Music Trivia Quiz: Instruments, Legends, Genres and Festivals

This music trivia quiz covers instruments, legends, genres and festivals, from the piano and Beethoven to Queen, Elvis Presley, Adele, hip-hop in the Bronx, Seattle grunge and Woodstock. Ten questions, 90 seconds, answers explained.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 90 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 90s

Instruments
Which Italian inventor built the first piano around 1700?
Rock
Which band was fronted by Freddie Mercury?
Legends
Who is known as the King of Rock and Roll?
Classical
Which composer kept writing music after losing his hearing?
Instruments
How many strings does a standard violin have?
Genres
Which music genre began at block parties in the Bronx in the 1970s?
Pop
Which singer's 2015 album 25 included the hit Hello?
Genres
Grunge music, made famous by Nirvana and Pearl Jam, came from which U.S. city?
Theory
What does the musical term forte mean?
Festivals
Which famous 1969 music festival was held on a dairy farm in New York State?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which Italian inventor built the first piano around 1700?
Answer: Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker in Florence, built the first piano around 1700. Unlike the harpsichord, it could play both softly and loudly, depending on how hard the keys were pressed.
Q2: Which band was fronted by Freddie Mercury?
Answer: Queen
Freddie Mercury led Queen from 1970 until his death in 1991. Their Live Aid performance in 1985 is often called the greatest live set in rock history.
Q3: Who is known as the King of Rock and Roll?
Answer: Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley sold hundreds of millions of records and starred in 31 feature films. His Memphis home, Graceland, is one of the most visited houses in the United States.
Q4: Which composer kept writing music after losing his hearing?
Answer: Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was almost completely deaf when he wrote his Ninth Symphony, first performed in 1824. Its final movement, Ode to Joy, is now the anthem of the European Union.
Q5: How many strings does a standard violin have?
Answer: 4
A violin has four strings, tuned to G, D, A and E. The most famous violins were made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy, and can sell for millions of dollars.
Q6: Which music genre began at block parties in the Bronx in the 1970s?
Answer: Hip-hop
DJ Kool Herc's 1973 back-to-school party in the Bronx is often called the birth of hip-hop. The genre celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.
Q7: Which singer's 2015 album 25 included the hit Hello?
Answer: Adele
Adele's 25 sold more than 3.3 million copies in the U.S. in its first week, a record at the time. Her albums are named after her age when she wrote them.
Q8: Grunge music, made famous by Nirvana and Pearl Jam, came from which U.S. city?
Answer: Seattle
Seattle's grunge scene broke into the mainstream with Nirvana's Nevermind in 1991. Record label Sub Pop helped launch many of the scene's bands.
Q9: What does the musical term forte mean?
Answer: Loudly
Forte is Italian for strong, and it tells musicians to play loudly. Piano means softly, which is how the piano got its name: the pianoforte could play both soft and loud.
Q10: Which famous 1969 music festival was held on a dairy farm in New York State?
Answer: Woodstock
Woodstock drew more than 400,000 people to Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, in August 1969. Jimi Hendrix closed the festival with his version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Music Trivia Quiz – From Symphonies to Hip-Hop

Music is one of the few things every culture on Earth shares. From lullabies and folk songs to symphonies, rock anthems and rap verses, people have always made music to celebrate, protest, mourn and dance. Music trivia is a great way to see how all these styles connect across centuries.

Classical composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven built the foundations of Western music, and their works are still performed by orchestras around the world. Instruments like the piano and violin, developed in Italy, remain at the heart of music education.

The twentieth century brought an explosion of new sounds. Blues and gospel led to rock and roll, with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard leading the way in the 1950s. Bands like Queen pushed rock into stadiums, while hip-hop grew from parties in the Bronx into the world's most streamed genre.

Live music has its own history. Woodstock in 1969 became a symbol of a generation, and today festivals like Glastonbury and Coachella draw hundreds of thousands of fans every year.

This quiz covers a bit of everything, from music theory and instruments to legends, genres and festivals. You do not need to play an instrument to do well.

Technology has changed music again and again. Records, radio, cassettes, CDs and now streaming have each changed how songs are written and shared. Today a song can be recorded in a bedroom, uploaded the same night and heard by millions of people around the world within a week.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is for music lovers of every taste, from classical fans to rock and hip-hop listeners.

Who invented the piano and how many strings a violin has
Who fronted Queen and who is called the King of Rock and Roll
How Beethoven composed while deaf
Where hip-hop and grunge began
What musical terms like forte mean
Why Woodstock became so famous

Quick Facts About Music

The oldest known musical instruments are bone flutes about 40,000 years old.
Happy Birthday to You is one of the most widely sung songs in the English language.
The Beatles hold the record for the most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
MTV launched in 1981 with the music video Video Killed the Radio Star.
Spotify was founded in Sweden in 2006.
A standard orchestra tunes to the note A, played by the oboe.