1960s Music Quiz

1. The 'British Invasion' of the early 1960s refers to which musical phenomenon?

1. American jazz musicians moving to Britain
2. British classical music becoming popular in the US
3. British folk music replacing American country in popularity
4. British rock and pop bands dominating American charts, led by The Beatles

2. Woodstock (August 1969) was a three-day music festival in upstate New York. How many people approximately attended?

1. 200,000
2. 50,000
3. Over 1 million
4. Over 400,000

3. Motown Records was founded in Detroit in 1959. Its founder Berry Gordy named it after Detroit's nickname. What is Detroit's nickname?

1. The Auto Town
2. The Motor City
3. The Music City
4. The Steel City

4. Bob Dylan shocked the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 by doing what?

1. Inviting The Beatles on stage
2. Performing in a costume
3. Playing electric guitar instead of acoustic, outraging folk purists
4. Refusing to perform and giving a political speech

5. The 'Summer of Love' (1967) was centred in which San Francisco neighbourhood?

1. Haight-Ashbury
2. North Beach
3. The Castro
4. The Mission

6. Which song, often considered the greatest rock and roll record ever made, opens with the lyric 'One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock'?

1. Hound Dog by Elvis Presley
2. Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry
3. Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets
4. Tutti Frutti by Little Richard

7. The Rolling Stones were founded in London in 1962. Who are the band's founding members still active today?

1. Mick Jagger and Brian Jones
2. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards only
3. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood
4. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman

8. Jimi Hendrix's performance of the US national anthem at Woodstock (1969) is famous for which reason?

1. He performed it with a full orchestra
2. He played it entirely backwards
3. He sang it a cappella without his guitar
4. His distorted, feedback-laden guitar version reimagined it as a sonic depiction of war and social turmoil

9. Which Motown act recorded 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' (1968)?

1. Marvin Gaye
2. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
3. The Four Tops
4. The Temptations

10. The Monterey Pop Festival (June 1967) is remembered as which breakthrough event?

1. The first festival broadcast live on television
2. The first major rock festival, introducing Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to mainstream American audiences
3. The first outdoor rock festival ever held
4. The last performance of The Beatles

11. What was significant about The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) album cover?

1. It was entirely designed by Salvador Dalí
2. It was the first album cover photographed in colour
3. The cover shows them walking away from EMI Studios for the last time
4. The four Beatles crossing Abbey Road became one of music's most iconic and imitated images, also sparking 'Paul is dead' theories

12. Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. She is known by which title?

1. The Empress of R&B
2. The First Lady of Music
3. The Lady of Soul
4. The Queen of Soul

13. Which album, released in June 1967, is frequently cited as the greatest album ever recorded?

1. Bob Dylan — Blonde on Blonde
2. The Beach Boys — Pet Sounds
3. The Beatles — Revolver
4. The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

14. The 'Altamont Free Concert' (December 1969) is remembered as the darker counterpart to Woodstock. What happened?

1. A stage collapsed killing three musicians
2. The festival was cancelled mid-way due to riots
3. The Grateful Dead refused to perform, causing a crowd stampede
4. Violence and a murder by Hells Angels (hired as security) cast a shadow over the Rolling Stones concert

15. What is a 'concept album' and which 1960s band pioneered the format?

1. An album recorded in a single day; The Kinks
2. An album released in limited edition; The Rolling Stones
3. An album where all songs are covers; Bob Dylan
4. An album with a unified theme or narrative; The Beatles with Sgt. Pepper's

16. What was the name of the 1960s soul music genre that emerged from Memphis, Tennessee, produced by Stax Records?

1. Chicago Soul
2. Detroit Soul (Motown Sound)
3. Philly Soul
4. Southern Soul / Memphis Soul

17. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966) influenced The Beatles to make which album in response?

1. Help!
2. Revolver
3. Rubber Soul
4. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

18. Otis Redding's posthumous hit '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' (1968) was released after his death. How did he die?

1. He died of a drug overdose in Memphis
2. He died of a heart attack on stage
3. He was killed in a car accident
4. His private plane crashed into Lake Monona, Wisconsin in December 1967

19. The Velvet Underground, led by Lou Reed, are considered pioneers of which musical movement?

1. Art rock and proto-punk
2. Glam rock
3. New wave
4. Psychedelic rock

20. What did the phrase 'turn on, tune in, drop out' — associated with the 1960s counterculture — mean?

1. A Bob Dylan lyric about leaving the music industry
2. A pro-drug slogan coined by Timothy Leary encouraging psychedelic experience, cultural engagement, and rejecting mainstream values
3. An early slogan for anti-war protests
4. Turn on a radio, tune into underground stations, drop out of society