E minor · Camelot 9A · 123 BPM
Seven Nation Army
by The White Stripes
- 123
- BPM
- E minor
- Key
- 9A
- Camelot
- 74
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
Audiences at football stadiums and other sporting events adopted "Seven Nation Army" as a chant long after its release, singing "oh" sequences or an athlete's name to the tune of its riff. That usage drove renewed commercial success for the White Stripes single, which was also used as a theme for teams, personalities, and events including the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Released by V2 Records and XL Recordings on February 17, 2003, the song had peaked at number 76 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the band's first entry on that chart, and went on to earn several platinum certifications. It won Best Rock Song at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards.
Jack White devised the central riff at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne on January 29, 2002, during the White Stripes' Australian tour. Label executive Ben Swank, hearing it, felt Jack could do better and did not think the rhythm was great either. Jack had originally saved the riff for a possible James Bond theme, but gave up on that idea as unlikely and folded it into a White Stripes song instead. Five years later he wrote and performed "Another Way to Die" with Alicia Keys for the Bond film Quantum of Solace. The song was recorded at Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, London, with lyrics written the night before.
Seven Nation Army runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in E minor, Camelot 9A, which shares its notes with G major and mixes cleanly with A minor and B minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.