94 Fun Facts About Music

What title does a US symphony orchestra give its principal first violinist?

Concertmaster, from the German Konzertmeister: the concertmaster marks the bowings so every violinist's bow moves in unison.

Which band released the album Nevermind in 1991?

Nirvana: Nevermind entered the Billboard 200 at a modest No. 144, yet it went on to reach No. 1.

Who is known as the Queen of Soul?

Aretha Franklin: at the 1998 Grammys she stood in at a moment's notice for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti and sang his opera aria.

Which key signature has no sharps or flats?

C major: its half steps fall naturally between E and F and between B and C, so the scale needs only the piano's white keys.

What was Elvis Presley's first number-one hit on the Billboard pop chart?

Heartbreak Hotel: its writers said a newspaper story about a lonely man's suicide note inspired it, though researchers have never found the article.

Which rapper's real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III?

Eminem: as a teenager he rapped under the name M&M, from his initials, and it evolved into Eminem.

What is each of an octave's 12 equal steps called?

Semitone: the octave's name comes from the Latin for 'eighth', yet in Western music it spans twelve semitones.

Which 1969 Beatles album cover shows the four walking over a zebra crossing outside their London studio?

Abbey Road: Iain Macmillan got the job through Yoko Ono, whose Indica gallery show he had photographed and where she met John Lennon.

Which music festival takes its name from the California desert valley where it is held?

Coachella, held in Indio in the Coachella Valley, lost about $850,000 on its 1999 debut, and there was no festival in 2000.

Who composed the Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos?

Antonio Vivaldi wrote little instructions into the score: in Spring, the violas play a barking dog beside a sleeping goatherd.

Which country music legend is known as the Man in Black?

Johnny Cash explained it in his 1971 song Man in Black: he wore black on behalf of the poor and the imprisoned.

What does the musical term fortissimo mean?

Very loud: Haydn slipped a sudden fortissimo chord into the soft theme of his Surprise Symphony, and it never fails to catch new listeners out.

Whose 1984 album Purple Rain doubled as a film soundtrack?

Prince: the album's lead single, When Doves Cry, hit No. 1 even though he had stripped out its bass line.

What is the lowest-pitched instrument in a standard string quartet?

Cello is short for violoncello, Italian for 'little violone', a name that makes the big instrument sound small.

Which group's debut album, Straight Outta Compton, helped establish gangsta rap?

N.W.A: the album's anti-police track drew a warning letter from an FBI agent to their distributor, which only fed the group's notoriety.

Who composed The Marriage of Figaro to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Beaumarchais's play had been banned for its frank take on class, and the opera made Austria's monarchy nervous.

Which 1960s girl group featured Diana Ross as lead singer?

The Supremes were mocked as the 'no-hit Supremes' around their label until Where Did Our Love Go reached No. 1 in 1964.

Which type of pickup do most electric guitars use?

Magnetic: its magnets partly magnetise the metal strings, so each vibrating string sends a tiny current through the pickup's coils.

Which singer-songwriter wrote and performed Blowin' in the Wind?

Bob Dylan: Sam Cooke loved the song but wished a Black songwriter had written it, and it spurred him to write A Change Is Gonna Come.

The G-clef, which fixes G above middle C on the second line, is commonly known by what name?

Treble: guitar music uses it too, written higher than it sounds so that guitarists can avoid the bass clef.

Which jazz musician, nicknamed Bird, helped invent bebop in the 1940s?

Charlie Parker told Paul Desmond that as a young man he practised 11 to 15 hours a day, for three to four years.

Which rock band is known for songs like Stairway to Heaven and Whole Lotta Love?

Led Zeppelin refused to release Stairway to Heaven as a single despite pressure from Atlantic Records, so radio got only promo copies.

What is a time signature of 3/4 commonly associated with?

Waltz: because partners held each other in a close embrace, the dance shocked many people when it was first introduced.

Who first recorded I Will Always Love You, 19 years before Whitney Houston's cover?

Dolly Parton wrote it as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner, and turned Elvis down when his side demanded a share of the publishing.

Which left-handed guitarist famously played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster flipped upside down?

Jimi Hendrix set a Stratocaster on fire on stage at the London Astoria in 1967.

What is the Italian musical term for gradually getting louder?

Crescendo: for the Beatles' A Day in the Life, orchestra players were told to climb from their instruments' lowest note to their highest.

Which British band released the concept album The Dark Side of the Moon?

Pink Floyd: in the 1990s fans noticed the album seems to sync with The Wizard of Oz if started as the MGM lion roars.

In a drum kit, what is the large bass drum struck by a pedal-mounted beater commonly called?

Kick: William F. Ludwig's patented 1909 pedal let drummers strike the bass drum with a foot, so they could play sitting down.

Which Grammy Award goes to a single track, credited jointly to the performer, producer and engineers?

Record of the Year went in 1992 to Unforgettable, a father-daughter duet made by dubbing Natalie Cole's voice over an old Nat King Cole recording.

What is the standard tuning of a guitar from lowest to highest string?

E-A-D-G-B-E: each string sits a fourth above the one below, except B, a major third above G, which is why B is tuned at the G string's fourth fret.

Which composer wrote his Ninth Symphony despite hearing loss that left him nearly deaf?

Ludwig van Beethoven was so deaf by the 1824 premiere that one of the musicians had to alert him to the audience cheering behind him.

What city is considered the birthplace of jazz?

New Orleans: yet the first commercial jazz record was cut in New York City, in 1917, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

Whose album won Album of the Year at the 1984 Grammys?

Michael Jackson won for Thriller; producer Quincy Jones recruited Eddie Van Halen for its Beat It solo, which Van Halen recorded as a favour, for no fee.

What musical term means playing a note shorter than its full value for a detached effect?

Staccato is marked by a dot above or below a note, yet a dot placed after a note does the opposite, lengthening it by half.

Which Detroit label launched Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations?

Motown Records: Berry Gordy got the business started in 1959 with an $800 loan from his family.

Which double-reed woodwind often plays the tuning note A for the orchestra?

The oboe sounds the tuning A because its pitch is comparatively stable and its penetrating tone carries clearly across the whole orchestra.

Which composer, whose 1910s sheet music popularised the blues, is often called the Father of the Blues?

W.C. Handy didn't invent the blues: he picked up folk blues on his travels through the South and turned them into published hits.

Which British band released the long single Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975?

Queen: London DJ Kenny Everett played it on Capital Radio before its release, and that airplay helped send the single to No. 1.

Which reggae legend recorded the albums Exodus and Legend?

Bob Marley recorded Exodus after surviving a 1976 assassination attempt, and the album made him an international star.

In folk and bluegrass music, what is the violin usually called?

Fiddle: it is usually the very same four-string instrument, tuned G, D, A and E; mostly only the style of playing differs.

Which music genre grew out of block parties in the Bronx in the 1970s?

Hip-hop: at a 1973 party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, DJ Kool Herc stretched out records' instrumental breaks so people could keep dancing.

Which scale do the black keys of a piano form?

Pentatonic scale: almost any of its five notes can be played at any moment without sounding jarring, which makes it ideal for improvising.

Which pianist and singer known as the Genius pioneered soul by blending gospel with rhythm and blues?

Ray Charles's recording of Georgia on My Mind became Georgia's official state song in 1979, and he sang it at the ceremony.

Which trumpeter led the 1959 jazz album Kind of Blue?

Miles Davis called for almost no rehearsal, giving the band only brief sketches of scales and melodies to improvise on.

What is the highest female singing voice classification?

Soprano: with women barred from singing in church, the Church had its soprano parts sung by boys and falsettists, and later by castrati.

Which pioneering electronic music duo from France created the albums Homework and Discovery?

Daft Punk took their name from a Melody Maker review that dismissed their earlier band, Darlin', as 'daft punky thrash'.

How many keys does a standard modern piano have, black and white combined?

88 keys means 52 white and 36 black, spanning seven octaves plus a minor third from A0 up to C8.

Which band's 1977 album Rumours was recorded amid the members' breakups?

Fleetwood Mac: Lindsey Buckingham wrote Go Your Own Way about his breakup with his bandmate Stevie Nicks.

Which singer named her albums 19, 21, 25 and 30 after her age?

Adele said she made 30 so that her young son could one day understand why she had left his father.

Which jazz musician was nicknamed Satchmo?

Louis Armstrong: his recording of a Broadway musical's title song ended the Beatles' 14-week run at No. 1 in the US.

Which group won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo?

ABBA's Waterloo uses Napoleon's 1815 defeat as a metaphor for a woman who finally gives in to love.

Which 1969 music festival was held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm?

Woodstock never happened in Woodstock: after sites nearer the town fell through, it moved to Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York.

Which singer re-recorded Fearless and Red after losing control of her masters?

Taylor Swift re-recorded four of her early albums to regain control of her music, then bought the original masters back in 2025.

Which K-pop group's 2020 single Dynamite was its first song fully in English?

BTS made Dynamite to lift spirits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who composed the 1892 Christmas ballet The Nutcracker?

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker premiered in St. Petersburg in December 1892, but the suite he had premiered nine months earlier was the bigger early success.

The Grand Ole Opry, country music's long-running radio show, is based in which city?

Nashville: the Grand Ole Opry got its name in 1927, when host George D. Hay followed a broadcast of grand opera by announcing 'the Grand Ole Opry'.

Whose 1984 hit Like a Virgin was produced by Nile Rodgers?

Madonna: songwriter Billy Steinberg wrote Like a Virgin about his own fresh start after a painful breakup.

Which Australian band released the album Back in Black in 1980?

AC/DC released Back in Black five months after singer Bon Scott's death, as a tribute to him, with new frontman Brian Johnson.

Which Canadian singer recorded My Heart Will Go On for the film Titanic?

Celine Dion sang My Heart Will Go On in a single take, and that recording is the one used in Titanic.

Mick Jagger became famous as the lead singer of which band?

The Rolling Stones took their name from Muddy Waters' song Rollin' Stone, spotted on an LP lying on the floor when they needed a name fast.

Which American band released Hotel California as a single in 1977?

Eagles: Don Henley said Hotel California was really about the excesses of America, with California only as the setting.

Which French composer wrote the opera Carmen, which premiered in 1875?

Georges Bizet died suddenly three months after Carmen's premiere, before the opera's greatness was recognised.

Which Beatle woke up with the melody of Yesterday in his head after dreaming it?

Paul McCartney woke with the Yesterday melody in his head and feared he had stolen it; he is the only Beatle on the 1965 recording, singing over acoustic guitar and a string quartet.

Ravi Shankar, who taught George Harrison, was a virtuoso of which instrument?

Sitar: George Harrison bought a cheap one on London's Oxford Street and taught himself enough to play it on the Beatles' Norwegian Wood.

Who wrote Rhapsody in Blue, the 1924 piece for solo piano and jazz band?

George Gershwin reportedly learned he was writing it from a newspaper, which announced his new piece for Paul Whiteman before he had begun.

Which Irish singer organised Live Aid for Ethiopian famine relief?

Bob Geldof: the year before, he and Midge Ure had written the charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? to raise famine money.

Which Irish rock band formed in 1976 with The Edge on guitar?

U2 began in 1976 when 14-year-old Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a note on his school's notice board looking for musicians.

What term describes singing without instrumental accompaniment?

A cappella: MP3's developers tested their format on Suzanne Vega's unaccompanied Tom's Diner, fearing compression would spoil a bare human voice.

What is the largest string instrument in a standard symphony orchestra?

Double bass: its music is written an octave higher than it sounds, to spare bassists a thicket of ledger lines below the staff.

Which Romantic composer wrote nearly all of his works for solo piano?

Frédéric Chopin settled in Paris for the rest of his life and was buried there, but his heart was sent back to Warsaw.

Which band released the 1966 album Pet Sounds?

The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds peaked at only No. 10 in America and sold disappointingly at first, before critics came to hail it.

Which thrash band found commercial success with its 1986 album Master of Puppets?

Metallica: Master of Puppets sold more than 500,000 copies in its first year, despite virtually no radio airplay and no music videos.

Which Seattle band broke through with its 1991 debut album Ten?

Pearl Jam named Ten after the jersey number of basketball player Mookie Blaylock, whose name the band used before becoming Pearl Jam.

Whose country album finally won Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys?

Beyoncé: she surprise-released the album's first two singles on Super Bowl night in 2024, just after hinting at new music in a Verizon ad.

Which electronic instrument is played without the performer touching it?

Theremin: its inventor, Léon Theremin, later built The Thing, a Soviet bug hidden in a carved Great Seal given to the US ambassador.

Whose Gangnam Style was the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views?

Psy: the title pokes fun at the flashy, nouveau-riche lifestyle associated with Seoul's wealthy Gangnam district.

Which English composer wrote the orchestral suite The Planets?

Gustav Holst drew each movement from its planet's astrological character, so Mars became the Bringer of War and Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity.

Which notation symbol tells a performer to hold a note beyond its written value?

A fermata, nicknamed the bird's eye, tells the performer to hold a note or rest longer than its written value at their discretion; over a rest it is called a grand pause.

Who first released Hallelujah on the 1984 album Various Positions?

Leonard Cohen: Columbia's boss turned down Various Positions, the album Hallelujah was on, and the song found fame only through later covers.

Which composer wrote Madama Butterfly, an opera set in Japan?

Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly was poorly received at La Scala in 1904, so he split its long second act, and the new version succeeded.

Der Ring des Nibelungen, a cycle of four epic music dramas, is the work of which composer?

Richard Wagner spent about 26 years writing Der Ring des Nibelungen, and even had his own theatre built at Bayreuth to stage his works.

Which keyboard instrument sounds by plucking its strings with small quills?

A harpsichord's keys raise jacks whose quill plectra pluck the strings; because each pluck is the same regardless of touch, a note sounds equally loud however hard the key is pressed.

Sam Phillips founded Sun Records, Elvis Presley's first label, in which city?

Memphis: in 1953 a young Elvis Presley paid to record a two-song acetate at Sam Phillips's Memphis Recording Service.

Which French composer wrote Boléro, a 1928 orchestral work built on one repeated rhythm?

Maurice Ravel's Boléro later carried Torvill and Dean to ice-dance gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Which rapper's album DAMN. won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music?

Kendrick Lamar built DAMN. to work played in reverse order too, and later released a collector's edition with the tracklist flipped.

Which blues guitarist named his guitars Lucille?

B.B. King named his guitars Lucille after a 1949 dance-hall fire in Twist, Arkansas: he ran back in to rescue his guitar, and the blaze had started in a fight over a woman named Lucille.

Which trio released the 1979 single Rapper's Delight?

The Sugarhill Gang built Rapper's Delight on Chic's Good Times without permission, and after Nile Rodgers threatened to sue, Chic got the songwriting credit.

Although Handel lived in London, in which city was his Messiah first performed?

Dublin heard Messiah on 13 April 1742, London only nearly a year later, and it grew into a classic after a modest start.

Which Austrian composer wrote more than 600 Lieder before dying at 31?

Franz Schubert never heard his Unfinished Symphony played: its premiere came only in the 1860s, decades after his death in 1828.

Which soul singer wrote and first recorded the song Respect in 1965?

Otis Redding: his original has no spelled-out R-E-S-P-E-C-T and pleads from a husband's point of view; a 1967 cover flipped it.

Which Nigerian musician is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat?

Fela Kuti declared his commune the independent Kalakuta Republic, and in 1977 Nigerian soldiers raided and destroyed it.

The aria La donna è mobile comes from which composer's opera Rigoletto?

Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto premiered in Venice in 1851; fearing La donna è mobile would leak, he made the tenor swear not to sing or whistle it outside rehearsals.

Which national anthem took its tune from To Anacreon in Heaven, the song of a London gentlemen's club?

The Star-Spangled Banner: Francis Scott Key wrote the words in 1814 after watching the British bombard Fort McHenry, then set them to the club's tune.

The mbira, a plucked metal-tined instrument, is traditional to which people of Zimbabwe?

Shona: at all-night ceremonies called mapira, they play the mbira dzavadzimu to call on ancestral spirits for guidance.