60 free 90s Rock trivia questions with answers. The 1990s started with Nevermind knocking a pop giant off number one and ended with a file-sharing app that terrified every record label. These 60 questions cover what happened in between: the Seattle bands who broke first, the Britpop chart war of August 1995, the punk revival that made Dookie a diamond seller, the nu metal wave out of Bakersfield, and the women who owned the decade's biggest rock albums. You will find questions on studios and producers (Butch Vig, Steve Albini, Bob Rock), on album covers and band names with odd origins, on chart records that still stand, and on the festivals that defined the era, from the first Lollapalooza to the fires at Woodstock '99. It is built for anyone who wore out a CD of Ten, Jagged Little Pill or OK Computer. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary references before publication, so the dates, sales figures and Grammy wins are accurate. Play it solo, or use it as a round for a pub quiz night.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in January 1992 by knocking which album off the top?
Dangerous
Geffen had hoped Nevermind might sell 250,000 copies; it was certified Diamond by 1999.
Q 02Who produced Nirvana's Nevermind, giving it a far more polished, radio-friendly sound than Bleach?
Butch Vig
Sub Pop head Bruce Pavitt suggested him. He later played drums in Garbage.
Q 03The swimming baby on the Nevermind cover, who sued the band in 2021, is named what?
Spencer Elden
He was four months old and the son of a friend of the photographer. Cobain's proposed compromise for the nudity was a sticker, not a crop.
Q 04Nirvana left Sub Pop and released Nevermind on which Geffen imprint?
DGC
Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth helped steer them there. The advance was $287,000.
Q 05Which famously principled indie producer recorded Nirvana's In Utero in two weeks for $25,000?
Steve Albini
The sessions were at Pachyderm Studio, where PJ Harvey had made Rid of Me the same year.
Q 06Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were married in February 1992 in which location?
Waikiki Beach
The wedding came days after Nirvana's Pacific Rim tour ended. Their daughter Frances Bean was born that August.
Q 07Which fellow frontman was chosen as godfather to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter?
Michael Stipe
He and Cobain had planned to record demos together in 1994; Cobain cancelled at the last minute.
Q 08Kurt Cobain wanted the MTV Unplugged set, with its lilies, black candles and chandelier, to look like what?
A funeral
The show was taped in a single take on November 18, 1993, less than five months before his death.
Q 09Members of which band joined Nirvana on stage for several songs at the MTV Unplugged taping in 1993?
Meat Puppets
MTV wanted bigger names such as Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos. The album won Nirvana's only Grammy.
Q 10Pearl Jam recorded Ten under what earlier band name, borrowed from an NBA player?
Mookie Blaylock
The name was changed after Epic worried about rights once the player signed a Nike deal; the album title kept his jersey number.
Q 11Pearl Jam's Vs. set a first-week sales record in October 1993 with roughly how many copies?
950,000
It outsold every other album in that week's Billboard top ten combined.
Q 12In 1994 Pearl Jam accused which company of monopolising concert tickets?
Ticketmaster
The band spent years playing makeshift outdoor venues to avoid the company's exclusive contracts.
Q 13Which 1994 Soundgarden album debuted at number one and produced two Grammy-winning singles?
Superunknown
The winning songs were Spoonman and Black Hole Sun. Soundgarden had been the first grunge band signed to a major label, in 1988.
Q 21Under what name did Radiohead first play, referring to their usual school rehearsal day?
On a Friday
They met at Abingdon School and turned down an early Island Records offer so they could go to university first.
Q 22Weezer's 1994 Blue Album was produced by the frontman of which band?
The Cars
Ric Ocasek got the job. The album's cover was inspired by a cheap Beach Boys cassette.
Q 23How many awards did Weezer's Buddy Holly video win at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards?
4
The prizes included Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Video. Spike Jonze pitched the earlier Undone clip as 'a blue stage, a steadicam, a pack of wild dogs'.
Q 14Which 1994 Alice in Chains release became the first EP ever to debut at number one on the Billboard 200?
Jar of Flies
It was written and recorded in a single week and went triple platinum.
Q 15Which album became the first from Seattle's grunge scene to be certified gold, in September 1991?
Facelift
It sold under 40,000 copies in six months until MTV put Man in the Box into daytime rotation.
Q 16Stone Temple Pilots won the 1994 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for which song from Core?
Plush
Weiland and Dean DeLeo had also played it acoustically on Headbangers Ball. Purple then debuted at number one that June.
Q 17Under what band name did Stone Temple Pilots record a demo before a bluesman's claim?
Mighty Joe Young
That demo included funk and even yodelling that never made a studio album.
Q 18Which R.E.M. single from Out of Time was the band's highest-charting and best-selling hit?
Losing My Religion
Out of Time picked up seven Grammy nominations. The follow-up Automatic for the People hit number one in the UK.
Q 19The Smashing Pumpkins planned Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as a double album partly in tribute to which band?
The Beatles
It debuted at number one with 246,500 first-week sales and earned seven Grammy nominations.
Q 20Radiohead recorded much of OK Computer at St Catherine's Court, a mansion owned by which actress?
Jane Seymour
The album won Best Alternative Music Album at the 1998 Grammys and was added to the US National Recording Registry in 2014.
Q 24How many copies of Beck's Loser were pressed for its March 1993 12-inch release on Bong Load?
500
After DGC picked it up, the song reached number ten on the Hot 100 while Beck was living in a rat-infested shed.
Q 25Which single from Beck's Odelay won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 1997 Grammys?
Where It's At
Odelay sold two million copies and killed off the one-hit-wonder talk that followed Mellow Gold.
Q 26Which guest played the one guitar part Dave Grohl didn't on the 1995 Foo Fighters debut?
Greg Dulli
The Afghan Whigs singer played on X-Static. Grohl recorded the album mostly alone in six days.
Q 27The name Foo Fighters comes from a World War II term for what?
UFO sightings
Grohl had hoped to stay anonymous with a limited-run release under the name.
Q 28After signing a major-label deal for Dookie, Green Day was banned from which Berkeley punk club?
924 Gilman Street
The fanzine Maximumrocknroll piled on too. Dookie went on to be certified double diamond.
Q 29Green Day's Woodstock '94 set became infamous for what?
A mud fight
Opening with Welcome to Paradise after three days of rain provoked the crowd, and Armstrong taunted them back.
Q 30Which independent label released The Offspring's record-setting Smash (1994)?
Epitaph
It has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. The band jumped to Columbia in 1996.