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Test your basic knowledge |
Music Appreciation
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
performing-arts
,
music
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Trade association whose member companies—Universal - Sony - Warner Brothers - Arista - Atlantic - BMG - RCA - Capitol - Elektra - Interscope - and Sire Records—control the sale and distribution of approximately 90 percent of the offline music in the
Aretha Franklin
Prince
RIAA
soul music
2. Prince is one of the most talented musicians ever to achieve mass commercial success in the field of popular music. He has sold almost forty million recordings. Between 1982 and 1992 - he placed nine albums in the Top 10 - reaching the top of the cha
breakdancing
techno
Prince
MIDI
3. Device that records musical data rather than musical sound and enables the creation of repeated sound sequences (loops) - the manipulation of rhythmic grooves - and the transmission of recorded data from one program or device to another.
Dolly Parton
synthesizer
Run-D.M.C.
sequencer
4. The most outrageous—and therefore famous—punk band - formed in 1975 in London. They were the creation of Malcolm McAllen - owner of a London boutique called Sex - which specialized in leather and rubber clothing.
Aretha Franklin
nashville sound
The Sex Pistols
countrypolitan
5. Form of dance music popular in the late 1970s - characterized by elaborate studio production and an insistent beat: Donna Summer - Chic - the Village People - the Bee Gees.
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
disco
M.C. Hammer
Vanilla Ice
6. Music played by San Francisco bands that encompassed a variety of styles and musical influences - including folk rock - blues - 'hard rock -' Latin music - and Indian classical music.
Tupac Shakur
nashville sound
funk music
psychedelic rock
7. From the late 1980s through the 1990s - Madonna's popularity was second only to Michael Jackson's. She created controversial songs and music videos - including 'Papa Don't Preach' (1986) - 'Express Yourself' (1989) - and 'Like a Prayer' (1989).
Grateful Dead
Donna Summer
Madonna
Carole King
8. African American musical style rooted in R&B and gospel that became popular during the 1960s.
The Ramones
sampling
Donna Summer
soul music
9. Founded in 1982 - Public Enemy was organized around a core set of members who met as college students - drawn together by their interest in hip-hop culture and political activism. The group included the standard hip-hop configuration of two MCs—Chuck
Public Enemy
James Brown
Led Zeppelin
breakdancing
10. Began his performing career as a member of the Jackson Five. He achieved unprecedented success with his 1982 album Thriller - and his elaborately produced music videos helped boost the new medium of music videos. Jackson became the first African Amer
techno
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
Michael Jackson
Jimi Hendrix
11. Hip-hop culture - forged by African American and Caribbean American youth in New York City - included distinctive styles of visual art (graffiti) - dance (an acrobatic solo style called breakdancing and an energetic couple dance called the freak) - m
Willie Nelson
hip-hop
rap
sampling
12. Ice's first album - To the Extreme (1990) - monopolized the Number One position for sixteen weeks in early 1991 - selling seven million copies. When it was discovered that Van Winkle - raised in reasonably comfortable circumstances in a middle-class
hip-hop
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
Vanilla Ice
Prince
13. Form of rock music that blended elements of rock and European classical music. It included bands such as King Crimson; Emerson - Lake - and Palmer; and Pink Floyd.
art rock
N.W.A.
Napster
pop rock
14. Sophisticated approach to the vocal presentation and instrumental arrangement of country music; a fusion of 'country' and 'cosmopolitan.'
sequencer
hip-hop
countrypolitan
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
15. 'Glam rock' pioneer who established the character of Ziggy Stardust.
David Bowie
hardcore
The Sex Pistols
RIAA
16. Internet-based software program that enabled computer users to share and swap files - specifically music - through a centralized file server. A federal court injunction forced Napster to shut down operations in February 2001.
Peter Gabriel
Napster
alternative music
Sean 'Puffy' Combs
17. Gangsta rapper born in Long Beach - CA - He was a protaga of Andre 'Dr. Dre' Young and collaborated on Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic. Snoop's soft drawl and laid-back-but-lethal gangster persona were featured on Doggystyle - which debuted at the t
Public Enemy
Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus)
hardcore
Led Zeppelin
18. Parton was born in the hill country of Tennessee and began her recording career at age eleven. She moved to Nashville in 1964 and built her career with regular appearances on country music radio and television.
Patsy Cline
Beastie Boys
Willie Nelson
Dolly Parton
19. Ice's first album - To the Extreme (1990) - monopolized the Number One position for sixteen weeks in early 1991 - selling seven million copies. When it was discovered that Van Winkle - raised in reasonably comfortable circumstances in a middle-class
Madonna
world music
Vanilla Ice
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
20. Kurt KObain's band - Nevermind album
Def Jam
nashville sound
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
Nirvana
21. British hard rock band that formed in London in 1968. Zeppelin's sledgehammer style of guitar-focused rock music drew on various influences - including urban blues - San Francisco psychedelia - and the virtuoso guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix.
soul music
funk music
Led Zeppelin
Aretha Franklin
22. Singer and guitarist who founded the alternative rock band Nirvana. His recordings broke through to the commercial mainstream and popularized grunge rock. He shot himself in Seattle in 1994.
Public Enemy
James Brown
Kurt Cobain
soft soul
23. Genre that developed out of hard rock in the 1970s and achieved mainstream success in the 1980s.
Sean 'Puffy' Combs
heavy metal
M.C. Hammer
Public Enemy
24. Heterogeneous category that includes artists from Africa - the Near East - and Asia—the ultimate margins of the American music industry.
techno
Kurt Cobain
world music
Kenny Rogers
25. Heterogeneous category that includes artists from Africa - the Near East - and Asia—the ultimate margins of the American music industry.
rave
grunge rock
Dolly Parton
world music
26. From the late 1980s through the 1990s - Madonna's popularity was second only to Michael Jackson's. She created controversial songs and music videos - including 'Papa Don't Preach' (1986) - 'Express Yourself' (1989) - and 'Like a Prayer' (1989).
psychedelic rock
Sean 'Puffy' Combs
MIDI
Madonna
27. Variant of MPEG; MP3 enables sound files to be compressed to as little as one-twelfth of their original size.
N.W.A.
MP3
house music
Queen Latifah
28. The 'Godfather of Soul.' He was known for his acrobatic physicality and remarkable charisma on stage. No other single musician has proven to be as influential on the sound and style of black music as James Brown.
James Brown
disco
Kenny Rogers
David Bowie
29. -one of the forerunners of the Grunge genre - originally part of the 'no wave' scene in NY -Many alternative bands such as Nirvana looked up to them -album 'Daydream Nation' was well-received by critics - and then they were signed to Geffen Records -
Nirvana
Donna Summer
MP3
Sonic Youth
30. Device that enables musicians to create or 'synthesize' musical sounds. Began to appear on rock records during the early 1970s.
Beastie Boys
Jimi Hendrix
synthesizer
Napster
31. Prince is one of the most talented musicians ever to achieve mass commercial success in the field of popular music. He has sold almost forty million recordings. Between 1982 and 1992 - he placed nine albums in the Top 10 - reaching the top of the cha
Bruce Springsteen
Donna Summer
Prince
The Sex Pistols
32. The leader of the Wailers and a national hero in his native Jamaica - Marley was reggae's most effective international ambassador. His songs of determination - rebellion - and faith - rooted in the Rastafarian belief system - found a worldwide audien
Tupac Shakur
Bob Marley
nashville sound
disco
33. The term 'alternative'—like the broadly equivalent terms 'underground' and 'independent'—is used across a wide range of popular genres - including rock - rap - adult contemporary - dance - folk - and country music. It is used to describe music that c
alternative music
Vanilla Ice
Kurt Cobain
James Brown
34. Device that standardized digital technologies - enabling devices produced by different manufacturers to 'communicate' with one another.
Sonic Youth
David Bowie
MIDI
Nirvana
35. Rapper from Oakland - California; hit the charts in 1990 with Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em - which held the Number One position for twenty-one weeks and sold over ten million copies - becoming the bestselling rap album of all time.
M.C. Hammer
James Brown
alternative music
art rock
36. Internet-based software program that enabled computer users to share and swap files - specifically music - through a centralized file server. A federal court injunction forced Napster to shut down operations in February 2001.
Napster
Grateful Dead
techno
world music
37. Parton was born in the hill country of Tennessee and began her recording career at age eleven. She moved to Nashville in 1964 and built her career with regular appearances on country music radio and television.
Sonic Youth
Tupac Shakur
Dolly Parton
Carole King
38. Device that records musical data rather than musical sound and enables the creation of repeated sound sequences (loops) - the manipulation of rhythmic grooves - and the transmission of recorded data from one program or device to another.
progressive country
sequencer
sampling
alternative music
39. Pioneered West Coast gangsta rap with the release of the album Straight Outta Compton. Their recordings expressed the gangsta lifestyle - saturated with images of sex and violence. The nucleus of the group was formed in 1986 - when O'Shea ;Ice C
techno
N.W.A.
RIAA
MIDI
40. The most successful white blues singer of the 1960s. Born in Port Arthur - Texas - Joplin came to San Francisco in the mid-1960s and joined a band called Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Janis Joplin
urban folk
soft soul
Kurt Cobain
41. Country music style involving polished arrangements and a sophisticated approach to vocal presentation. The recordings of Patsy Cline were among the most important manifestations of the Nashville sound.
rap
nashville sound
Queen Latifah
Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus)
42. Form of rock music that blended elements of rock and European classical music. It included bands such as King Crimson; Emerson - Lake - and Palmer; and Pink Floyd.
Kenny Rogers
funk music
art rock
synthesizer
43. The term 'alternative'—like the broadly equivalent terms 'underground' and 'independent'—is used across a wide range of popular genres - including rock - rap - adult contemporary - dance - folk - and country music. It is used to describe music that c
sequencer
alternative music
Ray Charles
Nirvana
44. Got his start in the 1960s as a member of the famous folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel. His album Graceland (1986) was a global collaboration recorded in South Africa - England - and the United States. It is the album responsible - more than any othe
Kurt Cobain
Paul Simon
Willie Nelson
Jimi Hendrix
45. Style modeled on that of the early acoustic string bands; probably the original 'alternative country' music.
progressive country
bluegrass
house music
Bruce Springsteen
46. Named after the Warehouse - a popular gay dance club in Chicago - it was a style of techno dance music. Many house recordings were purely instrumental - with elements of European synth-pop - Latin soul - reggae - rap - and jazz grafted over an insist
Beastie Boys
house music
Paul Simon
progressive country
47. The most important woman in the history of hip-hop - in terms of both her commercial success and her effectiveness in establishing a feminist beachhead on the male-dominated field of rap music.
reggae
Jimi Hendrix
Tupac Shakur
Queen Latifah
48. Centered on the creation of a strong rhythmic momentum or groove - with the electric bass and bass drum often playing on all four main beats of the measure - the snare drum and other instruments playing equally strongly on the second and fourth beats
N.W.A.
sequencer
Janis Joplin
funk music
49. British hard rock band that formed in London in 1968. Zeppelin's sledgehammer style of guitar-focused rock music drew on various influences - including urban blues - San Francisco psychedelia - and the virtuoso guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix.
soft soul
hip-hop
Led Zeppelin
hardcore
50. Form of dance music popular in the late 1970s - characterized by elaborate studio production and an insistent beat: Donna Summer - Chic - the Village People - the Bee Gees.
disco
Clear channel
Bruce Springsteen
techno