Music and Movies
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7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Music and Movies trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Music and movies have been borrowing from each other for a century. A song can turn a scene into a memory, and a scene can send an old record racing back up the charts decades after it was made. Pop stars step in front of the camera, actors learn to sing for a role, and a handful of composers have written tunes that more people can hum than can name. This quiz covers that shared ground. You will find soundtrack moments, big-screen musicals, biopics about famous performers, the people who write film scores, and music videos made by film directors. A few straight music questions and straight movie questions are mixed in, so both halves of a quiz team get a turn. It is pitched for a mixed crowd: plenty of questions most people can reach, some for fans, and a few to argue over. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works for a pub quiz round, a family film night, or a quick solo game.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which band wrote Eye of the Tiger after Sylvester Stallone asked for a theme song for Rocky III?
Survivor
Survivor got the job only because Queen refused to let Stallone use Another One Bites the Dust. The replacement spent six weeks at number one in America.
Q 02Which comedy sent Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody back up the charts with a lip-synced singalong in a car?
Wayne's World
Wayne's World almost used a Guns N' Roses song instead, until Mike Myers threatened to quit over it. The 1975 single then reached number two in America, higher than its first run.
Q 03Which actor supported his family as a carpenter before George Lucas cast him as Han Solo in Star Wars?
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford was first hired only to read lines with actors auditioning for Star Wars, and George Lucas was won over. He had taught himself carpentry because he disliked the roles on offer.
Q 04Which actor won an Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody?
Rami Malek
Rami Malek took the part after years of false starts: Sacha Baron Cohen was announced as the Queen singer back in 2010. The film won four Oscars, the most of its ceremony.
Q 05Which actress sang Over the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz, a ballad the studio nearly cut as too slow?
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was 16 when she recorded it on an MGM soundstage in October 1938. The producer and director fought to keep the number, and it won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Q 06Which Chuck Berry hit does Marty McFly play on guitar at the school dance in Back to the Future?
Johnny B. Goode
Johnny B. Goode is also on its way out of the Solar System: the original recording is on the Voyager Golden Record, launched into deep space in 1977.
Q 07Which singer does Taron Egerton play, from child prodigy to superstar, in the film Rocketman?
Elton John
Elton John's 1972 single Rocket Man gave the film its title. Egerton had sung one of his hits before, voicing a gorilla in the animated film Sing.
Q 08Which film made Unchained Melody a hit again with a love scene at a pottery wheel?
Ghost
Ghost used a recording from 1965, sung by Bobby Hatfield, which returned to the American charts a quarter of a century after it was made.
Q 09Which star of the ABBA film musical set on a Greek island holds the record for Oscar acting nominations?
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep earned her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter, three decades before she sang her way through Mamma Mia!, filmed on the island of Skopelos.
Q 10Which star danced through the title number of Singin' in the Rain while running a 103-degree fever?
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly was more than the leading man: he directed and choreographed the film with Stanley Donen. The sick day produced its most famous scene, umbrella, puddles and all.
Q 11Which actor, a classically trained pianist, won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Ray Charles in Ray?
Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx began playing at five and studied classical piano on a university scholarship. He swept the season for the role, adding a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild award.
Q 12Which rock band's only US number one came from Armageddon, a film featuring the singer's daughter?
Aerosmith
Aerosmith were only considered once Liv Tyler, daughter of frontman Steven Tyler, had been cast; U2 had been asked first. Diane Warren's ballad entered the Hot 100 at the top.
Q 13Which actor plays a broke guitarist posing as a substitute teacher at a prep school in School of Rock?
Jack Black
Q 21Which composer wrote the music for West Side Story, the musical that moves Romeo and Juliet to New York?
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein wanted to write the show as an opera, but his collaborators resisted the idea. A young Stephen Sondheim supplied the lyrics.
Q 22Which Scottish actor was the first to play James Bond on the big screen, in Dr. No?
Sean Connery
Sean Connery was not the author's pick: Ian Fleming reportedly favoured Richard Todd. David Niven, another candidate, went on to play the spy in a 1967 parody.
Q 23Which English port city is home to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played hundreds of times?
Liverpool
Jack Black rocks off screen too: he formed the comedy duo Tenacious D with his friend Kyle Gass in 1994, and the pair have won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance.
Q 14Which former Oingo Boingo frontman scored Tim Burton's Batman and sang as Jack Skellington?
Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman won a Grammy for that 1989 score, which set the dark orchestral style he became known for. He also composed the theme tune of The Simpsons.
Q 15Which Pixar film follows a boy named Miguel into the Land of the Dead after his family bans music?
Coco
Coco is named after Miguel's great-grandmother rather than its young hero. The film won two Oscars, for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.
Q 16Which Welsh singer recorded the theme songs for three James Bond films, beginning with Goldfinger?
Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey returned for Diamonds Are Forever in 1971 and Moonraker in 1979. Goldfinger was her one Top 40 hit on the American Hot 100.
Q 17Which rock star played Jareth the Goblin King opposite Jennifer Connelly in Jim Henson's Labyrinth?
David Bowie
David Bowie also recorded five songs for the fantasy, including Magic Dance and Underground. George Lucas was its executive producer.
Q 18Which Memphis mansion did Elvis Presley buy at the age of 22 and call home for the rest of his life?
Graceland
Graceland cost Presley $102,500 in 1957 and opened as a museum in 1982. He is buried in its Meditation Garden beside his parents.
Q 19Which actress won an Oscar for playing June Carter opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line?
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon was surprised to learn she would have to sing the part herself. Phoenix likewise performed every one of the country star's vocals for the film.
Q 20In which film does Tom Cruise slide across the floor in socks to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll?
Risky Business
Risky Business has his character home alone, raiding the liquor cabinet and dancing in his underwear. The scene sent the song back into the American charts in 1983.
Liverpool saw the last of those shows on 3 August 1963, only six months before the band's first trip to America.
Q 24Which comedy about a band reunited to save an orphanage grew out of a Saturday Night Live sketch?
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers gave screen time to the stars its heroes worshipped: James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway all perform numbers in it.
Q 25Which future pop star earned a Golden Globe nomination for playing the Tejano singer Selena on film?
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn $1 million with the 1997 role. Her own debut album, On the 6, followed two years later.
Q 26Which singer-songwriter wrote and sang You've Got a Friend in Me for Pixar's Toy Story?
Randy Newman
Randy Newman went on to win Best Original Song Oscars for two later Pixar films, Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 3. He has scored most of the studio's Toy Story and Cars films.
Q 27Which Caribbean island is the birthplace of Rihanna, who was declared a national hero there in 2021?
Barbados
Barbados honoured her at the ceremony that marked its becoming a republic, on 30 November 2021. She was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in the parish of Saint Michael.
Q 28Which New Jersey rocker won an Oscar for a song he wrote for the Tom Hanks drama Philadelphia?
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen wrote Streets of Philadelphia at the request of director Jonathan Demme, who went on to direct its video. The song also won four Grammys.
Q 29Which composer wrote Moon River for Breakfast at Tiffany's and the slinking theme for The Pink Panther?
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini wrote the tune for Audrey Hepburn to sing on screen, and a Paramount executive wanted the song cut after a test preview. It stayed, and won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Q 30Which 1940 animated film set cartoons to classical music and cast Mickey Mouse as a sorcerer's apprentice?
Fantasia
Fantasia was the first commercial film released in stereo, using a sound system built specially for it. Dopey the dwarf was considered for the apprentice before Mickey got the part.