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Test your basic knowledge |
Music
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. At the age of twenty-one - introduced 'I Got Rhythm' in the stage show Girl Crazy written by George Gershwin.
Ethel Merman
Glenn Miller
George Gershwin
Ragtime
2. Black female vocal group who were featured artists with Motown Records in the 1960s. Their song 'You Can't Hurry Love' was a Number One hit in 1966.
Scat singing
Frank Sinatra
Beach Boys
The Supremes
3. Founded in California in 1961 - they popularized the 'California sound' in the early 1960s. Their hit songs included 'Surfin' Safari -' 'Surfer Girl -' 'California Girls -' 'Surfin' USA' and 'Good Vibrations.'
Sheet music
Beach Boys
soul music
'The twist'
4. Album conceived as an integrated whole - with interrelated songs arranged in a deliberate sequence.
Cover version
Concept album
Hank Williams
The Rolling Stones
5. A style rooted in the venerable southern string band tradition. It combines the banjo - fiddle - mandolin - dobro - guitar - and acoustic bass with a vocal style often dubbed the 'high - lonesome sound.' The pioneer of bluegrass music was Bill Monroe
Janis Joplin
Rock 'n' Roll
Buddy Holly
Bluegrass
6. Pianist - composer - arranger - and bandleader; widely regarded as one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century. As a composer and arranger - he devised unusual musical forms - combined instruments in unusual ways - and creat
Duke Ellington
Bessie Smith
Aretha Franklin
Crooning
7. The B section of AABA song form found in the refrain of a Tin Pan Alley song. The bridge presents new material: a new melody - chord changes - and lyrics.
Duke Ellington
Reverb
Phil Spector
Bridge
8. A musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
Syncopation
Reverb
Major/Minor
Melody
9. The most significant single figure to emerge in country music during the immediate post-World War II period. Williams wrote and sang many songs in the course of his brief career that were enormously popular with country audiences at the time; between
Hank Williams
cadence
Dick Clark
Ray Charles
10. In the verse-refrain song - the refrain is the 'main part' of the song - usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
Classic blues
Les Paul
Cakewalk
Refrain
11. Clarinetist and popular band leader; known as the 'King of Swing.' His popularity and the success of his band helped establish the swing era in the early 1930s. He was the first white bandleader to hire black musicians in his band
Benny Goodman
phrase
Ethel Merman
Sheet music
12. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Big Band
The Supremes
Banjo
Verse
13. African American composer and pianist; the best-known composer of ragtime music. Between 1895 and 1915 - Joplin composed many of the classics of the ragtime repertoire and helped popularize the style through his piano arrangements - published as shee
James Brown
Benny Goodman
Scott Joplin
Herman Parker
14. Country vocalist who scored crossover hits with songs such as 'I Fall to Pieces -' and 'Crazy -' both recorded in 1961.
Cakewalk
Disc Jockeys
Elvis Presley
Patsy Cline
15. Dubbed the 'first tycoon of teen -' his studio production techniques are known as the 'wall of sound' because of his utilization of dense orchestrations - multiple instruments - and heavy reverb.
Glenn Miller
Electronic recording
Timbre
Phil Spector
16. A recurrent rhythmical series
The Beatles
cadence
Acoustic recording
Scott Joplin
17. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Diana Ross
phrase
Patsy Cline
Lyrics
18. The principal medium for disseminating popular sings until the advent of recording in the 1890s.
Sheet music
Minstrel Show
Herman Parker
The Rolling Stones
19. Host of the popular teen-oriented television show American Bandstand
Bel canto
Dick Clark
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
20. Founded in California in 1961 - they popularized the 'California sound' in the early 1960s. Their hit songs included 'Surfin' Safari -' 'Surfer Girl -' 'California Girls -' 'Surfin' USA' and 'Good Vibrations.'
A cappella
Syncopation
Aretha Franklin
Beach Boys
21. Blues piano tradition that sprang up during the early twentieth century in the 'southwest territory' states of Texas - Arkansas - Missouri - and Oklahoma. In boogie-woogie performances - the pianist typically plays a repeated pattern with his left ha
urban folk
Lyricist
Boogie Woogie
Les Paul
22. Short for reverberation. An effect produced with an electronic device that adds a time delay to a sound and then adds it back to the signal.
Ray Charles
Reverb
Cakewalk
Big Band
23. A version of a previously recorded performance; often an adaptation of the original's style and sensibility - and usually aimed at cashing in on its success.
Benny Goodman
Form
Cover version
Race Records
24. Known as the 'Genius of Soul'; songwriter - arranger - keyboard player - and vocalist fluent in R&B - jazz - and mainstream pop.
Verse
Ray Charles
Hook
Big Band
25. Describes a song where the stanzas are all sung to the same music
Brian Wilson
Refrain
Strophic
12-bar Blues
26. The quality of a sound - sometimes called 'tone color.'
George Gershwin
Bessie Smith
Timbre
Tempo
27. Founded in 1914 in an attempt to force all business establishments that featured live music to pay fees ('royalties') for the public use of music.
ASCAP
Brian Wilson
Paul Whiteman
Beat
28. Born in Hoboken New Jersey into a working-class Italian family. His singing style combined the crooning style of Bing Crosby with the bel canto technique of Italian opera.
Rock 'n' Roll
The Beatles
Frank Sinatra
Aretha Franklin
29. 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.
Bob Dylan
Scott Joplin
Herman Parker
James Brown
30. Vigorous form of country and western music informed by the rhythms of black R&B and electric blues. Exemplified by artists such as Carl Perkins and the young Elvis Presley.
Tin Pan Alley
Rockabilly
Patsy Cline
Bessie Smith
31. Known as 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll -' the biggest star to come from the country side of the music world. Born in Tupelo - Mississippi - made his first recordings in Memphis at Sun Records - and later recorded for RCA and became a Hollywood film star
Elvis Presley
Arranger
Concept album
Bluegrass
32. The quality of a sound - sometimes called 'tone color.'
A cappella
Timbre
Melody
Scott Joplin
33. Singer - songwriter - and harmonica player who achieved some success with his R&B band - Little Junior's Blue Flames; recorded 'Mystery Train' for Sam Phillips's Sun label.
The Rolling Stones
phrase
Herman Parker
Producer
34. A person who writes the words for songs
12-bar Blues
motive
Banjo
Lyricist
35. A memorable musical phrase or riff.
Rockabilly
Les Paul
Hook
Benny Goodman
36. Founder of Motown Records.
Beach Boys
Chuck Berry
Berry Gordy - Jr.
soul music
37. Played records and provided entertaining patter on the radio.
Chuck Berry
Disc Jockeys
Major/Minor
Syncopation
38. 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.
Melody
Nashville sound
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Phil Spector
39. Pitched/unpitched - dynamic - timbre or tone color
Ethel Merman
Sheet music
sound
Melody
40. A style of singing made possible by the invention of the microphone. It involves an intimate approach to vocal timbre.
Timbre
Dick Clark
Crooning
Patsy Cline
41. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Big Band
Bel canto
AABA form
phrase
42. Vigorous form of country and western music informed by the rhythms of black R&B and electric blues. Exemplified by artists such as Carl Perkins and the young Elvis Presley.
Syncopation
Harmony
Payola
Rockabilly
43. Early rock 'n' roll guitarist - singer - and songwriter from the country/rockabilly side of rock 'n' roll. Killed tragically at the age of twenty-two in a plane crash.
Buddy Holly
Blues
Herman Parker
Melody
44. African American musical genre that emerged after World War II. Consisted of a loose cluster of styles derived from black musical traditions - characterized by energetic and hard-swinging rhythms. At first performed exclusively by black musicians for
Lyricist
Timbre
Buddy Holly
R&B
45. A recurrent rhythmical series
Countrypolitan
cadence
Arranger
Scat singing
46. Nickname for a stretch of 28th Street in New York City where music publishers had their offices—a dense hive of small rooms with pianos where composers and 'song pluggers' produced and promoted popular songs. The term - which evoked the clanging soun
Tin Pan Alley
Big Band
The Supremes
Melody
47. One of the most common structures that Tin Pan Alley composers used to organize their melodic and harmonic material. This structure would be found in the refrain of a verse-refrain song.
Classic blues
sound
AABA form
Arranger
48. Rock group from Liverpool - England - who dominated American popular music during the mid-1960s and started the 'British Invasion.' The band included John Lennon and George Harrison on lead and rhythm guitars and vocals - Paul McCartney on bass and v
The Beatles
James Brown
Classic blues
cadence
49. The first successful singing cowboy; born in Texas - He was a successful film star and a popular country and western musician. Helped establish the 'western' component of country and western music. Developed a style designed to reach out to a broader
Cakewalk
Bessie Smith
Minstrel Show
Gene Autry
50. The word derives from the African American term 'to rag -' meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting melodic accents onto the offbeats (a technique known as syncopation). Ragtime music emerged in the 1880s - its popularity peaking in the decade
Hank Williams
Blues
Ragtime
Rock 'n' Roll