Music quiz questions and answers

34 free music questions with answers across six decades, plus how to spread the years so a mixed room stays in it and no generation sits the round out.

Last reviewed 14 September 2026

How to use this round

The music round is reliably the loudest round in the building and the one most likely to go wrong, for a single reason: whoever writes it writes about the music they grew up with, and half the room did not.

The fix is not making it easier. It is spreading the decades deliberately, with a few from the sixties and seventies, a few from the eighties and nineties and a few from this century, so that every table has a stretch of the round they can win.

These are written to be read out rather than played. If you have sound in the venue, an intros round beats any written music round ever devised; if you do not, this is the next best thing.

Easy

Questions nearly any room will get, spread across eras so no generation is left out of the opening.

1
Which Liverpool band released the album Abbey Road?
Answer: The Beatles
2
Who is known as the King of Pop?
Answer: Michael Jackson
3
How many strings does a standard guitar have?
Answer: Six
4
Which instrument does a percussionist play?
Answer: Drums or other percussion
5
Which band was Freddie Mercury the lead singer of?
Answer: Queen
6
Who released the album 21 in 2011?
Answer: Adele
7
What nationality was the composer Mozart?
Answer: Austrian
8
Which Swedish group won Eurovision in 1974 with Waterloo?
Answer: ABBA
9
How many keys are there on a standard full-size piano?
Answer: 88
10
Which US city is the home of country music?
Answer: Nashville
11
Who sang Like a Rolling Stone?
Answer: Bob Dylan
12
Which band released Stairway to Heaven?
Answer: Led Zeppelin

Medium

The middle of the round. These split a room in a useful way rather than by age alone.

13
Which band released the album Dark Side of the Moon?
Answer: Pink Floyd
14
What was David Bowie's alter ego with the red lightning bolt?
Answer: Ziggy Stardust
15
Which instrument did Miles Davis play?
Answer: Trumpet
16
Who wrote the opera The Marriage of Figaro?
Answer: Mozart
17
Which band's members were named Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris?
Answer: Joy Division
18
What is the best-selling studio album of all time?
Answer: Michael Jackson's Thriller
19
Which group released Wonderwall?
Answer: Oasis
20
How many symphonies did Beethoven complete?
Answer: Nine
21
Which singer was born Reginald Dwight?
Answer: Elton John
22
What does the musical term 'forte' mean?
Answer: Loud
23
Which band released the album Rumours in 1977?
Answer: Fleetwood Mac
24
Who was the lead singer of The Doors?
Answer: Jim Morrison

Hard

For late in the round or a tie-break. A table with a genuine music person will get these and the rest will enjoy watching them try.

25
Which composer wrote The Four Seasons?
Answer: Antonio Vivaldi
26
What was the first music video played on MTV?
Answer: Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles
27
Which band's debut album was titled Pablo Honey?
Answer: Radiohead
28
How many strings does a standard ukulele have?
Answer: Four
29
Which jazz singer was nicknamed Lady Day?
Answer: Billie Holiday
30
What is the name for a musical piece written for eight performers?
Answer: An octet
31
Which Beatles album features the track A Day in the Life?
Answer: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
32
Who composed the Brandenburg Concertos?
Answer: Johann Sebastian Bach
33
Which band was originally called The Warlocks before changing its name?
Answer: The Grateful Dead
34
In music notation, how many beats does a minim get in 4/4 time?
Answer: Two

If you have sound in the venue

Run an intros round instead. Ten clips of five seconds each, name the song and the artist for two points, and it will be the round the room talks about.

Test it in the actual room with people in it. Music sounds completely different in an empty pub, and an intros round nobody can hear is fifteen minutes of nothing.

Spreading the decades

A working rule: no more than three questions from any single decade in a round of ten. It sounds mechanical and it is the difference between a round a mixed room enjoys and one where a third of the tables sit it out.

The other trap is genre. A round that is entirely guitar bands excludes the same people every week just as effectively as one that is entirely from 1994.

Build a music round

Custom packs let you set your own points and timings per question, which is what a mixed-difficulty music round needs.

Start free, no card needed