Music trivia questions and answers
30 music trivia questions with the answers and a fact for each: pop and rock across the decades, hip-hop, indie, punk, musicals, ballet, opera and Eurovision. Read them as a quiz for yourself, use them for a pub quiz round, or press the button and play a Music round live with everyone answering on their own phone.
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The 30 music quiz questions
- 1
Which Austrian composer wrote The Blue Danube waltz?
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AJohann Strauss II
It flopped at its 1867 premiere as a choral piece, then became a hit as an orchestral waltz. It plays over the space-station docking scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- 280s pop
'Don't You Want Me' was the UK Christmas number one of 1981 for which band?
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AThe Human League
Singer Phil Oakey reportedly thought it was one of the album's weakest tracks and didn't want it released as a single.
- 3Hip-hop
Outkast, of 'Hey Ya!' fame, come from which US city?
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DAtlanta
In the 'Hey Ya!' video, André 3000 plays every member of a Beatles-style band on an Ed Sullivan-type show.
- 4Eurovision
Fiddle in hand, Alexander Rybak won Eurovision 2009 with 'Fairytale' for…?
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CNorway
His 387 points were a record under the old scoring system, and he wrote the song himself.
- 5Indie
Arctic Monkeys formed in which city?
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ASheffield
Their 2006 debut became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history at the time.
- 6Ballet
The Nutcracker, with its Sugar Plum Fairy, was composed by…?
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ATchaikovsky
The Sugar Plum Fairy's tinkling tune comes from the celesta, an instrument so new that Tchaikovsky had it smuggled into Russia to surprise his rivals.
- 7
The band Coldplay comes from which country?
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DUnited Kingdom
The members met at University College London in 1996 and first called themselves Starfish.
- 82000s pop
Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy' (2006) was the first UK number one earned purely through…?
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DDownloads alone
After nine weeks at number one, the duo deleted the single so it would be 'remembered fondly'.
- 9Bands
Which band released the album Abbey Road?
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BThe Beatles
The zebra crossing on the cover is now an officially listed site.
- 10
What does a conductor traditionally wave to direct an orchestra?
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DBaton
Before batons, some conductors kept time by banging a heavy staff on the floor — Lully famously died after striking his own foot with one.
- 11Musicals
Which musical is set in the Kit Kat Klub in 1930s Berlin?
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DCabaret
It's based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories; Liza Minnelli won an Oscar as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film.
- 12
Which composer wrote the 'Wedding March' traditionally played as couples leave the church?
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BMendelssohn
It comes from his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Queen Victoria's daughter chose it for her wedding in 1858, and everyone copied her.
- 13Hair metal
Which Los Angeles band released 'Girls, Girls, Girls' in 1987?
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DMötley Crüe
On the accompanying tour, drummer Tommy Lee's kit spun and flipped upside down while he played.
- 14Gigs
Burning Man, the desert festival that ends with a giant wooden figure going up in flames, is held in which US state?
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ANevada
It began on a San Francisco beach in 1986 and moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990; the figure burns on the Saturday night.
- 15Eurovision
Bearded drag artist Conchita Wurst won Eurovision 2014 for…?
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AAustria
Her ballad 'Rise Like a Phoenix' ended a wait stretching back to Austria's only previous win, in 1966.
- 16Dance
Maxi Jazz fronted which dance act, known for 'Insomnia' and 'God Is a DJ'?
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DFaithless
Producer Rollo Armstrong is the brother of Dido, who sang backing vocals on the band's early records.
- 17
Which small four-stringed instrument is closely associated with Hawaii?
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BUkulele
Portuguese immigrants brought its ancestor to Hawaii in 1879. The name is often said to mean 'jumping flea', after the players' quick fingers.
- 18Hip-hop
Which rapper's real name is Marshall Mathers?
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BEminem
M&M — say the initials fast.
- 19Punk
New York punk club CBGB's initials stood for Country, Bluegrass and…?
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DBlues
Despite the name, the Bowery club became the launch pad for the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads and Television.
- 20Dance
Which German act spent six weeks at UK number one in 1992 with 'Rhythm Is a Dancer'?
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DSnap!
Its 'serious as cancer' line is regularly voted one of the worst lyrics in pop history.
- 21Grunge
Chris Cornell was the frontman of which grunge band?
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ASoundgarden
Cornell later sang the Bond theme 'You Know My Name' for 2006's Casino Royale.
- 22
Which singer's real surname is Zimmerman?
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ABob Dylan
Robert Zimmerman took the name Dylan, reputedly after the poet Dylan Thomas. In 2016 he became the first musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 23Terms
In a musical score, 'pianissimo' (pp) tells the player to play…?
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DVery soft
Composers have taken it further: Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony contains a marking of pppppp — six p's of near silence.
- 24Albums
Prince's backing band on 'Purple Rain' was called…?
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AThe Revolution
Prince also wrote 'Manic Monday' for the Bangles, crediting it to a mysterious 'Christopher'.
- 25Ballet
The ballet Romeo and Juliet, with its menacing 'Dance of the Knights', was composed by…?
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DProkofiev
Prokofiev originally gave it a happy ending, reasoning that 'living people can dance, the dying cannot' — he was talked out of it.
- 26Bands
Which band's 1964 hit 'You Really Got Me' got its fuzzy sound from a deliberately slashed speaker?
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AThe Kinks
Guitarist Dave Davies cut the speaker cone of his little amp with a razor blade to get the distortion.
- 27
Nashville, Tennessee is famous as the home of which style of music?
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CCountry
Its Grand Ole Opry radio show has run every week since 1925, making it the longest-running broadcast in US history.
- 28Musicals
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats was based on poems by which writer?
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CT.S. Eliot
The poems come from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) — though the show's big hit, 'Memory', was written by director Trevor Nunn.
- 29Pop
ABBA came from which country?
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BSweden
The name is just the members' initials: Agnetha, Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid.
- 30Opera
Puccini's Madama Butterfly is set in which country?
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BJapan
It was booed off at its 1904 La Scala premiere; Puccini rewrote it and the revised version triumphed in Brescia just three months later.
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Music quiz FAQ
Can I use these music trivia questions for my own quiz night?
That is what the page is for. Read them out at a pub quiz, paste them into a work quiz or a family quiz night, and keep the answers hidden until the table has committed. If you would rather not keep score by hand, the button on this page runs a Music round on everyone's phones.
Are the answers on the page?
Yes. Every question has a "Show the answer" toggle with the right option and a one-line fact, so you can quiz yourself first or read straight through with the answers open.
How do I play a Music quiz round live?
Press "Play a Music round". It opens the host page with the Music category already picked. The room shows a join code, everyone else opens huddlequiz.com/join on their phone and types it, and ten questions later there is a winner on the board. No accounts and nothing to install.
Will the live game ask the same questions?
Some of them. The game draws at random from a bigger Music pool, of which this page is a sample, so a live round mixes questions you have read here with ones you have not.
How hard are they?
Mixed. They are written for adults and teenagers at pub-quiz level, so a table of four should get most of them between them and argue about the rest.