Progressive Rock
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50 free Progressive Rock trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Progressive rock asked how far a rock band could stretch. In the late 1960s and 1970s, groups such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Rush and Jethro Tull filled whole album sides with single pieces, borrowed from classical music and jazz, and toured with shows as ambitious as the records. This quiz covers the famous albums and the sleeves that wrapped them, the costumes and on-stage stunts, where well-known bands found their names, and the later groups that carried the style into the 1980s and beyond. A few questions cross the Channel to the scenes that grew up in continental Europe. It is written for fans who can argue for an hour about a favourite line-up, and for quiz hosts who need a ready-made music round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it as a free online trivia game or print it for a quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which animal is the only thing pictured on the front cover of Pink Floyd's 1970 album Atom Heart Mother?
A cow
A cow named Lulubelle III is all the sleeve shows, with no band name or title. Designer Storm Thorgerson drove into the countryside and photographed the first one he saw.
Q 02Which horror film made Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells a worldwide hit by using its opening piano motif as a theme?
The Exorcist
The Exorcist rescued a record that had been selling slowly. Mike Oldfield was 19 when recording began and played almost all of the instruments himself through overdubbing.
Q 03Which band lost a 1989 Grammy to Jethro Tull in one of the award show's most famous upsets?
Metallica
Metallica got the last word in 1992: accepting a Grammy for their self-titled album, drummer Lars Ulrich jokingly thanked Jethro Tull for not releasing an album that year.
Q 04Which drummer stepped up as lead singer of Genesis after a long search for a new frontman failed?
Phil Collins
Phil Collins had been singing backing vocals for the applicants during the auditions. He took the lead himself on the album A Trick of the Tail.
Q 05Which classic film do fans play in sync with Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, claiming the two match?
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz pairing, nicknamed Dark Side of the Rainbow, spread after a 1995 newspaper article. Members of Pink Floyd have denied any connection between the album and the film.
Q 06Which instrument did Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson make his trademark, often playing it while standing on one leg?
Flute
The flute replaced the electric guitar Ian Anderson had started on. His one-legged pose began by accident: he used to balance that way, holding the microphone stand, while playing harmonica.
Q 07Which music movement of the late 1970s is conventionally blamed for the fall of prog from popularity?
Punk rock
Punk rock made prog's utopian ideals look unfashionable. John Lydon was recruited to the Sex Pistols after being spotted in a Pink Floyd T-shirt he had defaced to say he hated the band.
Q 08Which American band scored 1970s hits with Carry On Wayward Son and the acoustic ballad Dust in the Wind?
Kansas
Kansas owe Dust in the Wind to a practice routine: guitarist Kerry Livgren devised its guitar line as a finger exercise while learning fingerpicking.
Q 09Which member of Pink Floyd conceived The Wall after spitting on a noisy fan at a Montreal stadium show?
Roger Waters
Roger Waters was troubled enough by the incident to imagine building a wall across the stage between the band and the audience. That idea grew into the 1979 double album.
Q 10Which artist, later the designer of the creature in Alien, painted Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery cover?
H. R. Giger
H. R. Giger painted the skull-and-machine sleeve in Zurich and designed the ELP logo the band used from then on. His design work on the film Alien later won an Academy Award.
Q 11Which Pink Floyd co-founder walked unannounced into the studio while the band was recording its tribute to him?
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett had shaved off his hair and eyebrows and put on weight, and his old bandmates did not recognise him at first. He had left seven years earlier as his mental health declined.
Q 12Which member of Genesis startled his bandmates by appearing mid-show in a red dress and a fox's head?
Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel borrowed his wife's dress for the stunt in Dublin in 1972, copying the cover of the album Foxtrot. The others at first mistook him for a fan invading the stage.
Q 13Which Rush member joined two weeks before the band's first US tour and became its main lyricist?
Neil Peart
Q 21Which English artist painted the fantasy landscapes on Yes album covers and designed the band's bubble logo?
Roger Dean
Roger Dean began with Fragile in 1971 and also built stage sets for Yes with his brother Martyn. He later sued James Cameron, alleging that Avatar had copied his images, but a judge dismissed the case.
Q 22Which Russian composer's piano suite did Emerson, Lake & Palmer turn into the live album Pictures at an Exhibition?
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky wrote ten movements, but the trio used only four of them, joined by new sections of their own. They played it live as one continuous piece at Newcastle City Hall.
Q 23Which band's 1967 debut single A Whiter Shade of Pale set a Bach-derived instrumental melody against soulful vocals?
Neil Peart replaced original drummer John Rutsey in 1974. The other two members had little interest in writing words, so his lyrics became as noticed as his playing.
Q 14Which Yes keyboardist ate a takeaway curry on stage in Manchester in protest at the band's setlist?
Rick Wakeman
Rick Wakeman was tired of playing all of Tales from Topographic Oceans, a double album of four side-long tracks. His technician brought him the meal mid-show, and he left Yes when the tour ended.
Q 15Which band's 1969 debut, with a painted face filling its gatefold cover, is often regarded as the first true prog album?
King Crimson
King Crimson got the painting from Barry Godber, a computer programmer who used his own face in a mirror as the model. He died of a heart attack shortly after the album came out.
Q 16Which London design group created the prism sleeve for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon?
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis took its name from graffiti its founders found on their apartment door. After the prism, the firm was hired for sleeves by Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Black Sabbath.
Q 17Which keyboard, developed in Birmingham in 1963, supplied the string and choir sounds on many 1970s prog albums?
Mellotron
The Mellotron works like an early sampler: pressing a key pulls a length of recorded tape across a playback head. Yes and Genesis both relied on it during the 1970s.
Q 18Which band recorded Days of Future Passed with the London Festival Orchestra, producing the hit Nights in White Satin?
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues had been asked to record classical pieces to show off their label's new stereo sound. They agreed, then quietly recorded their own songs instead.
Q 19Which band's album Breakfast in America shows a diner waitress posing as the Statue of Liberty on its cover?
Supertramp
Supertramp's waitress, named Libby, holds a glass of orange juice where the torch should be. Behind her is a view of Lower Manhattan as seen through an aeroplane window.
Q 20Over which London landmark does an inflatable pig float on the cover of Pink Floyd's album Animals?
Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station lost its pig during the photo shoot. The balloon broke free of its moorings and drifted over Heathrow, causing panic and cancelled flights.
Procol Harum
Procol Harum's single was reported in 2009 to be the most played song in public places in the UK over the previous 75 years. Its organ line resembles Bach's Air on the G String.
Q 24Which British record label launched in 1973 with Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells as its very first album release?
Virgin Records
Virgin Records had been founded the year before by Richard Branson and three partners. They were persuaded to open the catalogue with a long instrumental album by a newcomer.
Q 25Which instrument did Keith Emerson attack on stage, wedging knives between its keys to hold down notes?
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ was also whipped, pushed over and ridden across the stage like a horse. Emerson's dagger was a gift from Lemmy, later of Motörhead, who was a roadie for his band The Nice.
Q 26Which 1983 single, written mostly by guitarist Trevor Rabin, became the only US number one for Yes?
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Owner of a Lonely Heart began as a Trevor Rabin solo demo, taped at home on a 4-track machine. Singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire and producer Trevor Horn all added to the final version.
Q 27Which engineer of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon later led a hit studio Project under his own name?
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons joined Abbey Road Studios at 18 and earned his first credit on the Beatles' Abbey Road. He declined Pink Floyd's next record to start the Alan Parsons Project instead.
Q 28Which supergroup of prog veterans topped the US album chart for nine weeks with a debut featuring Heat of the Moment?
Asia
Asia united Steve Howe and Geoff Downes of Yes with Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Billboard ranked their debut the number one album in the United States for 1982.
Q 29Which subject were Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Richard Wright studying at a London polytechnic when the band began?
Architecture
Architecture classes at the polytechnic in Regent Street are where the future members met in 1962. Their group there became a sextet called Sigma 6, one of several names tried before the famous one.
Q 30In which ancient Roman amphitheatre did Pink Floyd film a concert with no audience beyond the camera crew?
Pompeii
Pompeii struck director Adrian Maben after he lost his passport there and went back to the deserted amphitheatre to look for it. He thought its silence would make a good backdrop for the music.