60 free 90s Grunge trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Grunge came out of Seattle thrift stores and basement clubs and, for about four years, was the biggest sound in the world. This quiz has 50 grunge trivia questions with answers that cover the whole arc: the mid-80s Deep Six compilation and Sub Pop's Singles Club, Green River splitting into Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone, Nevermind knocking Michael Jackson off number one, Ten, Dirt, Superunknown, Temple of the Dog and the movie Singles. You'll get the big four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) in depth, but also Screaming Trees, Hole, the Melvins, Stone Temple Pilots, L7 and the post-grunge wave of Bush, Candlebox and Silverchair, plus the flannel-and-runway moment when Marc Jacobs got fired for a grunge collection. Questions run from easy to expert, with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on the bands, albums and people involved, and each question carries its citation, so you can settle the argument when someone insists Pearl Jam were called something else first.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Alongside Seattle, which Washington state capital was a hub of early grunge?
Olympia
Bruce Pavitt started the Sub Pop fanzine there while at Evergreen State College, and Cobain lived there for years.
Q 02Which Seattle indie label, founded 1986, released early Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney records?
Sub Pop
Pavitt started it as a fanzine called Subterranean Pop while at Evergreen State College; the label later sold a 49% stake to Warner in 1995.
Q 03The 1986 Seattle-scene compilation Deep Six was the first release on which label?
C/Z
Only 2,000 copies were pressed; the record featured Green River, Soundgarden, Melvins, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard and the U-Men.
Q 04Which 1984 Seattle band split into Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone, making it a precursor to Pearl Jam?
Green River
The name was most strongly associated with the Green River Killer, whose case dominated Washington headlines at the time.
Q 05What was Mother Love Bone's debut album, released shortly after frontman Andrew Wood died in 1990?
Apple
Wood was 24; his death led directly to Temple of the Dog and, indirectly, to Pearl Jam.
Q 06Temple of the Dog was conceived by which singer as a tribute to Andrew Wood?
Chris Cornell
Cornell had been Wood's roommate; he started writing the tribute songs while touring Europe days after the funeral.
Q 07Which Temple of the Dog song became a duet between the band's frontman and a then-unknown Eddie Vedder?
Hunger Strike
Vedder was in Seattle to audition for the band that became Pearl Jam and stepped in during a rehearsal to sing the low parts.
Q 08Before settling on Pearl Jam, the band briefly went by the name of which NBA player?
Mookie Blaylock
Their debut album Ten is named after his jersey number.
Q 09Pearl Jam's debut album Ten was released in August 1991 on which label?
Epic
It came out a month before Nevermind but took longer to catch on, eventually producing the hits Alive, Even Flow and Jeremy.
Q 10Pearl Jam's Jeremy was inspired by a newspaper article about a 15-year-old boy in which state?
Texas
Jeremy Wade Delle of Richardson, Texas, shot himself in front of his English class in January 1991; the video won four MTV VMAs in 1993.
Q 11Pearl Jam's second album Vs. set a record in 1993 by selling roughly how many copies in its first week?
950,000
It outsold the rest of the Billboard top ten combined that week, a record that stood until Garth Brooks' Double Live in 1998.
Q 12Which company did Pearl Jam go to war with in 1994, testifying before a congressional subcommittee?
Ticketmaster
The band boycotted Ticketmaster venues for years afterward, even after the Justice Department dropped its case.
Q 13Eddie Vedder was working what job in San Diego when he got the demo tape that led to Pearl Jam?
Gas station night clerk
Q 21Nevermind reached number one on the Billboard 200 in January 1992 by displacing which album?
Michael Jackson's Dangerous
The album has since sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
Q 22The baby on the cover of Nevermind is swimming toward what?
A dollar bill on a fishhook
Four-month-old Spencer Elden was photographed by Kirk Weddle at a pool for babies after stock footage proved too expensive.
Q 23Kathleen Hanna, who wrote the phrase 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' on Cobain's wall, sang for which riot grrrl band?
Bikini Kill
He listened to the tape shortly before going surfing, and the lyrics to what became Alive came to him in the water.
Q 14Which ex-Chili Peppers drummer gave the Pearl Jam demo to his basketball buddy Eddie Vedder?
Jack Irons
Irons later joined Pearl Jam himself as drummer in the mid-90s.
Q 15Nirvana formed in 1987 in which small Washington town?
Aberdeen
Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic met at Aberdeen High School; the Melvins rehearsed nearby.
Q 16Nirvana's debut single, the first Sub Pop Singles Club release in 1988, was a cover of which song?
Love Buzz
The original was by Dutch band Shocking Blue; the subscription club mailed a new single to members every month.
Q 17The recording budget printed on the sleeve of Nirvana's debut album Bleach was how much?
$606.17
Jason Everman paid the bill and got a credit on the album even though he never played on it.
Q 18Which drummer played on most of Bleach before Dave Grohl joined Nirvana in 1990?
Chad Channing
Buzz Osborne of the Melvins introduced Grohl to the band after Grohl's D.C. group Scream broke up.
Q 19Dave Grohl was drumming for which Washington, D.C. punk band before it broke up and he joined Nirvana?
Scream
He joined Scream at 17, replacing Kent Stax.
Q 20Who produced Nevermind?
Butch Vig
Sub Pop's Bruce Pavitt suggested him; the band liked his work with Killdozer, and the album was cut at Sound City for $65,000.
Hanna meant the deodorant Teen Spirit; Cobain took it as a revolutionary slogan and didn't learn about the product until months after the single came out.
Q 24Nirvana feared Come as You Are's riff resembled Eighties, a 1984 song by which English band?
Killing Joke
The band nearly released In Bloom instead; a rumoured lawsuit never materialised.
Q 25Which famously blunt engineer recorded Nirvana's In Utero in two weeks at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota?
Steve Albini
The whole thing cost about $25,000; the band later had Scott Litt remix Heart-Shaped Box and All Apologies.
Q 26Nirvana's MTV Unplugged set was taped in November 1993 at which studio?
Sony Music Studios in New York
Cobain asked for stargazer lilies, black candles and a chandelier; when the producer said it sounded like a funeral, he agreed.
Q 27Which band's Cris and Curt Kirkwood joined Nirvana on stage during the MTV Unplugged taping?
Meat Puppets
MTV had wanted bigger names like Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos as guests.
Q 28Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were married in February 1992 on a beach where?
Waikiki, Hawaii
Their daughter Frances Bean was born that August, with Michael Stipe as her godfather.
Q 29Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home on April 8, 1994, in which Seattle neighbourhood?
Denny-Blaine
Weeks earlier Love had found him unconscious in a Rome hotel room after an overdose.
Q 30Who played the one guitar part Dave Grohl didn't on the first Foo Fighters album?
Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs
The whole record took about six days; Grohl then hired the rhythm section of Sunny Day Real Estate to tour it.