Indie Music
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6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Indie Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Indie music began as a way of doing business before it was a sound. In the late 1970s, bands and small labels started pressing and selling their own records without the backing of the big record companies, and a whole culture grew up around doing it yourself: fanzines, late-night radio sessions, tiny shops and word of mouth. This quiz follows that story from the punk era to the streaming age. It takes in the British and American scenes, the labels that launched famous names, the albums that crossed over to the mainstream, the films and TV shows that carried the music to new listeners, and the odd tales behind band names and record sleeves. It is written for anyone who has ever queued outside a small venue or worn out a favourite album, and for quiz hosts who need a ready-made music round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it for a quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which British singer signed to the indie label XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace?
Adele
Adele joined XL in 2006, fresh out of the BRIT School, and the small label was still her home when it released her album 21 in 2011.
Q 02Which Sheffield band's 2006 debut album sold a then-record 360,000 copies in its first week in Britain?
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys built that demand before they had a deal: demo CDs handed out free at early gigs were copied and shared online by fans.
Q 03Which band's 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures has a cover showing stacked radio pulses from a distant pulsar?
Joy Division
Joy Division's sleeve plots signals from the first radio pulsar ever discovered, and in 2012 Disney sold a T-shirt that reworked the image around its cartoon mascot.
Q 04Which Detroit duo told reporters they were brother and sister when they were in fact a divorced couple?
The White Stripes
The White Stripes were Jack and Meg, married in 1996 and divorced in 2000; against convention, Jack had taken his wife's surname.
Q 05Which indie folk act recorded the album For Emma, Forever Ago over a winter alone in a Wisconsin hunting cabin?
Bon Iver
Bon Iver respells the French for good winter, a greeting Justin Vernon heard on the TV series Northern Exposure while ill in bed.
Q 06Which Oxfordshire band let fans name their own price in 2007 for the self-released download album In Rainbows?
Radiohead
Radiohead were free to try it because their EMI contract had run out, making it the first pay-what-you-want release by a major act.
Q 07Which 2007 film about a pregnant teenager took a soundtrack full of Kimya Dawson songs to number one in America?
Juno
Juno owes its sound to its star: Elliot Page suggested the Moldy Peaches to the director, and the album became the Rhino label's first chart-topper.
Q 08Which Leeds band, chart-toppers with the single Ruby, took its name from a South African football team?
Kaiser Chiefs
Kaiser Chiefs chose the name to honour Lucas Radebe, the Leeds United captain who began his career at Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa.
Q 09Which Las Vegas band took its name from a fictional group seen in a New Order music video?
The Killers
The Killers went beyond the name: the video for their own single Somebody Told Me copies parts of the stage set from New Order's Crystal clip.
Q 10Which Scottish band behind Take Me Out picked its name after seeing a racehorse win the Northumberland Plate?
Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand saw a horse called Archduke Ferdinand win in 2001, which set them talking about the archduke whose assassination led to World War I.
Q 11Which Manchester band of the 1980s paired the singer Morrissey with the guitarist Johnny Marr?
The Smiths
The Smiths lasted just five years: formed in 1982, they broke up in 1987 amid tension between their two songwriters.
Q 12Which band's single Country House beat Roll with It by Oasis to number one in a much-hyped 1995 chart race?
Blur
Blur won by 274,000 copies to 216,000, in what was the best week for British singles sales in a decade.
Q 13Which Montreal band won the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year with The Suburbs, out on the indie label Merge?
Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire handed Merge the night's top prize; the label had begun in 1989 as an outlet for its two founders' own group, Superchunk.
Q 21Which BBC Radio 1 DJ, on air from 1967 until 2004, invited new bands to record four-song studio sessions?
John Peel
John Peel also ran the Festive Fifty, a yearly countdown of the tracks his listeners had voted their favourites.
Q 22Which Seattle label, begun as a fanzine by Bruce Pavitt, released Bleach, the 1989 debut album by Nirvana?
Sub Pop
Sub Pop was kept going for years by sales of Bleach, and in 1995 its owners sold a 49% stake to the Warner Music Group.
Q 23Which London band, led by Pete Doherty and Carl Barât, released the 2002 debut album Up the Bracket?
The Libertines
The Libertines had the album produced by Mick Jones, guitarist of The Clash, and recorded it at RAK Studios in London.
Q 14Which New York band fronted by Julian Casablancas led the garage rock revival with the 2001 debut Is This It?
The Strokes
The Strokes saw the American CD delayed after the September 11 attacks, and a song about the city's police was swapped for a new one.
Q 15Which New York band behind the 2008 single A-Punk was formed by students at Columbia University?
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend took the name from a short film that singer Ezra Koenig shot one summer, his own take on The Lost Boys.
Q 16Which Australian psychedelic act is really one man, Kevin Parker, who writes, plays and produces the music alone?
Tame Impala
Tame Impala only becomes a group on tour, when other musicians join Parker to play the parts he recorded himself.
Q 17Which teen drama set in Newport Beach had guest bands play at its fictional concert venue, the Bait Shop?
The O.C.
The O.C. treated music as a character, in its creator's words, and put out six soundtrack albums of the acts it championed.
Q 18Which Texas city has been home to the South by Southwest music festival and conference since 1987?
Austin
Austin saw 700 people register for the first conference; by 2018 attendance had passed 161,000.
Q 19Record Store Day, launched in 2008 for indie music shops, copied a free giveaway day held for which products?
Comic books
Comic books came first: Free Comic Book Day inspired the pitch, which shop owners then worked up at a meeting in Baltimore.
Q 20Which online music platform, founded in 2008, began waiving its cut of sales on certain Fridays in 2020?
Bandcamp
Bandcamp's fee-free Fridays reportedly raised more than $40 million for artists in 2020 alone.
Q 24Which Boston band's soft-and-loud dynamics did Kurt Cobain say he was copying on Smells Like Teen Spirit?
Pixies
Pixies found bassist Kim Deal through an advert: she was the only person to answer and turned up without a bass, having never played one.
Q 25Which kind of American station gave 1980s underground bands like R.E.M. their early airplay, and the scene a name?
College radio
College radio lent the music the tag college rock, a term that described where the bands were heard more than how they sounded.
Q 26Which supergroup of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus won three Grammys in 2024 with The Record?
Boygenius
Boygenius took the name from a type the three had all met: men told since childhood that their every idea is brilliant.
Q 27Which Manchester band followed a 1989 debut album by playing to about 30,000 fans on Spike Island in 1990?
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses drew some 2,000 gatecrashers on top of the paying crowd, and one reviewer wrote that poor sound marred the day.
Q 28Which Manchester label gave catalogue numbers to a nightclub, a lawsuit and co-founder Tony Wilson's coffin?
Factory Records
Factory Records numbered the Haçienda FAC 51, and even a hairdressing salon and a roll of packing tape got catalogue entries.
Q 29Which London label grew out of the record shop that Geoff Travis opened off Ladbroke Grove in 1976?
Rough Trade
Rough Trade began releasing music in 1978 and was structured as a co-operative, shaped by left-wing politics.
Q 30Which label, co-founded by Alan McGee in 1983, later signed Oasis, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine?
Creation Records
Creation Records took its name from The Creation, a 1960s band McGee greatly admired, and set out to get young groups onto vinyl.