Know your Bob Dylan from your Backstreet Boys? Or don’t know the difference between pop singers Katy Perry and Taylor Swift? Regardless of your music of choice, if you’re wanting to run an epic music quiz night, we’ve pulled together 100 of the best music trivia questions and answers.
Perfect for an actual pub quiz or a virtual one from home that you can run on Zoom, House Party or any app really, these ten rounds of ten will have your contestants scratching their heads and humming under their breath to find the perfect music answers.
Ready to hit the first note? Let’s go!
80s Music Trivia Questions and Answers
Take them back to the days of punk rock and questionable hairstyles with these ten great music trivia night questions about the 1980’s in this first epic trivia music round.
1. What instrument did Bez play in the Happy Mondays?
2. Which once-great lead singer of The Undertones had a hit with the A Good Heart These Days is Hard to Find in 1985?
3. Which superstar married Sean Penn in 1985?
4. Which hit, whose video famously featured a live-action pencil sketch scene, is surely the most successful Norwegian synth-pop tune of all time?
5. Which hip hop act recorded It’s Like That and a cover of Aerosmith’s Walk This Way?
6. Which Michael Jackson single tells the story of a woman falsely claiming that the protagonist had fathered her child?
7. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure organised Live Aid – but which two bands did they front?
8. Soft Cell were most famous for their cover of which song (later covered again by Marilyn Manson) that spent a record-breaking 43 weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100?
9. About which 1986 hit did band member Pepa latterly say “For thirty years we’ve been telling people the song isn’t about sex, but no-one ever believes us. Honestly, it was about dancing”?
10. Jon, Joey, Jordan, Danny and Donny became the settled line up of which boy band from 1985 until their eventual break up?
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80s Music Trivia Answers
- The Maracas (he was the band’s dancer and de facto mascot)
- Feargal Sharkey
- Madonna
- Take on Me (A-ha)
- Run DMC
- Billie Jean
- Ultravox and The Boomtown Rats
- Tainted Love
- Push It (by Salt-N-Pepa)
- New Kids on the Block
Interesting Fact: Donnie’s little brother Mark was originally in the band before going on to find pop fame as Markie Mark. But he is now much better known as the famous actor Mark Wahlberg.
90s Music Trivia Questions and Answers
Had enough of the 90’s? Challenge them questions and answers about music in the nineties! There are so many good tunes (and music trivia facts!) they we struggled to limit it to only ten!
1. Under what name did band members T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli have hits with Creep and Waterfalls?
2. Which dance band released their debut album, Experience, in 1992?
3. Which Manic Street Preachers song became the UK number one with the longest title not containing any brackets?
4. Where (specifically) was the Fresh Prince “born and raised”?
5. Which Britpop outfit were Caught by the Fuzz but ultimately Alright in 1995?
6. “Forgetting the way you feel right now” and “doing it better than he does it with you” were two of the things that who wouldn’t do in a 1993 song that was number 1 in 28 countries?
7. Which word links the titles of singles by Marcy Playground, Salt-N-Pepa and Color Me Badd?
8. Which dance act had hits with You’ve Got The Power and Rhythm is a Dancer?
9. Which American punk band had their breakthrough with the album Dookie in 1994?
10. The Wannadies, The Cardigans and Butthole Surfers featured on the iconic soundtrack to which movie?
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90s Music Trivia Answers
- TLC
- The Prodigy
- If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
- West Philadelphia
- Supergrass
- Meatloaf (I’d do anything for love, but I won’t do that)
- Sex (Sex and Candy, Let’s Talk About Sex and I Wanna Sex You Up)
- Snap!
- Green Day
- Romeo & Juliet
Rock Music Trivia Questions and Answers
Did they breeze through the previous two rounds? Try some musical trivia questions and answers specifically about rock (‘n roll) music that might be a little more obscure.
1. The characters Tommy and Gina feature in which two Bon Jovi singles?
2. In Don McLean’s American Pie, “the day the music died” refers to the plane crash that killed Richie Valens, The Big Bopper and which other pioneer of rock and roll?
3. Which band’s eponymous debut album in 1969 featured an image of a burning Hindenburg airship?
4. What took place on Max Yasgur’s farm in Sullivan County, New York from 15th to 18th August 1969?
5. Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood are longstanding members of which legendary band?
6. Which rock band, who released their debut album Hybrid Theory in 2000, derive their name from a public space in California, near where they practised?
7. Name one of the three platinum-selling rock guitarists who started out playing together in the Yardbirds in the mid-1960s?
8. Who released the albums Use your Illusion (I and II) and Appetite for Destruction?
9. Which band formed in Syndey, was started by the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young?
10. Which city on the West coast of the US is the home of Sub Pop records and the birthplace of Grunge music?
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Rock Music Trivia Round Answers
- Living on a Prayer and It’s My Life
- Buddy Holly
- Led Zeppelin
- Woodstock
- The Rolling Stones
- Linkin Park
- Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton
- Guns N Roses
- AC/DC
- Seattle
Interesting Fact: Green River were arguably the trailblazing band of Grunge. They, along with Mudhoney, Melvins, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden all came from Seattle. More recently, the Sub Pop label has been home to Foals and The Shins.
Name the Song Music Lyrics Quiz Questions and Answers
It’s a very special category of quiz round that has people belting out their favourite tunes. In this round, we’d suggest you cue up the songs in question on your phone or device, and play a little snippet of the lyrics, to help them guess the answer!
1. Released in 1982 what song includes the lyrics ‘As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti’ and ‘I seek to cure what’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that I’ve become’?
2. Released in 2008 what song includes the lyrics ‘Lay where you’re laying, don’t make a sound’, ‘I know they’re watching, they’re watching’, ‘All the commotion, the kiddie like play’ and ‘Has people talking, talking’?
3. Released in 1995 which song includes the lines ‘Act like you know, Rico’,’I know what Bo don’t know’, ‘Touch them up and go, uh-oh!’ ‘Ch-ch-chang chang’?
4. Released in 1971 which song includes the lines ‘I can’t remember if I cried when I’, ‘Read about his widowed bride’, ‘But something touched me deep inside’?
5. Released in 1956, name the song with the lines, ‘You can knock me down, step in my face’, ‘Slander my name all over the place’, ‘And do anything that you want to do’.
6. Released in 1987 what song includes the lyrics ‘I feel so extraordinary’, ‘Something’s got a hold on me’, ‘I get this feeling I’m in motion’ and ‘A sudden sense of liberty’?
7. From 2005, what song has the lines ‘I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs’, ‘And a bathroom I can play baseball in’, ‘And a king size tub’ and ‘Big enough for ten plus me’?
8. Name the song lines with the following lines that was released in2010 ‘The scars of your love remind me of us’, ‘They keep me thinking that we almost had it all’.
9. Released in 1977, name the song with the lyrics ‘Buddy, you’re a boy, make a big noise’, ‘Playing in the street, gonna be a big man some day’.
10. From which 1984 song would you find the lyrics ‘Got my first real six-string’ and ‘Bought it at the five-and-dime’?
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Name the Song Music Lyrics Quiz Answers
- Africa (by Toto)
- Sex on Fire (Kings of Leon)
- Here Comes the Hotstepper(Ini Kamoze)
- American Pie (Don McLean)
- Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)
- True Faith (New Order)
- Rockstar (Nickleback)
- Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
- We Will Rock You (Queen)
- Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams)
70s Music Trivia Questions and Answers
Now that your participants have tested their vocal cords (for which we’re guessing they won’t win any music awards!), it might be worth going back to a more traditional round, covering the 1970’s.
1. Which singer had a number one hit in 1978 with a song title that is also an Emily Bronte novel?
2. Which artist released the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972?
3. What was the name of the Queen album featuring Bohemian Rhapsody and Love of My Life?
4. Often referred to as CCR, who had a 1970 hit with Have you ever seen the rain?
5. Which legend was found dead on 16th August 1977?
6. Which singer in the 1970s topped the US charts with the single Killing Me Softly With His Song?
7. The theme from which 1971 movie was a hit for Isaac Hayes?
8. Who did Blue Öyster Cult tell us not to fear in 1976?
9. Who released Rivers of Babylon, Ra Ra Rasputin and Mary’s Boy Child?
10. Which vowel-less Florida band had a hit with Free Bird?
70s Music Trivia Answers
- Kate Bush (Wuthering Heights)
- David Bowie
- A Night at the Opera
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Elvis Presley
- Roberta Flack
- Shaft
- The Reaper
- Boney M
- Lynyrd Skynyrd
Interesting Fact: The band named themselves after their P.E. teacher Leonard Skinner, whom they didn’t like as he insisted their long hair was not allowed at school, leading to multiple suspensions for the band members.
Band Names Quiz Questions and Answers
There are some particularly strange band names out there, the origins of which we’d love to dive into. Test the knowledge of your contestants with some of these epic music questions relating to band names:
1. Which band name was inspired by the cramped accommodation they stayed in whilst recording their debut album in 1985?
2. Which noughties indie band was named after a South African professional football team?
3. Which band took its name from graffiti about a local prison that they saw in a Berlin nightclub?
4. Which 90s British indie band was named after a famous character from a Harper Lee novel?
5. Which band were supposed to be called Eric and the Dynamos but, when the previous act announced this incorrectly at a show in 1970, stuck with the new name?
6. Which mega US rock band are named after a nickname for UFOs?
7. Which British band is named after the man whose assassination started World War One?
8. Which American pop-rock band, fronted by Ana Matronic, took their name from a female, same-sex sexual activity?
9. Which 90s hip hop collective took their name from a 1978 Kung Fu film? Several of the rappers also took their individual stage names from films of the same period and genre.
10. Which hugely influential British band of the late 70s and early 80s, were named after Nazi prostitution rings?
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Band Names Quiz Round Answers
- Crowded House
- Kaiser Chiefs
- Spandau Ballet
- The Boo Radleys
- Derek and the Dominoes
- Foo Fighters
- Franz Ferdinand
- Scissor Sisters
- Wu Tang Clan
- Joy Division
Noughties Music Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers
It’s time for pop music, an overload of Justin Timberlake and everything ‘millennium’ with this round of ten music trivia questions and answers for the 2000s.
1. Which song begins with the line ‘Stop making the eyes at me, I’ll stop making the eyes at you’?
2. In a number one hit song, who gave Rikrok advice on what to say to his girlfriend when he was caught cheating?
3. The UK suffered extreme rainfall and flooding in 2007, coinciding with which song’s ten week stay at number one?
4. Which singer, who had the best-selling UK album of 2005, has latterly become famous for his self-deprecating humour on twitter?
5. More famous for his work in another group, who sought to change musical direction by founding the rock band Fightstar?
6. Which band sang Hey There Delilah in 2005?
7. Pure Shores by All Saints was written for the soundtrack of which Danny Boyle film?
8. A track by Crazy Frog vs The Baha Men managed to combine two of the worst songs of the decade into something even more awful. Predictably, what was the track title?
9. Which rapper’s breakthrough album was Get Rich or Die Tryin’?
10. The first (real) words of which smash hit are ‘I wanna hold’em like they do in Texas, please’?
Noughties Music Trivia Quiz Answers
- I bet that you look good on the dancefloor (Arctic Monkeys)
- Shaggy (It wasn’t me)
- Umbrella (Rihanna)
- James Blunt
- Charlie Simpson (Busted)
- Plain White Ts
- The Beach
- Who Let the Frog Out?
- 50 Cent
- Poker Face (Lady Gaga)
Name the Artist Quiz Questions and Answers
One of the best music trivia games is to name the artist based on their ‘birth name’, often with hilarious effect. We’ve gathered ten of the best ‘name the artist’ musician trivia questions, to challenge your contestants:
1. With the real name Sean Combs, name one of his many stage names.
2. Reginald Dwight is the real name of which flamboyant performer?
3. Which music legend was actually born with the name Robert Zimmerman?
4. Richard Starkey is the real name of which famous music drummer?
5. Shawn Carter is the real name of who?
6. Which singer’s real name is Stefani Germanotta?
7. Name the stage name of Onika Miraj.
8. The Marshall Mathers LP, was the third album and also real name of which rapper?
9. Farrokh Bulsara is the birth name of which lead singer?
10. Which artist’s real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam?
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Name the Artist Quiz Answers
- Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Puffy or Diddy
- Elton John
- Bob Dylan
- Ringo Starr
- Jay-Z
- Lady Gaga
- Nikki Minaj
- Eminem
- Freddie Mercury
- M.I.A.
Music Trivia Questions and Answers on Artists of Yesteryear
Yes its posthumous, but its worth cracking a nod to those great performers and famous musicians who have passed on, in this penultimate round of slightly hard questions and answers.
1. Which rapper has released 5 platinum albums of new material since his death in September 1996?
2. Whose 1992 suicide note contained the Neil Young lyrics ‘Better to burn out than to fade away’?
3. Who signed an autograph for his killer on the day of his murder in 1980?
4. Which singer died in June 2020, 83 years after her first studio recordings?
5. Which member of the Bee Gees has stayed alive the longest – Barry, Robin or Maurice Gibb?
6. What was unusual about My Sweet Lord replacing More than a Woman as UK number one in January 2002?
7. The internet felt that which year, when Prince, David Bowie and Lemmy from Motörhead (amongst many other celebrities) died, was cursed?
8. Whose father, who died in 1977, and ex-husband, who died in 2009, sold well over 100 million records between them?
9. How old were Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Janice Joplin and Jimi Hendrix when they died?
10. Brian Jones, who died in 1969, was the founder of which band?
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Music Trivia Answers on Artists of Yesteryear
- Tupac Shakur (2Pac)
- Kurt Cobain
- John Lennon
- Vera Lynn
- Barry
- Both artists (George Harrison and Aaliyah) were dead
- 2016
- Lisa-Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis, married Michael Jackson)
- 27
- The Rolling Stones
Interesting Fact: Brian Jones recruited Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and came up with the band’s name. As their fame grew, his relationship with the rest of the band soured. He lived in Winnie The Pooh author A.A. Milne’s house where he drowned in the swimming pool aged 27.
General Knowledge Music Trivia Questions and Answers
You’ve come to the last and final round of artist and song trivia questions; so we thought you should leave them with a general knowledge round, full of questions from musical instruments to monstrous
1. Which two words spent 11 consecutive weeks at number 1 in the UK in 1975/6? They are the title of an ABBA song and a famous lyric from a Queen hit.
2. What song title was a hit for Huey Lewis and The News, Jennifer Rush and Frankie Goes to Hollywood?
3. Which martial art was the subject of a 1974 Carl Douglas song?
4. Which French duo recorded One More Time and Get Lucky?
5. Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Melody Thornton and Kimberly Wyatt are not the most famous member of which band?
6. Which rapper headlined Glastonbury in 2019?
7. Who was the only artist to have a UK number one in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s?
8. A photo of which singer with a newly shaved head sold for $500,000 in 2007?
9. Which singer’s family rejected a move to use his one of his most famous songs to promote a haemorrhoid ointment in 2004?
10. Which rock band were known as Airplane in the 60s and Starship in the 80s, with a few changes in personnel and musical direction along the way?
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General Knowledge Music Trivia Answers
- Mamma Mia
- The Power of Love
- Kung Fu (Fighting)
- Daft Punk
- The Pussycat Dolls
- Stormzy
- Cliff Richard
- Britney Spears
- Johnny Cash (Ring of Fire)
- Jefferson
Interesting fact: Jefferson Airplane were a psychedelic rock band who played at Woodstock, famous for Somebody to Love and White Rabbit. They morphed into Jefferson Starship and then Starship, undergoing a seismic change in musical direction. Latterly they enjoyed more success with We Built This City on Rock and Roll and Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now from the movie Mannequin.
So, how did they do? We hope your contestants enjoyed this epic musical quiz, and learned a thing or two along the way.
Did we miss any key questions off the list? Please do get in touch or just drop a note in the comments below!
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