Eighty music trivia questions with answers, sorted into ten rounds from the 80s to today, rock to classical, a round for kids and a hard round for know-it-alls. Plus how to run a music quiz and add a listening round.
Below are 80 music trivia questions with answers, in ten rounds of eight: one round per decade, rounds for rock, hip-hop, classical, film and TV, instruments and theory, a kids' round and a hard round. Read the question aloud, give players a moment, then reveal the answer. Every answer was checked against the record; where a fact has a year, the year is the release year.
Round 1: the 1980s
- Which Norwegian band had a worldwide hit with "Take On Me" in 1985?
Answer: a-ha - What was the first music video MTV played when it launched in 1981?
Answer: "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles - Which 1982 album by Michael Jackson is the best-selling album of all time?
Answer: Thriller - On which 1983 TV special did Michael Jackson first perform the moonwalk, during "Billie Jean"?
Answer: Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever - Which band released "Sweet Child o' Mine"?
Answer: Guns N' Roses - Which 1985 charity single was recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa?
Answer: "We Are the World" - Which band played one of the most famous sets at Live Aid in July 1985, at Wembley Stadium?
Answer: Queen - Which singer released "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" in 1987?
Answer: Whitney Houston
Round 2: the 1990s
- Which band released "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in 1991?
Answer: Nirvana - What was the Spice Girls' first single, released in 1996?
Answer: "Wannabe" - Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" is the theme of which 1997 film?
Answer: Titanic - What was Britney Spears' debut single?
Answer: "...Baby One More Time" (1998) - Which group released "No Scrubs" in 1999?
Answer: TLC - Which Oasis album includes "Wonderwall"?
Answer: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) - "Macarena" was a worldwide hit for which Spanish duo?
Answer: Los del Río - Which Radiohead album, released in 1997, includes "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police"?
Answer: OK Computer
Round 3: the 2000s
- Which TV talent show made Kelly Clarkson its first winner in 2002?
Answer: American Idol - Which song did Beyoncé release with Jay-Z in 2003 as the lead single of her first solo album?
Answer: "Crazy in Love" - Which band recorded "Mr. Brightside"?
Answer: The Killers - Which duo released "Hey Ya!" in 2003?
Answer: OutKast - "Crazy" (2006) was the breakthrough hit of which duo, made up of CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse?
Answer: Gnarls Barkley - Which singer released "Umbrella" in 2007?
Answer: Rihanna - What was the title of Lady Gaga's 2008 debut album?
Answer: The Fame - Which Caribbean country is Rihanna from?
Answer: Barbados
Round 4: the 2010s to today
- Which South Korean artist's "Gangnam Style" (2012) was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views?
Answer: PSY - Which 2014 Mark Ronson song features Bruno Mars?
Answer: "Uptown Funk" - Which Luis Fonsi song featuring Daddy Yankee became a global hit in 2017?
Answer: "Despacito" - Which Lil Nas X song spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, a record at the time?
Answer: "Old Town Road" - Which artist released "Bad Guy" in 2019?
Answer: Billie Eilish - Who released "Blinding Lights"?
Answer: The Weeknd - Which K-pop group released the English-language single "Dynamite" in 2020?
Answer: BTS - Which Taylor Swift tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time?
Answer: The Eras Tour
Round 5: rock
- Which Beatles album cover shows the band walking across a zebra crossing?
Answer: Abbey Road - Which band released "The Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973?
Answer: Pink Floyd - Which Led Zeppelin song from 1971 is famous for its long build from acoustic guitar to full band?
Answer: "Stairway to Heaven" - Who is the lead singer of The Rolling Stones?
Answer: Mick Jagger - Which band recorded "Bohemian Rhapsody"?
Answer: Queen - Jimi Hendrix was left-handed. How did he usually play a right-handed guitar?
Answer: Flipped upside down and restrung - Before going solo, Harry Styles was a member of which band?
Answer: One Direction - Which band's 1991 self-titled album is often called "The Black Album"?
Answer: Metallica
Round 6: hip-hop, R&B and dance
- Which rapper's alter ego is Slim Shady?
Answer: Eminem - For which album did Kendrick Lamar win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018?
Answer: DAMN. - Which group released the album "Straight Outta Compton" in 1988?
Answer: N.W.A - Who released "Hotline Bling" in 2015?
Answer: Drake - Which French duo recorded "Get Lucky" (2013) with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers?
Answer: Daft Punk - Beyoncé first became famous as a member of which group?
Answer: Destiny's Child - Eminem's "Lose Yourself" was written for which 2002 film?
Answer: 8 Mile - Which singer is known as the "Queen of Pop"?
Answer: Madonna
Round 7: classical and music history
- Which composer wrote his Ninth Symphony while almost completely deaf?
Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven - Who composed "The Four Seasons"?
Answer: Antonio Vivaldi - How many movements are there in "The Four Seasons" in total?
Answer: 12 (four concertos of three movements each) - Which composer wrote the opera "The Magic Flute"?
Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Who composed the ballet "Swan Lake"?
Answer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Which device, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, was the first to record and play back sound?
Answer: The phonograph - Which country won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956?
Answer: Switzerland - With which song did ABBA win Eurovision in 1974?
Answer: "Waterloo"
Round 8: film and TV
- Which Disney film features the song "Let It Go"?
Answer: Frozen - Which composer wrote the scores for Star Wars, Jaws and Jurassic Park?
Answer: John Williams - Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" was written for which film?
Answer: Rocky III - Which band recorded "I'll Be There for You", the theme song of Friends?
Answer: The Rembrandts - Who sang the James Bond theme "Skyfall"?
Answer: Adele - The song "Shallow" comes from which 2018 film?
Answer: A Star Is Born - In The Little Mermaid, which character sings "Under the Sea"?
Answer: Sebastian the crab - Which 1977 film's soundtrack, largely by the Bee Gees, became one of the best-selling soundtracks ever?
Answer: Saturday Night Fever
Round 9: instruments and theory (good for kids)
- How many keys does a standard piano have?
Answer: 88 - How many strings does a standard guitar have? And a standard bass guitar?
Answer: Six and four - How many strings does a violin have?
Answer: Four - How many lines does a musical staff have?
Answer: Five - What does "forte" mean on sheet music?
Answer: Loud - How many semitones are there in an octave?
Answer: 12 - The saxophone is made of brass. Which instrument family does it belong to?
Answer: Woodwinds (it makes its sound with a reed) - What is a song sung to help a baby fall asleep called?
Answer: A lullaby
Round 10: the hard round
- What is Elton John's birth name?
Answer: Reginald Kenneth Dwight - What is Lady Gaga's real first name?
Answer: Stefani - Which recording is the best-selling single of all time?
Answer: "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby - To what frequency is the note A above middle C (A4) tuned in standard concert pitch?
Answer: 440 Hz - What does "a cappella" mean?
Answer: Singing without instruments - How many pedals does a concert (pedal) harp have?
Answer: Seven - What is a group of four musicians called?
Answer: A quartet - Which instrument does a timpanist play?
Answer: Timpani (kettle drums)
Add a listening round: name that tune
Spoken questions test memory; a listening round tests ears, and it is usually the round people remember. Two easy formats:
- Intro round: play the first one to five seconds of a song; players write the title and artist. Shorter clips make it harder.
- Decade round: play clips from one decade only and award a bonus point for the exact year.
If you don't want to prepare the clips yourself, Guess the Song plays short clips of real hits and gives you a few seconds more after each wrong guess. Put it on a TV or pass the phone round. There are separate rounds for the 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s, which pair well with the decade rounds above.
How to host a music quiz night
- Mix the rounds. Alternate easy and hard rounds, and spoken and listening rounds, so no team falls too far behind early.
- Teams of two to five work best; bigger teams leave people out of the discussion.
- Answer sheets, not shouting. Collect the sheets after each round so the fastest voice doesn't win.
- Decide in advance what counts. Is the artist enough, or do you need the exact title? Half points for half answers keep arguments short.
- Keep a tiebreaker: "In what year was 'Bohemian Rhapsody' released?" (1975); closest answer wins.
And if a song in the room has everyone stuck, the song finder names it in a few seconds.