"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "The Tourist" by Radiohead. Noticeable climb from quiet to loud. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: introspective, melancholy, reflective. Visual style: early-1990s alternative aesthetic, weathered film grain. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Balanced energy, right in the middle of 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
80
BPM
The Tourist by Radiohead is 80 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 40 BPM · Double-time 160 BPM · released 1997
Fan image for "The Tourist"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
Does this image fit the song?
0 agree · 0 not quite · 0/100 toward next regeneration
Prompts in the running for the next image
Upvote the prompts you think best capture the song. The top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. Submit your own at the bottom.
No listener prompts yet. Be the first to submit one below.
How would you describe this song?
One or two sentences. Describe what the song feels like — a scene, a metaphor, a color, a place. Good descriptions are specific and sensory. Your submission becomes a candidate prompt that others can upvote.
Share:
Share on X
Explore from this song · jump to the numbers · FAQ
Find its sonic twinHidden gems like itDial itSongs like thisAll tools
Song DNA
Notes: The song features a haunting melody with soft, ethereal vocals that create a reflective atmosphere. The layered instrumentation adds depth while maintaining a sense of calm.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: deep listening meditation relaxation
Right in the middle of our energy scale. It’s easy enough to follow without going flat. This one has a big quiet-to-loud range with the occasional gentle turn, multi-layered in texture, with a light, easy vocal at an unhurried mid-tempo. Across the library, it sits more energetic than 35% of songs, calmer than the rest.
affiliate links
Hear it the way it was made
The right gear changes everything.
Moods: introspective, melancholy, reflective
Traditions: alternative rock
Volume Warning
"The Tourist" climbs hard.
Dynamic range 7/10 places this in our upper band. The opening volume that feels comfortable will not be comfortable at the climax. If you are setting this up for a focused listen, anchor your volume to the quietest section, not the loudest. The arc is the point of the song; if you blunt it by riding the volume knob, you lose what makes it work. Radiohead built the dynamic shape on purpose. Plan around it.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 7/10 means this song moves. Expect a real volume climb between quiet sections and the loudest part of the arrangement — enough that you may want to set the initial volume below where you'd normally land.
Sudden changes: mild. There are one or two transitions worth knowing about, though they're musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
Texture is layered — a full arrangement with clear separation between parts.
Predictability is medium — conventional structure overall, with one or two moments that deviate from what you'd expect.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Radiohead's catalog
We have 78 songs from Radiohead in the library. Of those, 7 are rated Safe, 55 Moderate, and 16 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 7/10 sits above the artist average of 6.6, making it the #24 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from OK Computer
We have 11 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
- Paranoid Android — intense DR 9
- No Surprises — moderate DR 6
- Karma Police — moderate DR 7
- Exit Music (For a Film) — moderate DR 7
- Let Down — moderate DR 7
- Lucky — moderate DR 7
- Climbing Up the Walls — intense DR 8
- Subterranean Homesick Alien — moderate DR 6
- Airbag — moderate DR 7
- Electioneering — intense DR 8
1997 context
Released in 1997. We have 389 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.6/10. This track is about average than the year average. Explore more from the 1990s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Traditions
alternative rock · 991Guides that may help
Karma Police: Radiohead’s Eerie Joke About Power and Paranoia
Karma Police began as a band in-joke and became one of Radiohead’s defining songs — a queasy meditat…
How fast is "The Tourist"?
80 BPM — Slow (downtempo / ballad)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 80 BPM.
When "The Tourist" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
✗
Focus / studying
No — too dynamic or too many surprises. Save for active listening.
✗
Running / workout
No — 80 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
✗
Sleep / winding down
No — contains elements that will keep an awake nervous system engaged.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
✓
Emotional release / catharsis
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
I Listened to Every Radiohead Album Through a Sensory Lens — Here's What I Found
Radiohead's nine albums analyzed through dynamic range, texture, and emotional intensity — from Pablo Honey's raw stadium rock to A Moon Sha…
The 10 Calmest Albums Ever Recorded — A low-intensity Listening Guide
The 10 Calmest Albums Ever Recorded — A low-intensity Listening Guide — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
Why Post-Rock Works for Focus — The Logic of Slow Builds
Why post-rock holds attention that slides off everything else: long builds, few sudden changes, and enough happening to occupy the part of y…
Why this rating
We rate this song Moderate because it falls between our Safe and Intense thresholds on at least one dimension. Moderate is the default for most well-produced music that has real arc but no surprise elements. Full rubric: methodology.
This song in the Music Studio
41/100 intensity
See how “The Tourist” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
Listen on
Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-13. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
On our 19k-song scale this lands in the middle band — more energetic than 35% of songs, calmer than the other 65%. Its intensity reading of 41/100 comes from a dynamic range of 7/10, layered texture, mild shifts, and soft vocals. It shares this stretch of the spectrum with thousands of other tracks, so the finer fingerprint below is what really separates it.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is a slow, unhurried pace: more extreme on that axis than 85% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Exit Music (For a Film) — Radiohead · 99%Cortez the Killer — Slint · 99%Let It Down — George Harrison · 99%Disillusioned — A Perfect Circle · 99%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep5/10
Focus10/10
Workout2/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype3/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1997 in context
The 389 songs we’ve measured from 1997 average a dynamic range of 6.6/10. At 7/10, this track is right in line with its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity41
Dynamics67
Tempo22
Surprise25
Density33
Predictability50
Vocal force25
Trigger load25
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "The Tourist"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "The Tourist" by Radiohead?
"The Tourist" by Radiohead has a tempo of 80 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 40 BPM, and at double-time 160 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "The Tourist" by Radiohead?
"The Tourist" by Radiohead rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 7/10, mild sudden changes, layered texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "The Tourist" — what is its dynamic range?
"The Tourist" has a dynamic range of 7/10. Noticeable climb from quiet sections to loudest point. Set opening volume slightly lower than your preferred peak.
Does "The Tourist" have sudden or surprising changes?
"The Tourist" has mild sudden changes — one or two transitions worth knowing about, but they are musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
What is "The Tourist" best for?
In our library "The Tourist" is recommended for: deep listening, meditation, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "The Tourist" released?
"The Tourist" is from 1997, on the album "OK Computer". It appears in our 1990s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "The Tourist"?
We tag "The Tourist" as introspective, melancholy, reflective. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "The Tourist"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "The Tourist" good for running?
Not really — at 80 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "The Tourist" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (7/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "The Tourist" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "The Tourist"?
"The Tourist" is Moderate intensity — fine for most listeners, but with enough dynamic activity that it works best as active listening rather than background.
Songs with the same DNA
layered texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
Safer alternatives with a similar feel
These songs share similar moods but with a gentler sensory profile.
What this song means to people
No stories yet. Be the first.
Share what this song means to you
Keep exploring
Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.