Which band's members were John, Paul, George and Ringo?
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The Beatles
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, from Liverpool. Ringo joined in 1962, replacing Pete Best.
Question 2
Who is known as the King of Pop?
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Michael Jackson
Jackson's career ran from the Jackson 5 in the 1960s to solo stardom; the nickname became common around 1990.
Question 3
Which album is widely cited as the best-selling album of all time?
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Thriller
Michael Jackson's 1982 album has sold an estimated 70 million copies worldwide.
Question 4
Who is known as the King of Rock and Roll?
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Elvis Presley
Presley's first national hit was "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956.
Question 5
How many lines are on a standard musical staff?
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Five
Notes sit on the five lines or in the four spaces between them; ledger lines extend the range.
Question 6
Which composer kept writing music after becoming almost completely deaf?
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven's hearing declined from his late 20s. He wrote his Ninth Symphony while nearly deaf.
Question 7
Who had a 1967 hit with "Respect"?
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Aretha Franklin
Otis Redding wrote and first recorded it in 1965; Franklin's version, with "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," became the classic.
Question 8
Which band released The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973?
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Pink Floyd
The album spent more than 900 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Question 9
Who was the lead singer of Queen?
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Freddie Mercury
Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody" and many of the band's hits.
Question 10
How many strings does a standard concert pedal harp have?
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47
Seven pedals change the pitch of each note across every octave.
Question 11
Which country did ABBA come from?
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Sweden
ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with "Waterloo." The name uses the first letters of the members' first names.
Question 12
Who played the closing set at Woodstock in 1969?
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Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix went on Monday morning, after the festival ran long, and played his version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Question 13
What is the musical term for gradually getting louder?
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Crescendo
Crescendo is Italian for "growing." Diminuendo means getting softer; staccato means short, separated notes.
Question 14
Which music style grew up in New Orleans in the early 20th century?
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Jazz
Jazz blended blues, ragtime and brass band music. Louis Armstrong was one of its first stars.
Question 15
Bob Marley is most associated with which genre?
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Reggae
Marley and the Wailers brought Jamaican reggae to a worldwide audience in the 1970s.
Question 16
Who composed The Four Seasons?
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Antonio Vivaldi
Vivaldi's set of four violin concertos was published in 1725. Each concerto pictures one season.
Question 17
Which rapper's real name is Marshall Mathers?
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Eminem
Eminem grew up in Detroit. "Lose Yourself" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2003, the first rap song to do so.
Question 18
How many symphonies did Beethoven complete?
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Nine
The Ninth, finished in 1824, ends with the "Ode to Joy," now the anthem of the European Union.
Question 19
What does "a cappella" mean?
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Singing without instruments
It's Italian for "in the manner of the chapel," from church singing without accompaniment.
Question 20
Which US city is nicknamed "Music City"?
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Nashville
Nashville is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, on the air since 1925, and the center of country music.
Question 21
The cover of which Beatles album shows the band walking across a crosswalk?
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Abbey Road
The photo was taken outside EMI's studios on Abbey Road in London in August 1969.
Question 22
Which songwriter won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016?
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Bob Dylan
The Swedish Academy cited him "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
Question 23
Which instrument does Yo-Yo Ma play?
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Cello
Ma has won more than a dozen Grammy Awards and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
Question 24
Motown Records was founded in which city?
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Detroit
Berry Gordy founded it in 1959. The name is a blend of "motor town," Detroit's nickname.
Question 25
Which instrument usually gives the tuning note for an orchestra?
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Oboe
The oboe plays an A, usually 440 Hz, because its pitch is steady and easy to hear over the other instruments.
Key numbers
Questions
25
Format
Multiple choice, 4 options
Explanations
Every question
Answers
Hidden until you open them
Across genres and decades
Music rounds go wrong when they only cover one person's taste. This set deliberately spreads out: the Beatles, Queen and Pink Floyd; Aretha Franklin and Motown; jazz from New Orleans and reggae from Jamaica; rap; and classical composers from Vivaldi to Beethoven. Most people will know a few cold and have a decent guess at the rest.
Questions about music itself
A few questions ask about the building blocks rather than the stars: how many lines a musical staff has, what crescendo and a cappella mean, and why the oboe tunes the orchestra. These are a good leveler, because band-loving fans and orchestra players each get their moment.
Turning it into a listening round
For a live event, play a few seconds of a song before reading related questions. A short clip of "Respect" before asking who first recorded it, or of "Bohemian Rhapsody" before the Queen question, turns a quiz into a party.
A note on "firsts" and "best-selling": sales figures for older records are estimates, so we only ask about records that are widely agreed, such as Thriller, and the explanation says the number is an estimate.
Questions about the biggest names and the basics of music: the Beatles, the King of Rock and Roll, what crescendo means. This set mixes those with harder questions on classical composers.
Who first recorded 'Respect'?
Otis Redding wrote and recorded it in 1965. Aretha Franklin's 1967 version, which added the spelled-out 'R-E-S-P-E-C-T', is the one most people know.
Can I turn this into a 'guess the song' round?
Yes. Play a short clip before each related question, or play intros and ask for the artist. Keep clips to about five seconds to keep it challenging.