1970s Pop Culture
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97 free 1970s Pop Culture trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free 1970s Pop Culture trivia questions with answers. The 1970s were a decade of cultural revolution — from the disco floors of Studio 54 to the punk clubs of London and New York, from the blockbuster birth of Star Wars and Jaws to the TV dominance of M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live. Bell-bottoms, platform shoes, Pet Rocks, and mood rings defined the fashion and fads, while artists like Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and the Bee Gees created some of the most enduring music in history. How well do you know the decade that gave us Watergate, Atari, and the Walkman?
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1977 science fiction film became the highest-grossing movie of all time at that point?
Star Wars
Star Wars opened on just 32 screens in May 1977 because few cinemas wanted it, then outgrossed Jaws to become the biggest earner in film history until E.T. overtook it.
Q 02What was the name of Quint's shark-hunting boat in Jaws (1975)?
The Orca
The Orca really did begin to sink during filming, with the actors on board; a second, engineless copy was built so that it could be sunk on cue.
Q 03Which band released the album "Rumours" in 1977, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time?
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac made Rumours while both of the band's couples were splitting up, and put the breakups into songs such as 'Go Your Own Way' and 'Dreams'.
Q 04What political scandal forced a U.S. president to resign in 1974?
Watergate
Watergate brought Nixon down in August 1974 after the 'smoking gun' tape showed he had joined the cover-up of a break-in at Democratic headquarters; '-gate' became the suffix for later scandals.
Q 05Which 1977 John Travolta film helped popularize disco music and dance culture worldwide?
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever was based on a New York magazine report on Brooklyn's disco scene whose author, Nik Cohn, admitted twenty years later that he had made its hero up.
Q 06Which 1977 home console dominated the market and popularized cartridge gaming?
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 cost so much to develop that founder Nolan Bushnell sold the company to Warner Communications in 1976, for $28 million, to get it finished.
Q 07Which sketch comedy show debuted on NBC in October 1975 with George Carlin as its first host?
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live premiered October 11, 1975 with George Carlin hosting. It first aired as 'NBC's Saturday Night' because ABC was already using the name Saturday Night Live for a Howard Cosell variety show.
Q 08Which arcade game of 1972 was among the first commercial hits in video gaming?
Pong
Pong's prototype was tried out in a Sunnyvale bar, Andy Capp's Tavern, and broke down within days: its coin box had overflowed with quarters.
Q 09Which 1972 Coppola crime drama is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made?
The Godfather
The Godfather won Marlon Brando a Best Actor award that he refused: he sent Sacheen Littlefeather to decline it in protest at Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans.
Q 10Which 1976 boxing drama won the Best Picture Oscar?
Rocky
Rocky was written by Sylvester Stallone in a matter of days after he watched underdog Chuck Wepner last into the 15th round against Muhammad Ali in 1975.
Q 11Which 1974 sitcom set in 1950s Milwaukee had a leather-jacketed greaser as its breakout character?
Happy Days
Happy Days gave English the phrase 'jumping the shark', coined for a 1977 episode in which Fonzie, still in his leather jacket, water-skis over one.
Q 12Which British rock band released the iconic album "The Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973?
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon topped the US album chart for just one week, yet stayed on the Billboard 200 for more than 700 weeks between 1973 and 1988.
Q 13Which military comedy-drama set during the Korean War ran on TV from 1972 to 1983?
M*A*S*H
Q 21Which 1978 musical film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John was set in a 1950s high school?
Grease
Grease made Sandy an Australian so that Olivia Newton-John could keep her accent; she had asked for a screen test first, fearing she was too old to play a schoolgirl.
Q 22Which 1975 cult film features the 'Time Warp' at the castle of a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show flopped on release in 1975, then became a cult ritual once midnight screenings began at New York's Waverly Theater in April 1976, with fans talking back to the screen.
Q 23Which band's 1976 greatest-hits album overtook Thriller in 2018 as the highest-certified album in the US?
M*A*S*H ran for 11 seasons, more than three times as long as the three-year Korean War it depicted; over 100 million people watched its 1983 finale.
Q 14Which David Bowie alter ego, an androgynous rocker from outer space bringing Earth a message of hope, debuted in 1972?
Ziggy Stardust
Ziggy Stardust was killed off on stage at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973, when Bowie stunned fans by announcing it was the last show the band would ever do.
Q 15Which trio of brothers dominated disco with the hits "Stayin' Alive" and "Jive Talkin'"?
The Bee Gees
The Bee Gees found their disco sound in 1975, when producer Arif Mardin asked for some screaming on 'Nights on Broadway' and Barry Gibb discovered his falsetto.
Q 16Which style of pants, borrowed from sailors' uniforms, became a defining fashion trend of the 1970s?
Bell-bottoms
Bell-bottoms flare out from the knee down, and Sonny and Cher helped push them into the American mainstream by wearing them on their television show.
Q 17Which punk band's 1977 single mocking the Silver Jubilee was banned by the BBC yet reached No. 2?
The Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols played the banned single from a boat on the Thames on Jubilee day, 7 June 1977; when it docked, police arrested manager Malcolm McLaren and ten others.
Q 18Which 1979 film was promoted with the tagline 'In space no one can hear you scream'?
Alien
Alien's cast knew a creature would burst from John Hurt's chest but had not been told that blood would spray everywhere, so the shock on their faces is real.
Q 19Which 1971 Led Zeppelin song became the most requested on US FM radio without ever being sold there as a single?
Stairway to Heaven
'Stairway to Heaven' was kept off the singles racks by manager Peter Grant, who twice refused Atlantic's requests, so fans bought the whole fourth album to get it.
Q 20Which footwear, worn on stage by glam rockers, was an early-1970s craze for men and women?
Platform shoes
Platform shoes were nothing new: actors in ancient Greek tragedy wore thick-soled boots to look taller, more than 2,000 years before glam rock.
Eagles
Eagles' biggest seller has no 'Hotel California' on it: the hits collection came out in February 1976, ten months before that album, and reached 38 times platinum in August 2018.
Q 24Which Parker Brothers toy was marketed around 1970 as the world's first official indoor ball?
Nerf ball
The Nerf ball was all Parker Brothers kept of an indoor game an inventor pitched; its slogan promised parents: 'You can't hurt babies or old people.' About four million sold in its first year.
Q 25Which 1979 Coppola film follows a journey upriver in Vietnam to find a rogue colonel?
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now nearly broke its makers: a typhoon wrecked the sets, star Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and Coppola said that 'little by little we went insane'.
Q 26Which electronic memory game by Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison has players repeat sequences of coloured lights?
Simon
Simon borrowed its gameplay from Touch Me, a 1974 arcade game that Ralph Baer thought a nice idea terribly executed; the 1978 version added four coloured buttons and musical tones.
Q 27Which 1960s sitcom about seven shipwrecked castaways became a hit again in 1970s reruns?
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island was dropped in 1967, with a fourth season expected, when CBS found room to keep Gunsmoke instead; the castaways stayed stranded until a 1978 TV movie rescued them.
Q 28Which 1977 miniseries based on Alex Haley's book traced an African American family from enslavement to freedom?
Roots
Roots is said to have run on eight straight nights because ABC feared a flop and wanted it finished before ratings sweeps; instead about 100 million people watched the finale.
Q 29Which New York nightclub, opened by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1977, was the epicentre of late-1970s disco culture?
Studio 54
Studio 54's Steve Rubell boasted that only the Mafia made more money; by 1980 he and Ian Schrager were in prison for tax evasion, having skimmed some $2.5 million.
Q 30Which 1978 Taito arcade game had players slide a laser cannon to shoot descending rows of enemies?
Space Invaders
Space Invaders (1978) designer Tomohiro Nishikado drew on Breakout, The War of the Worlds and Space Battleship Yamato; the tale that it caused a 100-yen coin shortage in Japan is a myth Nishikado himself doubted.