50 Rockin’ Music Trivia Questions for the Perfect Team Building Jam Session
If you want to create harmony within your company, a music trivia game is an excellent icebreaker. From princesses of pop to rap royalty, there’s a broad range of genres to cover and lots of fascinating facts you can include in your quiz to facilitate communication and team building.
We’ve pulled out all the stops to create a mix of music trivia questions that will strike the right note with your team so it’s time to face the music!
Dive into a world of trivia excitement! We have multiple categories to help you find one to suit your taste. Experience the thrill of Movies, Sports, Pop Culture trivia, and a hilarious stash of Funny Trivia Questions.
Looking for something more specific? Explore the magical worlds of Disney, Marvel, The Office, Harry Potter, and the cosmic saga of Star Wars. And don’t miss the festive fun with our Halloween and Christmas trivia questions!
1. Why Is a Music Trivia Game So Fun to Play with Coworkers?
Music trivia games are an entertaining way to get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, building rapport between colleagues as they discuss the musical stylings of everyone from Elvis Presley and Fats Domino to Britney Spears and Drake. Easy music trivia questions and answers ensure everyone gets involved, while harder ones will challenge the true maestros.
2. Best Music Trivia Topics to Try Out
2.1. Decades Hits
This category digs into the golden years of music, sampling from the biggest hits of each decade to create a timeline of top tunes.
Q: Which decade saw the Beatles score hits with songs like “She Loves You,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “Hey Jude?”
A: 1960s.
Q: Simon and Garfunkel topped the charts at the very beginning of the 70s with which song, whose lyrics include “When you’re weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes I will dry them all?”
A: “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Q: In what year was “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” released by Band Aid to raise money for the Ethiopian famine?
A:1984.
Q: Which of these hits did not appear in the 90s: “I Will Always Love You,” “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” or “Where Is the Love?”
A: “Where Is the Love.”
Q: Which singer sent people wild in the 2000s with hits like “Just Dance” and “Poker Face?”
A: Lady Gaga.
2.2. Musical Genres & Styles
Does your team know their electro beats from their jazz riffs? These questions explore the diversity of musical genres that you can draw upon for your trivia contest, ranging from hip hop to country.
Q: Which of these hip-hop songs came first: “Rapper’s Delight,” “Fight the Power,” or “The Message?”
A: “Rapper’s Delight”
Q: Which jazz poet and singer is often cited as the “Godfather of Rap?”
A: Gil Scott-Heron.
Q: What does EDM stand for?
A: Electronic dance music.
Q: Which subgenre of rock includes hits like “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Rock the Casbah,” and “Basket Case?”
A: Punk rock.
Q: Name the queen of country music whose songs include “Coalminer’s Daughter,” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” and “Love Is the Foundation?”
A: Loretta Lynn.
2.3. Famous Songs Lyrics
There are some song lyrics that are so memorable that you know them even if you don’t particularly like the song itself. This category is an homage to those inescapable earworms.
Q: Fill in the blanks to this huge 90s hit: “I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now, don’t you know I still believe that you will be here, just give me a sign _ _ _ __.”
A: Hit me baby one more time.
Q: Which rapper wrote a love letter to bottoms that begins: “I like big butts and I cannot lie?”
A: Sir Mix-a-Lot.
Q: Which song namechecks Scaramouche, Galileo, and Figaro in its zany, iconic lyrics?
A: “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Q: Name the song from these opening lyrics: “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there’s nothing left.”
A: “Gangsta’s Paradise.”
Q: Which band sang the lyrics “We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow” in their “Immigrant Song?”
A: Led Zeppelin.
2.4. Music Instruments
These questions will be instrumental in determining which of your colleagues deserves to blow their own trumpet when it comes to their knowledge of the bass and the bassoon.
Q: Which instrument features on Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow?”
A: Ukulele.
Q: John Entwhistle, Flea, and Les Claypool are all primarily known for playing which instrument?
A: Bass guitar.
Q: Which song by Boney M features the balalaika, a Russian stringed instrument?
A: “Rasputin.”
Q: What is the only string instrument you would typically see in a jazz band?
A: Double bass.
Q: The pan flute is played in the pop song “What Do You Mean?” by which Canadian singer?
A: Justin Bieber.
2.5. Music Around the World
Moving away from the Anglocentric world, this topic will test how attuned your team are to musicians from around the world who sing principally in languages other than English.
Q: What K-pop song by Psy went viral globally thanks to its catchy beats and its wacky dance moves?
A: “Gangnam Style”
Q: Who is cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest-selling Latin artist of all time?
A: Julio Iglesias.
Q: Wizkid, Davido, and Burna Boy are all prominent musicians from which country?
A: Nigeria.
Q: With a grand total of seven victories, which country has won the most Eurovision Song Contests ever?
A: Ireland.
Q: Ravi Shankar was a famous proponent of which musical instrument?
A: The sitar.
2.6. Chart Toppers & Records
Some songs, albums, and artists have struck a chord with listeners, propelling them to the pinnacle of the music profession. How well do your team know their record-breaking facts?
Q: What song has spent the most weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart?
A: “Old Town Road.”
Q: Which band or artist holds the record for most number-one singles?
A: The Beatles.
Q: The Beatles are widely considered to be the best-selling musicians of all time globally, but who comes in second place?
A: Elvis Presley.
Q: Only two women have managed the feat of achieving more than 10 number-one albums in the US. Name them.
A: Taylor Swift and Barbra Streisand.
Q: For decades, conductor Georg Solti held the record for most Grammy wins, but which singer finally overtook him in 2023, having notched up a whopping 32 trophies?
A: Beyonce.
2.7. One-hit Wonders
What modern music trivia quiz would be complete without that most questionable of honors, the one-hit wonder? Find out how much your colleagues know about passing fads with this tongue-in-cheek category.
Q: Whose song “99 Luftballons,” known in English as “99 Red Balloons,” became a global hit with its anti-war message?
A: Nena.
Q: What song by Right Said Fred topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the US, but only got to number two in the band’s native UK?
A: “I’m Too Sexy.”
Q: Name the one-hit wonder from the lyrics: “You’ve been around all night and that’s a little long, you think you’ve got the right but I think you’ve got it wrong.”
A: “Mickey.”
Q: We’ve all danced the “Macarena,” but which band was behind the long-lived song?
A: Los del Rio.
Q: Which novelty song was allegedly recorded in just 10 minutes, as it was only meant to be a B side for singer Carl Douglas?
A: “Kung Fu Fighting.”
2.8. Music Festivals
Any true music fan has been to at least one music festival over their lifetime, pitching tents for a weekend of exhilarating live music. This category is a globe-trotting glance into the most famous (and infamous) music festivals in the world.
Q: What Austrian music festival is often cited as the biggest in the world?
A: Donauinselfest.
Q: What English music festival takes place on a piece of land in Somerset that’s almost twice as big as the country of Monaco?
A: Glastonbury.
Q: Which Canadian city hosts the world’s preeminent jazz festival, regularly attracting more than 2 million people?
A: Montreal.
Q: Which African country is home to Mawazine, a huge music festival featuring international artists that is due to make a comeback in 2024 following a Covid-induced hiatus?
A: Morocco.
Q: What now notorious music festival was meant to take place in 2017 in the Bahamas, but descended into chaos, leaving attendees stranded on an ill-equipped desert island?
A: Fyre Festival.
2.9. Music History
Most of this post has focused on modern music, but for this round we’re going to go from contemporary to classical. Hopefully some of these history-based questions will ring a bell with your staff.
Q: “It’s not over till the fat lady sings” has become a common idiom in English, but what classical musical form inspired the phrase?
A: Opera.
Q: Which of these composers wrote the Jupiter Symphony: Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven?
A: Mozart.
Q: What came first in Western musical history: the Baroque era or the Classical era?
A: The Baroque era.
Q: Domenico Scarlatti is rumored to have composed his Fugue in G Minor from the noises made when what domestic animal trod across his harpsichord keys?
A: Cat.
Q: True or false: Beethoven was born completely deaf?
A: False. He began losing his hearing at age 28 and was completely deaf by 44.
2.10. Soundtracks & Movie Music
To finish off our music trivia post, we’ve put together some Qs on iconic movie music to ensure your team has the time of their life – and they’ll owe it all to you!
Q: Which composer is responsible for the readily recognizable musical themes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park?
A: John Williams.
Q: Composer Danny Elfman is famous for his collaborations with which director, who helmed movies like Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow?
A: Tim Burton.
Q: What is the best-selling soundtrack album of all time (not including streaming), having moved more than 45 million copies?
A: The Bodyguard.
Q: One of the most streamed songs on Spotify ever, Lady Gaga and Bradely Cooper duetted on which song from A Star is Born?
A: “Shallow.”
Q: Which of these Bee Gees hits did not appear on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack: “Stayin’ Alive, “Tragedy,” or “More Than a Woman?”
A: “Tragedy.”
3. FAQs
3.1. What is a trivia about music history?
Music is really, really, really old – at least 60,000 years old, to be (sort of) exact. That at least is the age of the oldest instrument ever discovered, the so-called Divje Babe flute, which is a neanderthal flute carved from the femur bone of a bear that was unearthed in Slovenia.
3.2. Are there any music trivia games?
Aside from creating your own music trivia quiz, there are also apps like SongPop, board games like the MTV Throwback Music Party Game, and free quizzes on YouTube that you can employ to create a music-themed evening of entertainment.
3.3. How do people get good at music?
The only way to get good at music trivia is to listen to as much as possible, and we don’t just mean the songs themselves. Podcasts about music history and music styles are a great way to enhance your knowledge of the topic.
