40 Music Trivia Questions and Answers
From rickrolls and robot helmets to movie themes and surprising instruments. Guess first, then flip the card to check.
Music trivia: four rounds
Each round has ten questions. Start with familiar hits, or use the list to pick a film, artist or instrument question for your group.
Crowd-pleasers
Two stomps and a clap: which Queen song can a whole stadium join without knowing a verse?#1Show Answer
We Will Rock You
A suspicious link suddenly opens a Rick Astley video. Which song have you probably been sent?#2Show Answer
Never Gonna Give You Up — the song used for a rickroll
Which band puts the animated characters 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel in front of its music?#3Show Answer
Gorillaz
Which French electronic duo made robot helmets as recognizable as its songs?#4Show Answer
Daft Punk
Which Swedish group won Eurovision with Waterloo before giving the world Dancing Queen?#5Show Answer
ABBA
19, 21, 25 and 30 are album titles by which singer?#6Show Answer
Adele
Beyoncé introduced a bolder stage alter ego with her 2008 double album. What was that persona called?#7Show Answer
Sasha Fierce
Which singer turned a newly acquired drivers license into the title of her 2021 breakthrough single?#8Show Answer
Olivia Rodrigo
Which singer's Piano Man introduces a bartender named John and a would-be novelist named Paul?#9Show Answer
Billy Joel
Blinding Lights and Save Your Tears are hits by which artist whose stage name leaves an e out of weekend?#10Show Answer
The Weeknd
Music on screen
Which singer supplied Dance the Night for the pink dance party in Barbie?#11Show Answer
Dua Lipa
Who sings the James Bond theme No Time to Die?#12Show Answer
Billie Eilish
Which Bond film shares its name with Adele's Oscar-winning theme song?#13Show Answer
Skyfall
Which singer recorded the 1984 Ghostbusters theme, complete with the familiar telephone-call question?#14Show Answer
Ray Parker Jr.
Survivor's Eye of the Tiger was written for which numbered Rocky film?#15Show Answer
Rocky III
Which Smash Mouth song plays over Shrek's opening swamp routine?#16Show Answer
All Star
Which singer recorded My Heart Will Go On for Titanic?#17Show Answer
Céline Dion
Who wrote the songs for Encanto, including We Don't Talk About Bruno?#18Show Answer
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Hedwig's Theme comes from which film series, even though its melody isn't reserved for the owl?#19Show Answer
Harry Potter
Julie Andrews teaches the von Trapp children through Do-Re-Mi in which musical film?#20Show Answer
The Sound of Music
Names, masks and second lives
Ziggy Stardust was an onstage alter ego of which musician?#21Show Answer
David Bowie
Which Queen guitarist also completed a PhD in astrophysics?#22Show Answer
Brian May
Which musician was billed as an unpronounceable symbol during part of the 1990s?#23Show Answer
Prince
Which singer and rapper is also a trained flautist and has performed with a flute she calls Sasha Flute?#24Show Answer
Lizzo
Which singer released studio albums named +, ×, ÷, = and −?#25Show Answer
Ed Sheeran
Which artist turned Michael Jackson's Beat It into the food-themed parody Eat It?#26Show Answer
Weird Al Yankovic
The members of which rock band use the stage names Starchild, Demon, Spaceman and Catman?#27Show Answer
KISS
Which singer changed from a Disney double life as Hannah Montana to a solo career that includes Flowers?#28Show Answer
Miley Cyrus
Which duo is made up of André 3000 and Big Boi and released Hey Ya! and Ms. Jackson?#29Show Answer
Outkast
Which metal band joined the San Francisco Symphony to record the live album S&M in 1999?#30Show Answer
Metallica
Strange sounds and instruments
Which electronic instrument lets you change pitch by moving a hand near an antenna without touching it?#31Show Answer
The theremin
A saxophone is usually made of brass. Does it belong to the brass or woodwind family?#32Show Answer
Woodwind — its sound starts with a vibrating reed
Which pitched percussion instrument developed in Trinidad and Tobago from metal containers such as oil drums?#33Show Answer
The steelpan, also called a steel drum
Which small wind instrument makes a cartoon-like rising or falling sound when you move its plunger?#34Show Answer
A slide whistle
What is the clamp on a guitar neck that shortens all the strings at once, letting familiar chord shapes sound higher?#35Show Answer
A capo
What can a jazz drummer use instead of sticks to sweep softly across a snare drum?#36Show Answer
Drum brushes
Which plucked string instrument has a stretched membrane that looks rather like a small drum?#37Show Answer
The banjo
Inside a traditional mechanical music box, pins pluck the teeth of what vibrating metal part?#38Show Answer
A steel comb
Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica makes music from rotating glass bowls. What do the player's fingers need to be?#39Show Answer
Wet, so they can rub the glass rims and make them vibrate
What is the name for making drum-machine-like rhythms and percussion sounds with your mouth?#40Show Answer
Beatboxing
Make a round of it
Read one question aloud and give everyone a chance to guess before revealing the answer.
Use ten questions for a quick round, with one point for each correct answer.
For band and film questions, decide whether shortened names count before you start.
Take turns hosting so one person does not have to read every answer.
Keep playing
Try song bingo, another question set or a game board for your next round.