The tempo chart DJs actually use, plus a tap-BPM tool. Tap along to any track and see exactly which genres live at that speed.
Hit the button (or spacebar) on every kick. Four taps is enough; more taps, steadier reading.
Before key, before energy, before anything else, two tracks have to be close enough in tempo to blend. Most DJs keep transitions within about ±6% of the current BPM (roughly 8 BPM at house tempo), which is why knowing each genre's home range matters: it tells you which genres you can reach from where you are, and where the set can go next.
Genres also drift over time. Techno crept upward through the 2020s; hard techno now regularly lives above 145. Trap producers write at 140+ but the half-time feel reads as 70-something. Treat the ranges below as where each genre lives today, not a law, and remember that a tempo detector reading "70 BPM" and one reading "140 BPM" may both be describing the same track.
Typical tempo ranges by genre, slowest to fastest. "Typical" is where most current releases sit.
| Genre | BPM range | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ambient / downtempo | 60–90 | 75 | Often beatless; tempo can be ambiguous |
| Lo-fi hip-hop | 70–90 | 80 | Laid-back swing, loose quantization |
| Hip-hop (boom bap) | 85–95 | 90 | Classic East Coast tempo |
| Midtempo bass | 85–110 | 95 | Cinematic half-time bass (Rezz school); heavy but slow-feeling |
| Reggaeton | 88–100 | 94 | Dembow rhythm |
| Afrobeats | 100–115 | 108 | Log-drum and percussion driven |
| Amapiano | 110–115 | 112 | Narrow, consistent range |
| Disco / nu-disco | 110–125 | 118 | Live-band era tracks drift more |
| Deep house | 118–124 | 122 | Slower, rounder end of house |
| House | 120–128 | 124 | The center of gravity for club music |
| Tech house | 124–128 | 126 | Tops out the house range |
| Techno | 125–135 | 130 | Peak-time sits 130+ |
| UK garage | 128–135 | 132 | Swung 2-step patterns |
| Breakbeat | 125–140 | 132 | Broken drum patterns, wide range |
| Trance | 132–140 | 136 | Uplifting sits high in the range |
| Dubstep | 138–142 | 140 | Half-time feel; reads as ~70 |
| Psytrance | 138–145 | 142 | Driving 16th-note bass |
| Trap (EDM) | 140–160 | 150 | Half-time feel; reads as 70–80 |
| Hard techno | 140–155 | 148 | Still climbing year on year |
| Hardstyle | 150–160 | 155 | Distorted kick defines the genre |
| Footwork / juke | 155–165 | 160 | Chicago; triplet-heavy |
| Jungle | 155–170 | 165 | Breaks-driven precursor to DnB |
| Drum & bass | 165–180 | 174 | 174 is the de facto standard |
The half-time trap: dubstep, trap, and a lot of modern bass music are written at 140+ but felt at half that. Tempo detectors regularly report the wrong octave: 70 instead of 140, or 85 instead of 170. It's the single most common BPM detection error, and it's why TempoTango runs octave correction on every reading and shows a confidence indicator, so you know whether to trust the number before the track's in your set. Once tempo is sorted, key is the next filter, and that's what the interactive Camelot wheel is for.
House sits between 120 and 128 BPM, with most tracks around 124. Deep house runs slightly slower at 118 to 124 BPM, while tech house pushes toward the top of the range at 124 to 128.
Most techno sits between 125 and 135 BPM, around 130 for peak-time tracks. Hard techno runs considerably faster, commonly 140 to 155 BPM in current sets.
Drum & bass runs 165 to 180 BPM, with 174 the long-standing standard. Jungle sits slightly below it at roughly 155 to 170 BPM.
Both readings describe the same music. Dubstep is written around 140 BPM, but the half-time drum pattern makes it feel like 70. Tempo detectors often report one or the other. This octave ambiguity is why TempoTango applies octave correction and shows a confidence indicator with every reading.
Tap along with the kick drum on every beat. Count the taps in 15 seconds and multiply by four, or use a tap-tempo tool like the one on this page, which averages your tap intervals for a steadier reading.
Tapping gets you close, but for a precise reading you need analysis. DJ software like Rekordbox or Serato analyzes files you own. For tracks you're still previewing on SoundCloud, the TempoTango Chrome extension reads BPM and key in about 40 seconds, on-device, with octave correction built in.
TempoTango reads the exact BPM and Camelot key of any SoundCloud track in about 40 seconds, octave-corrected, on-device.
Add to Chrome for Free First 10 analyses free · No account · 100% on-device