Meanspeed Music research is centered around the math formula (√60 seconds) x 10-1, and features a database of the precise speeds of 15000 selected songs. We expose, describe and illustrate a pattern of order within the seeming chaos of music tempo. Unlike other beats per minute websites, we measure every speed and vouch for every measurement.
The patterns were first noticed in the course of some intensive rhythm-exercises at the piano. I found myself wanting to understand the basis of a phenomenon that had always interested me. That was how even subtle changes in tempo can alter the mood of a given piece. I began to take notice of the tempo of popular songs, randomly at first. Then later I became more methodical, using stop watches and multiple timings to arrive at accurate measurements of beats-per-minute.
The results suggested the presence of an underlying logic. I understood that a large sample would be necessary before I could come to any real conclusions. So I began to compile an extensive database of popular songs, which I then sorted by tempo. This project took more than 4 years. When the database stood at about 200 song-titles I saw the patterns that are the basis of the meanspeed conjecture.
What I saw were clusters of songs with similar moods. Emotions identified in the songs' titles and lyrics corresponded to certain bpm (beats per minute). The divisions were clear and critical. I found that adding or subtracting even a few beats per minute, and the song entered a whole new category. These categories were not always predictable. Mathematically contiguous tempos were sometimes aligned with unlike emotions. The evidence suggested a complex scale or spectrum, something quite different from the crude intuition many listeners have that "fast equals happy, slow equals sad."
These findings are unprecedented. Until the meanspeed conjecture, no one had ever assigned specific tempi in 4/4 songs to emotion and expression. It had always been thought that "a number in itself has no meaning" (Brahms). A deep structure has been exposed, with limitless applications in aesthetics and entertainment.
Seeking independent confirmation of the measurements themselves, I mailed hundreds of pages of hardcopy - lists, formulas, charts, notes - to the best in academia. Using the pre-internet technologies of 15 years ago, I had contacts with and response from Bruno Repp of Yale, Dr. Manfred Clynes of Sentics, Dr. Russell Van Gelder of Washington and Stanford University, and the musician, physicist and professor, Dr. Dan Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music who agreed that my numbers are accurate to within .017% of the master digital source. From that, MeanSpeed LLC was born and incorporated in New York August 31, 2001.
The database has grown to approximately 15,000 titles. With that, I find further confirmation of my basic hypothesis. Some anomalies do occur (songs whose lyrics seem at variance with the tempo-mood), but closer analysis shows either an intentional "irony" (tension) or a composition-history of "switching" (new lyrics grafted onto an old musical vehicle).
It is our hope that as we go forward with our studies it will enhance the enjoyment of music and a musician's ability to express himself, as the "emotional palette" is more commonly understood and used. To the extent that the findings herein are accepted as truth, application of the concepts has no limit.
Sincerely,