100 | 600 | 450 | 300 | 150 | 900 | 2400 |
| 110 | 545 | 409 | 273 | 136 | 818 | 2182 |
| 120 | 500 | 375 | 250 | 125 | 750 | 2000 |
| 124 | 484 | 363 | 242 | 121 | 726 | 1935 |
| 128 | 469 | 352 | 234 | 117 | 703 | 1875 |
| 135 | 444 | 333 | 222 | 111 | 667 | 1778 |
| 140 | 429 | 321 | 214 | 107 | 643 | 1714 |
| 150 | 400 | 300 | 200 | 100 | 600 | 1600 |
| 160 | 375 | 281 | 188 | 94 | 563 | 1500 |
| 170 | 353 | 265 | 176 | 88 | 529 | 1412 |
| 174 | 345 | 259 | 172 | 86 | 517 | 1379 |
Values are rounded to the nearest millisecond. For triplets, multiply the straight value by 2/3 (a 1/8 triplet at 120 BPM is about 167 ms).
At 120 BPM, a quarter note lasts ms.
At 150 BPM, an eighth note lasts ms.
Drum and bass is most often produced at around BPM.
1. What does "four on the floor" mean?
- Four snares per bar
- A kick drum on every beat of a 4/4 bar
- Four bars of silence
- A tempo of 4 BPM
A kick on each of the four beats is the backbone of house, techno, disco and trance.
2. Trap is often produced at 140 BPM but feels slower. Why?
- The hi-hats are removed
- The kick plays every beat
- It uses a half-time feel with the snare or clap on beat 3
- The track is in 3/4
With the backbeat on beat 3 only, the groove feels like 70 BPM even though the grid is 140.
3. Which rhythm defines reggaeton?
- Dembow
- One drop
- Two-step
- Blast beat
The dembow kick–snare pattern, with its 3+3+2 feel, is the core of reggaeton.
4. What is the dotted 1/8 delay time at 120 BPM?
- 250 ms
- 500 ms
- 750 ms
- 375 ms
A quarter note is 500 ms; a dotted eighth is three quarters of that: 500 × 0.75 = 375 ms.