Art of Noise
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40 free Art of Noise trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Art of Noise began as a studio experiment in 1983, when a team of producers, engineers and arrangers realised that a new kind of sampling keyboard could turn any sound, from a drum fill to a stalling engine, into a pop record. The results were strange, funny and hugely influential, and they still turn up in hip-hop, dance music and film soundtracks. This quiz covers the whole story: the faceless early years, the hit singles and their famous guest stars, the award-winning videos, the split that sent the group to a new label, and the 1999 reunion. It also follows the members into their other lives as producers, engineers and film composers. It is written for fans of 1980s pop and electronic music, with plenty of easy ways in for anyone who only knows the big singles.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Welsh singer fronted Art of Noise's 1988 cover of Prince's 'Kiss' after adding the song to his Las Vegas show?
Tom Jones
Tom Jones gave the group its biggest hit, reaching number 5 in the UK, higher than Prince's original had climbed there. The group contacted him after seeing him perform the song on TV.
Q 02Which pioneer of 'twangy' 1950s guitar played on Art of Noise's Grammy-winning 1986 version of 'Peter Gunn'?
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy had taken the same tune into the charts back in 1959, so the collaboration revisited a riff he had made his own 27 years earlier.
Q 03Which composer of the Pink Panther theme wrote 'Peter Gunn', the TV detective tune Art of Noise turned into a 1986 hit?
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini wrote it for the television series Peter Gunn, and the pianist pounding out the riff on his original recording was a young John Williams.
Q 04Which 1980s TV character supplied the vocals on Art of Noise's 1986 single 'Paranoimia'?
Max Headroom
Max Headroom was really actor Matt Frewer in prosthetic make-up, not computer graphics. He recorded different monologues for the 7-inch and 12-inch versions of the single.
Q 05Art of Noise's Trevor Horn found fame in which band, whose 1979 chart-topper was the first video shown on MTV?
The Buggles
The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' topped the UK chart in 1979, then opened MTV's very first broadcast in August 1981.
Q 06Art of Noise grew out of a scrapped drum riff sampled during sessions for 90125, a 1983 album by which rock band?
Yes
Yes drummer Alan White played the discarded riff, which two of the studio team loaded whole into a sampler and then layered with non-musical sounds.
Q 07Which dreamy Art of Noise instrumental played as Madonna walked down the aisle at her 1985 wedding to Sean Penn?
Moments in Love
Moments in Love runs for more than ten minutes on the group's debut album and has been sampled by Drake, LL Cool J and J Dilla.
Q 08Art of Noise earned a writing credit on which 1996 Prodigy number one, which samples a shout from their 1984 hit?
Firestarter
Firestarter was the Prodigy's first UK number one, and its looped guitar riff, taken from a Breeders track, put Kim Deal on the credits too.
Q 09Which 1997 British comedy won Art of Noise keyboardist Anne Dudley the Oscar for best musical or comedy score?
The Full Monty
The Full Monty, about six unemployed steelworkers who form a striptease act, earned her the Academy Award in 1998.
Q 10Art of Noise recorded the theme for a 1987 comedy with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks, based on which US police show?
Dragnet
Dragnet began on radio before moving to television, and the group's reworking of its famous theme reached number 60 in the UK.
Q 11Which car, owned by a band member's neighbour, is heard stalling and restarting on Art of Noise's first UK top-ten hit?
Volkswagen Golf
A Volkswagen Golf supplied the revving-engine riff, which critic Simon Reynolds linked to Kraftwerk's idea of the car as a musical instrument.
Q 12Which Australian-built sampling computer was the key instrument behind Art of Noise's early sound?
Fairlight CMI
Fairlight CMI instruments took their name from a hydrofoil ferry on Sydney Harbour, and let musicians play short digital recordings from a piano-style keyboard.
Q 13Art of Noise took their name from a 1913 manifesto by the painter Luigi Russolo, a member of which art movement?
Futurism
Q 21Which English actor, Oscar-nominated for The Elephant Man, narrated Art of Noise's 1999 reunion album?
John Hurt
John Hurt provided the spoken narration, sharing the guest list with soprano Sally Bradshaw and singer Donna Lewis.
Q 22Which New York rapper, the voice of the 1987 album Paid in Full, guested on Art of Noise's 1999 single 'Metaforce'?
Rakim
Rakim, who made his name in a duo with DJ Eric B, had once told producer Trevor Horn that his favourite Horn recording was an early instrumental by the group.
Q 23Guitarist Lol Creme, who joined Art of Noise for their 1999 reunion, co-founded which band behind 'Rubber Bullets'?
10cc
10cc lost him in 1976, when he and drummer Kevin Godley left to work as a duo and went on to direct music videos.
Futurism celebrated speed, technology and the industrial city, and the manifesto argued that music should embrace such sounds. The band simply dropped the final letter of its title.
Q 14Art of Noise's 1983 debut EP was the very first release on which label, co-founded by producer Trevor Horn?
ZTT Records
ZTT Records launched with the EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise, and in the 1990s the label broke the singer Seal.
Q 15Which Art of Noise single, their first UK top-ten hit, won two prizes at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards?
Close (to the Edit)
Close (to the Edit) took Most Experimental Video and Best Editing, and its punning title nods to a 1972 progressive rock album, Close to the Edge.
Q 16Art of Noise's 1984 video of a punk girl smashing instruments was filmed on which disused New York railway?
The High Line
The High Line was an abandoned freight viaduct when Polish director Zbigniew Rybczyński filmed there; it opened as a park in phases from 2009.
Q 17Which country banned Art of Noise's instrument-smashing 1984 video, claiming it encouraged violence towards children?
New Zealand
New Zealand's ban surprised Anne Dudley, who called it a fun video and said nothing could have been further from the group's minds.
Q 18Art of Noise's 1986 hit version of 'Peter Gunn' won the group a Grammy Award in which category?
Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Best Rock Instrumental Performance went to the group and their guest guitarist at the 1987 ceremony; the category's first winners were Paul McCartney and Wings.
Q 19Art of Noise recorded the theme used from 1986 to 1993 by which British game show testing mental and physical ability?
The Krypton Factor
The Krypton Factor also used short pieces by the group to introduce each of its six rounds.
Q 20Art of Noise's 1999 reunion album was a concept record about the life of which French impressionist composer?
Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy's music was blended with drum and bass, opera and hip hop on the album, which the group called the soundtrack to a film that was never made.
Q 24Art of Noise's studio team also built 'Relax', a 1984 UK number one for which Liverpool band on the same label?
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood topped the chart with 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes', both made with Trevor Horn producing and the group's sampling specialist programming.
Q 25Before forming Art of Noise, Trevor Horn's studio team made The Lexicon of Love, the 1982 debut album by which band?
ABC
ABC's album was where Anne Dudley wrote her first string arrangements, and where the team used a sampler for touches such as a cash register bell.
Q 26Future Art of Noise members worked on Duck Rock, the album featuring 'Buffalo Gals', for which punk impresario?
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren's album was produced by Trevor Horn with the group's future members in his studio team, and Anne Dudley shares a writing credit on the single.
Q 27Which star of The Young Ones played a spoof private eye in the video for Art of Noise's version of 'Peter Gunn'?
Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall sent up film noir detectives in the clip, and the tune later became the theme of the BBC wildlife series Bill Oddie's Wild Side.
Q 28On the 12-inch of Art of Noise's 'Paranoimia', which tennis champion is jokingly named as the band's 'bassline' player?
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova is there for a pun on a tennis court's baseline; the same spoof introduction puts Cher on mic and the Pope on drums.
Q 29Which 1986 album, Art of Noise's first after leaving Trevor Horn's label, includes 'Paranoimia' and 'Legs'?
In Visible Silence
In Visible Silence was made by the trio who kept the name after the split, and a concert version was filmed at London's Hammersmith Odeon.
Q 30After splitting from Trevor Horn in 1985, Art of Noise's remaining trio signed to which British label?
China Records
China Records released everything from the group's second album to their 1989 farewell, then kept issuing remix compilations after they disbanded.