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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. The musical structure of a piece of music; its basic building blocks and the ways they are combined.
Form
Bessie Smith
Brian Wilson
Refrain
2. Record company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.
Minstrel Show
Janis Joplin
Motown
Cole Porter
3. 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.
Concept album
Phil Spector
Melody
Hook
4. Known as the 'Genius of Soul'; songwriter - arranger - keyboard player - and vocalist fluent in R&B - jazz - and mainstream pop.
Hook
Ray Charles
Race Records
Ballad
5. 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
Louis Armstrong
Scott Joplin
Rockabilly
'The twist'
6. Four- or five-stringed instrument with a membrane stretched over a wooden or metal hoop that is strummed or plucked. It was developed by slave musicians from African prototypes during the early colonial period. The banjo was used in the music of the
Cole Porter
Banjo
Disc Jockeys
Benny Goodman
7. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Acoustic recording
AABA form
Big Band
Rhythm
8. 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.
R&B
Disc Jockeys
Polyphonic
AABA form
9. 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
Melody
Glenn Miller
The Beatles
Benny Goodman
10. Teen-oriented rock 'n' roll song using a twelve-bar blues structure; it celebrated a simple - hip-swiveling dance step.
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11. 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
ASCAP
Electronic recording
Paul Whiteman
12. Blues written by professional songwriters and performed by professional female blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
Classic blues
Bridge
Big Band
James Brown
13. 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
Diana Ross
Cakewalk
Race Records
14. The principal medium for disseminating popular sings until the advent of recording in the 1890s.
Ethel Merman
Scat singing
Sheet music
Standards
15. 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.
Major/Minor
Beach Boys
Cover version
Minstrel Show
16. 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.
Ethel Merman
Frank Sinatra
Beach Boys
phrase
17. Record company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.
Concept album
Patsy Cline
Motown
Reverb
18. In the verse-refrain song - the refrain is the 'main part' of the song - usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
Refrain
Sheet music
urban folk
Beat
19. The scale systems central to Western music; a series of pitches organized in a specific order of whole- and half-step intervals. The major scale can give music a feeling of openness and brightness - whereas a minor scale can give music the feeling of
Les Paul
Major/Minor
Cakewalk
Sheet music
20. A person who adapts (or arranges) the melody and chords to songs to exploit the capabilities and instrumental resources of a particular musical ensemble.
Bridge
ASCAP
Arranger
Ballad
21. The leader and guiding spirit of the Beach Boys during their first decade. He wrote and produced many of the Beach Boys' biggest hits - including 'Good Vibrations.'
Cole Porter
Brian Wilson
urban folk
Boogie Woogie
22. Born in New Orleans; a cornetist and singer - he established certain core features of jazz - particularly its rhythmic drive and its emphasis on solo instrumental virtuosity. Armstrong also profoundly influenced the development of mainstream popular
Cole Porter
Aretha Franklin
Louis Armstrong
Refrain
23. A guitarist and inventor - designed his own eight-track tape recorder and began in 1948 to release a series of popular recordings featuring his own playing - overdubbed to sound like an ensemble of six or more guitars.
Big Band
Les Paul
James Brown
Acoustic recording
24. A guitarist and inventor - designed his own eight-track tape recorder and began in 1948 to release a series of popular recordings featuring his own playing - overdubbed to sound like an ensemble of six or more guitars.
Les Paul
James Brown
Cole Porter
soul music
25. A technique used by opera singers that emphasizes breath control - a fluid and relaxed voice - and the use of subtle variations in pitch and rhythmic phrasing for dramatic effect.
Bel canto
Hook
motive
Scott Joplin
26. Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners.
Cole Porter
Electronic recording
Beach Boys
Race Records
27. 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.'
Beach Boys
Nashville sound
The Beatles
Irving Berlin
28. The son of an immigrant leatherworker - did much to bridge the gulf between art music and popular music. Studied European classical music but also spent a great deal of time listening to jazz musicians in New York City. Wrote Porgy and Bess (1935) -
Ballad
Minstrel Show
Glenn Miller
George Gershwin
29. Vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment.
Countrypolitan
A cappella
phrase
Bessie Smith
30. Developed in 1925 using a new device - the microphone. Electric recording converts sounds into electrical signals.
Texture
ASCAP
Electronic recording
Race Records
31. 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
Gene Autry
Verse
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
32. 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.
Ethel Merman
motive
Standards
Bridge
33. Motive - phrase - cadence
Chuck Berry
Minstrel Show
Acoustic recording
Melody
34. Country vocalist who scored crossover hits with songs such as 'I Fall to Pieces -' and 'Crazy -' both recorded in 1961.
Patsy Cline
Janis Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
35. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
ASCAP
Irving Berlin
Ethel Merman
Diana Ross
36. A musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
Herman Parker
Motown
Syncopation
Herman Parker
37. The first form of musical and theatrical entertainment to be regarded by European audiences as distinctively American in character. Featured mainly white performers who artificially blackened their skin and carried out parodies of African American mu
Scat singing
Minstrel Show
Aretha Franklin
sound
38. 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
Cover version
Hank Williams
soul music
Rock 'n' Roll
39. White rockabilly singer and pianist.
12-bar Blues
Jerry Lee Lewis
soul music
R&B
40. Brilliantly clever and articulate lyricist and songwriter - fine rock 'n' roll vocal stylist - and pioneering electric guitarist. One of the first black musicians to consciously forge his own R&B styles for appeal to the mass market. Also known for h
Ray Charles
Chorus
Blues
Chuck Berry
41. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Big Band
Bessie Smith
Diana Ross
cadence
42. 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.
Rhythm
Ray Charles
Lyricist
Janis Joplin
43. 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.
Herman Parker
Syncopation
Buddy Holly
The Supremes
44. The scale systems central to Western music; a series of pitches organized in a specific order of whole- and half-step intervals. The major scale can give music a feeling of openness and brightness - whereas a minor scale can give music the feeling of
Les Paul
Frank Sinatra
Major/Minor
Buddy Holly
45. Host of the popular teen-oriented television show American Bandstand
Ballad
Rockabilly
Jerry Lee Lewis
Dick Clark
46. Illegal practice - common throughout the music industry - of paying bribes to radio disc jockeys to get certain artists' records played more frequently.
Rhythm
Scott Joplin
Payola
Acoustic recording
47. 'The Queen of Soul -' she began singing gospel music at an early age and had several hit records with Atlantic - including 'Respect' in 1967 and 'Think' in 1968.
Patsy Cline
Timbre
Aretha Franklin
12-bar Blues
48. The standard form of a blues song: a twelve-bar structure made up of three phrases of four bars each; a basic three-chord pattern; and a three-line AAB text.
phrase
12-bar Blues
Countrypolitan
Duke Ellington
49. Born in New Orleans; a cornetist and singer - he established certain core features of jazz - particularly its rhythmic drive and its emphasis on solo instrumental virtuosity. Armstrong also profoundly influenced the development of mainstream popular
Scott Joplin
Louis Armstrong
Cover version
Timbre
50. A guitar whose sound comes chiefly from electro-magnetic amplification The pioneer of electric blues guitar was Aaron T-Bone Walker - whose urban blues recordings just after World War II were extremely popular - Les Paul created
Ballad
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
A cappella
Electric Guitar