Are you trying to write a killer RnB track but can’t quite make your mind up on what the tempo should be? Perhaps you’ve got a great chord progression or a catchy melody but can’t decide the best bpm to fit the genre? Here at Whipped Cream Sounds, we wanted to find out if there’s a “best” tempo for RnB music. So we took the 50 most popular RnB songs on Apple Music (as of 16th June 2022) and found out the BPM of each.
In this article, we’ll find out if there’s an average tempo you should stick to when writing R&B, how RnB tempo has changed over time and whether the tempo is really that much of an important factor in the RnB sound.
Our list mostly includes songs released within the last 10 years, but there are also tracks from the 2000s, the 90s, the 80s, and even as far back as the old school RnB of the 60s.
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50 R&B Songs Analysed
| Song | Artist | Tempo (Bpm) | Release Year |
| Numb | Marshmello (feat. Khalid) | 120 | 2022 |
| Stand Strong | Davido (feat. Sunday Service Choir) | 96 | 2022 |
| Leave the Door Open | Silk Sonic | 74 | 2021 |
| Monalisa | Lojay (feat. Sarz) | 113 | 2021 |
| Go Crazy | Chris Brown (feat. Young Thug) | 94 | 2021 |
| Hrs & Hrs | Muni Long | 134 | 2021 |
| Take My Breath | The Weeknd | 121 | 2021 |
| Free Mind | Tems | 125 | 2020 |
| Higher | Tems | 103 | 2020 |
| Save Your Tears | The Weeknd | 118 | 2020 |
| Bad Vibes | M.O (feat. Lotto Boyzz & Mr Eazi) | 110 | 2020 |
| Say So | Doja Cat | 111 | 2019 |
| The Streets | Doja Cat | 90 | 2019 |
| Blinding Lights | The Weeknd | 171 | 2019 |
| Under the Influence | Chris Brown | 117 | 2019 |
| No Guidance | Chris Brown (feat. Drake) | 93 | 2019 |
| Be Honest | Jorja Smith (feat. Burna Boy) | 98 | 2018 |
| Better | Khalid | 98 | 2018 |
| Young Dumb & Broke Khalid | Khalid | 137 | 2017 |
| Tread Carefully | SZA | 116 | 2017 |
| Redbone | Childish Gambino | 81 | 2016 |
| Me and Your Mama | Childish Gambino | 118 | 2016 |
| Starboy | The Weeknd (feat. Daft Punk) | 93 | 2016 |
| I Feel It Coming | The Weeknd (feat. Daft Punk) | 93 | 2016 |
| Die For You | The Weeknd | 133 | 2016 |
| In2 WSTRN 98 2016 | WSTRN | 98 | 2016 |
| The Hills | The Weeknd | 113 | 2015 |
| Can’t Feel My Face | The Weeknd | 108 | 2015 |
| Rise Up | Andra Day | 119 | 2015 |
| Loyal | Chris Brown (feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga) | 99 | 2014 |
| All of Me | John Legend | 120 | 2013 |
| Work Out | J. Cole | 93 | 2011 |
| DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love | Usher (feat. Pitbull) | 120 | 2010 |
| American Boy | Estelle (feat. Kanye West) | 118 | 2008 |
| Miss Independent | Ne-Yo | 172 | 2008 |
| Valerie | Amy Winehouse | 106 | 2007 |
| Back to Black | Amy Winehouse | 123 | 2007 |
| No One | Alicia Keys | 90 | 2007 |
| Me & U | Cassie | 100 | 2006 |
| So Sick | Ne-Yo | 93 | 2005 |
| Yeah! | Usher (feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris) | 105 | 2004 |
| Let Me Love You | Mario | 95 | 2004 |
| If I Ain’t Got You | Alicia Keys | 118 | 2003 |
| Breathe | Blu Cantrell (feat. Sean Paul) | 92 | 2003 |
| U Remind Me | Usher | 94 | 2001 |
| No Scrubs | TLC | 93 | 1999 |
| No Diggity | Blackstreet | 89 | 1996 |
| I Wanna Dance with Somebody | Whitney Houston | 119 | 1987 |
| Never Too Much | Luther Vandross | 110 | 1981 |
| Stand By Me | Ben E. King | 118 | 1961 |
Does Tempo Really Matter For RnB Music?
The short answer is no. RnB music is much more defined by the style of chords, melodies, drums, vocals and instruments you use. However, tempo can be important to maintain the style. If you want a slow jam, you wouldn’t want to go above 120BPM for instance. If you wanted a dance track, you would want to go above that.
To put it simply, the melodies and drums are far more important. If you were to write between the average tempo of 80-120BPM – your track won’t automatically sound like R&B music.
For instance, if you were to shred on a guitar and use screamo vocals – no matter the tempo – it will sound like screamo rock.
This is the same with RnB… if you stick to the chords and melodies commonly associated with R&B, the likelihood is, that you’ll end up making an RnB-style track.
What’s The Average Tempo of Modern RnB Music?
By analyzing the data above, we found that the average bpm of R&B music is 109bpm, with most of the songs falling between 80-120BPM. There are some outliers that have high BPMs of 170, however, although written by an R&B artist, these tracks themselves do not fall directly into the category of R&B.
Using the data, we could also say that the best tempo for RnB songs is somewhere between 100-120bpm because, looking at our table again, we can see that 22 songs listed, have a BPM that falls within that range.
The artist with the most songs appearing on this list is The Weeknd, with 8 entries. Out of these 8 songs, 5 fall into the 90-120bpm range (one is 121bpm which is close enough), and the remaining two are 133bpm and 171bpm.
Discover the Secrets to Crafting Stunning Chord Progressions
Say goodbye to boring chords and hello to professional-grade progressions with Building Blocks. Learn to craft smooth, engaging chord progressions with this award-winning course on voice leading and more. All in a familiar DAW environment.
Wait. 171bpm? That’s way out of our range!
The Weeknd song with this high tempo is the track ‘Blinding lights’ and it’s his most successful single! It was the most streamed song on Spotify during 2020 and the second most-streamed song on the platform of all time. It was also the best performing single globally in 2020 and is the longest-charting song on the Billboard hot 100 of all time, remaining there for 90 weeks!
There are two ways you can look at this.
You could say this proves that an RnB track doesn’t need to fall into the 90-120bpm range to be ultra-successful. OR… you could argue that ‘Blinding Lights’ is not an RnB track at all.
Although the Weeknd is an RnB artist, and Apple Music has listed this song under the genre, it’s quite fair to say that this song is actually more in-line with being categorized a synth-wave track, as it doesn’t have many of the qualities that most popular R&B songs have.
| Key Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Average Tempo | 109 BPM (Most songs between 80-120 BPM) |
| High Tempo Outliers | ‘Miss Independent’ (172 BPM), ‘Blinding Lights’ (171 BPM) |
| Tempo Range in R&B | 74-174 BPM |
| Notable Artist | The Weeknd (Most entries, diverse tempo range) |
| Importance of Tempo | Less defining, focus more on chords, melodies, instruments |
| Recommended Writing Tempo | Slow jams: 80-120 BPM, Dance tracks: above 120 BPM |
| Tempo Consistency Over Decades | Remained consistent |
| Defining Characteristics of R&B | Chords, melodies, and instruments more defining than tempo |
What Are The Lowest and Highest Tempos in RnB Music?
The highest tempo R&B song on our list is Miss Independent – Ne-Yo, at 172BPM. The slowest R&B song on the list is Silk Sonic – Leave The Door Open, at 74BPM. This gives RnB music a range of 74-174BPM in its tempo.
Although it has a very high tempo, ‘Blinding Lights’ isn’t the fastest song on our list. That title goes to the 2008 track ‘Miss Independent’ by Ne-Yo, which is 172bpm – beating ‘Blinding Lights’ by just 1bpm!
This song is undeniably an RnB track and was also very successful. It reached the top 10 in both the Billboard hot 100, the UK singles chart and is very well known.
So, if you wanted, you could write an RnB song with a tempo of around 170bpm!
What about slower tempos? The song with the lowest bpm on our list is ‘Leave The Door Open’ by Silk Sonic, which has a bpm of 74. It’s also one of the most recent out of the 50 tracks, being released in 2021.
Some websites say that the bpm of this track is 148bpm, but we think that’s way too fast, and is the tempo counted in double time. If you listen to the track, you can hear that it has a very laid-back vibe and 74bpm is much more fitting with the feel of the track.
If you disagree and think the tempo of ‘Leave The Door Open’ is 148bpm, then the slowest song on our list would be ‘Redbone’ by Childish Gambino, which has a tempo of 81bpm. This tempo falls into our 80-120bpm range, and was an immensely popular RnB track.
What Tempo Should I Start With When Writing RnB Music?
The melodic and harmonic content are far more important than the tempo when it comes to writing R&B music. However, a good range to stick to is 80-120BPM when writing. This is where most popular tracks seem to range between.
The melodic content and vibe are more important because you could write in the rough tempo range of R&B music, and still end up sounding completely different from R&B. Similarly, you could write out of the tempo range and end up sounding more like an RnB track.
Discover the Secrets to Crafting Stunning Chord Progressions
Say goodbye to boring chords and hello to professional-grade progressions with Building Blocks. Learn to craft smooth, engaging chord progressions with this award-winning course on voice leading and more. All in a familiar DAW environment.
For instance, if you were to write a track within the tempo of 80-120BPM, but were shredding on a guitar and using screamo vocals – it would sound nothing like RnB.
The tempo of a track is the least important factor in creating the style of track you want.
Instead of focussing on tempo, find some chords and/or a strong melody and play it at a speed that sounds best to you. Whatever that tempo is, that should be the BPM of your track.
If you’re going for an RnB slow jam, stick to 80-120BPM. If you’re going for a dance-y, upbeat track, go above 120-170BPM.
Has R&B Music’s Tempo Changed Over the Last Two Decades?
RnB music seems to have stayed at the same tempo over the last two decades, with changes in style coming from vocals, chords, melodies, drums, and more. Tempo can be broken, but generally, R&B music seems to stay within a particular range.
The oldest song on our list, ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E. King has a tempo of 118bpm, and our newest, ‘Numb’ by Marshmello (feat. Khalid), has a tempo of 120bpm. The songs inbetween have tempos that fluctuate randomly between 71-172bpm, without any obvious pattern.
Discover the Secrets to Crafting Stunning Chord Progressions
Say goodbye to boring chords and hello to professional-grade progressions with Building Blocks. Learn to craft smooth, engaging chord progressions with this award-winning course on voice leading and more. All in a familiar DAW environment.
What Are The Defining Characteristics of An RnB Track?
It’s fair to conclude that when it comes to the RnB genre, tempo isn’t that important. 80-120bpm is a good range to be in, but you can write an RnB track in any tempo you like. It comes down to the style of chords, melodies and instruments you are using. These define RnB more than tempo does.
Adam is a TV & Film composer who is an avid music theorist. He plays the Guitar and Piano to an expert level, with over 10 years of experience and classical lessons under his belt. He heads most of the Orchestral Library Review Content and Music Theory Tutorial content on our site. Give Adam any task related to chords, scales, progressions, and composition, and he’ll return an absolutely stellar result. Adam is also a Songwriting graduate from BIMM Institute.
