But what is a "beat?" Music is divided into measures, and the time signature describes how many "logical" beats there are in each measure. Tempo describes roughly how fast each measure of music should be performed. But you can't arrive at BPM by multiplying beats/measure X tempo because the former is a number but the latter is a sensation (generally expressed in Italian).
BPM as calculated for modern use by DJs clearly is not counting all the "beats" as described by the time signature. If it were, the numbers would be much larger than they are. I think they are simply counting drum beats. Sometimes just the louder drumbeats if you've got a complicated or very rapid percussive background (think of Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints").
Wikipedia says (among other things): "Higher BPM values are therefore achievable by increasing the number of drum beats, without increasing the tempo of the music."
Of course, earlier in this same entry, tempo was equated to BPM which was equated to time signature, which flatly contradicts that statement. So perhaps Wikipedia is not the best source for this discussion. It does say right at the top, "THIS ARTICLE HAS ISSUES."
no subject
But what is a "beat?"
Music is divided into measures, and the time signature describes how many "logical" beats there are in each measure. Tempo describes roughly how fast each measure of music should be performed. But you can't arrive at BPM by multiplying beats/measure X tempo because the former is a number but the latter is a sensation (generally expressed in Italian).
BPM as calculated for modern use by DJs clearly is not counting all the "beats" as described by the time signature. If it were, the numbers would be much larger than they are. I think they are simply counting drum beats. Sometimes just the louder drumbeats if you've got a complicated or very rapid percussive background (think of Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints").
Wikipedia says (among other things): "Higher BPM values are therefore achievable by increasing the number of drum beats, without increasing the tempo of the music."
Of course, earlier in this same entry, tempo was equated to BPM which was equated to time signature, which flatly contradicts that statement. So perhaps Wikipedia is not the best source for this discussion. It does say right at the top, "THIS ARTICLE HAS ISSUES."