 - 1. What genre of African American folk music serves as the basis for much of modern American popular music?
A) Blues
B) Country
C) Classical
D) Military band music
- 2. Where did early forms of the blues evolve in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?
A) Detroit, Michigan
B) In and around the Mississippi Delta
C) Bakersfield, California
D) New Orleans, Louisiana
- 3. What was the earliest blues music primarily composed of?
A) Call and response vocal music without harmony, accompaniment, or formal structure
B) Piano-driven syncopated dance music
C) Large horn section orchestrations
D) Electric guitar solos with drum machines
- 4. When did modern gospel music begin in African American churches?
A) In the 1980s
B) In the late 19th century
C) In the 1920s
D) In the 1950s
- 5. Which composer used elements of blues and jazz in traditional hymns and spiritual songs?
A) Hank Williams
B) Louis Armstrong
C) Thomas A. Dorsey
D) Scott Joplin
- 6. What was ragtime originally?
A) A brass band funeral march
B) A piano style featuring syncopated rhythms and chromaticisms
C) An electronic synthesizer genre
D) An a cappella vocal tradition
- 7. Who was the most famous ragtime performer and composer?
A) Robert Johnson
B) Muddy Waters
C) Scott Joplin
D) Bessie Smith
- 8. Which ragtime composition is Scott Joplin known for?
A) "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
B) "A Change Is Gonna Come"
C) "Billie Jean"
D) "Maple Leaf Rag"
- 9. What term did record companies use in the 1920s for blues music targeted at African American audiences?
A) Contemporary R&B
B) Blue-eyed soul
C) Hillbilly music
D) Race music
- 10. Who was a legendary delta blues musician inspired by early race music acts?
A) Robert Johnson
B) Chet Atkins
C) Pat Boone
D) Elvis Presley
- 11. Which singer led the mainstream popularity of a bluesy style of gospel in 1950s America?
A) Mahalia Jackson
B) Aretha Franklin
C) Janet Jackson
D) Whitney Houston
- 12. Which city's blues musicians experienced major revivals in the 1950s?
A) Chicago
B) Detroit
C) New Orleans
D) Memphis
- 13. What city is recognized as having roots for jazz?
A) Nashville
B) New Orleans
C) Bakersfield
D) Seattle
- 14. Who was one of the first popular jazz stars and a major force in its development alongside Earl Hines?
A) Chuck Berry
B) Louis Armstrong
C) Merle Haggard
D) Teddy Riley
- 15. What improvisational vocal technique using nonsensical syllables did Louis Armstrong popularize?
A) Scat singing
B) Testifying
C) Melisma
D) Honky-tonk swagger
- 16. What 1930s pop big band jazz style was characterized by a strong rhythm section and medium to fast tempo?
A) New jack swing
B) Swing
C) Bebop
D) Free jazz
- 17. What form of jazz developed in the early and mid-1940s is characterized by fast tempos and flatted fifths?
A) Bebop
B) Philly soul
C) Swing
D) Country soul
- 18. Who were the innovators of bebop who arose from small jazz clubs in New York City?
A) Jimmie Rodgers and Ralph Peer
B) Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
C) Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
D) Buck Owens and Merle Haggard
- 19. What was early country music originally known as?
A) Contemporary R&B
B) Hillbilly music
C) Alternative country
D) Race music
- 20. Which instruments formed the earliest core of country instrumentation?
A) Electric guitar and double bass
B) Synthesizers and drum machines
C) European-derived fiddle and African-derived banjo
D) Horn section and grand piano
- 21. Who recorded Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family in 1927, tracing the roots of commercial country music?
A) Jerry Wexler
B) Ralph Peer
C) Berry Gordy
D) Chet Atkins
- 22. Who was viewed as a 'folk poet' with a 'honky-tonk swagger' and was a highly influential country musician after World War II?
A) Dwight Yoakam
B) Hank Williams
C) Garth Brooks
D) Willie Nelson
- 23. Which producer created the smooth, pop-oriented Nashville sound by stripping hillbilly elements?
A) Ralph Peer
B) Berry Gordy
C) Chet Atkins
D) Teddy Riley
- 24. Where did the Bakersfield sound originate as a traditionalist counter to the Nashville sound?
A) Detroit
B) Memphis
C) Chicago
D) Bakersfield
- 25. Which artists were part of the rock-oriented outlaw country movement in the early 1970s?
A) Buck Owens and Wynn Stewart
B) Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings
C) Simon and Garfunkel
D) Hall & Oates and The O'Jays
- 26. What does R&B stand for?
A) Rock and bebop
B) Rhythm and blues
C) Rural and balladry
D) Ragtime and brass
- 27. Who founded Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959?
A) Berry Gordy
B) Jerry Wexler
C) Chet Atkins
D) Ralph Peer
- 28. What term did Motown use to market its sound combining soul, funk, disco, and R&B?
A) "The Nashville Sound"
B) "The Minneapolis Sound"
C) "The Sound of Young America"
D) "The Bakersfield Sound"
- 29. Which singer's 1962 album 'Modern Sounds' featured a fusion of soul and country music?
A) Ray Charles
B) Sam Cooke
C) Marvin Gaye
D) James Brown
- 30. Which song by Sam Cooke became accepted as an anthem of the American Civil Rights Movement?
A) "Billie Jean"
B) "Maple Leaf Rag"
C) "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
D) "A Change Is Gonna Come"
- 31. Which artist is most responsible for turning R&B into soul and soul music into funk?
A) James Brown
B) Prince
C) Otis Redding
D) Ray Charles
- 32. Where was pure soul popularized by Otis Redding and other artists on Stax Records?
A) Chicago, Illinois
B) New York City, New York
C) Memphis, Tennessee
D) Detroit, Michigan
- 33. Who emerged by the late 1960s as the most popular female soul star in the country while recording with Atlantic?
A) Tina Turner
B) Whitney Houston
C) Aretha Franklin
D) Diana Ross
- 34. Whose 1971 album 'There's a Riot Goin' On' is considered among the first and best examples of matured funk music?
A) The O'Jays
B) Hall & Oates
C) The Temptations
D) Sly & the Family Stone
- 35. Who practiced an eclectic blend of poetry, jazz-funk, and soul with proto-rap work like 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'?
A) Curtis Mayfield
B) Marvin Gaye
C) R. Kelly
D) Gil Scott-Heron
- 36. Who is frequently recognized as the 'King of Pop' for his achievements in contemporary R&B and dance music?
A) James Brown
B) Bobby Brown
C) Prince
D) Michael Jackson
- 37. What regional sound was largely created by Prince, featuring a blend of horns, guitars, and electronic synthesizers?
A) The Minneapolis sound
B) Hip-hop soul
C) New jack swing
D) Philly soul
- 38. What album by Michael Jackson became the best-selling record of all time and broke the MTV color barrier?
A) Voodoo
B) Control
C) Off the Wall
D) Thriller
- 39. Who innovated the new jack swing sound, which combined vocal music, rapped verses, and drum machines?
A) Jimmy Jam
B) Quincy Jones
C) Teddy Riley
D) Terry Lewis
- 40. What gospel tradition involving the singing of a single syllable through multiple notes was adapted by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey?
A) Melisma
B) Scat singing
C) Testifying
D) Call and response
- 41. What 1992 soundtrack album featuring Whitney Houston spent 20 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 200 and remains the best-selling soundtrack of all time?
A) Thriller
B) Saturday Night Fever
C) Purple Rain
D) The Bodyguard
- 42. Which genre developed in the 1990s as a mixture of contemporary R&B with hip-hop beats and sometimes gangsta rap themes?
A) Hip-hop soul
B) Neo soul
C) New jack swing
D) Blue-eyed soul
- 43. Which album by D'Angelo has been recognized by music writers as a masterpiece and the cornerstone of the neo soul genre?
A) There's a Riot Goin' On
B) Voodoo
C) Make It Last Forever
D) Control
- 44. Which music journalist coined the phrase 'rhythm and blues'?
A) Chet Atkins
B) Berry Gordy
C) Ralph Peer
D) Jerry Wexler
- 45. What alternative country band formed in the 1980s was explicitly opposed to the pop-oriented mainstream country style?
A) The O'Jays
B) The Carter Family
C) Uncle Tupelo
D) Sly & the Family Stone
- 46. Who was considered the best-known New York composer and a songwriter with Tin Pan Alley?
A) John Cage
B) George Gershwin
C) Aaron Copland
D) Charles Griffes
E) Charles Ives
- 47. Which composer from Brooklyn first used elements of American folk music in his compositions before turning to ballet and serial music?
A) John Adams
B) Steve Reich
C) Terry Riley
D) Aaron Copland
- 48. What technique did Steve Reich discover where two musical activities begin simultaneously and gradually drift out of sync?
A) Phasing
B) Serialism
C) Modulation
D) Syncopation
- 49. Which non-Western musical techniques did Steve Reich incorporate into his compositions?
A) African rhythmic techniques
B) Asian pentatonic scales
C) Latin American polyrhythms
D) Middle Eastern microtones
- 50. Which Baltimore native based out of New York heavily influenced recent composers and performers with minimalist works?
A) Miguel del Aguila
B) Meredith Monk
C) John Cage
D) Philip Glass
- 51. What kind of songs constituted the first kind of mainstream popular music during the American Revolution?
A) Spirituals
B) Patriotic lay songs
C) Ragtime pieces
D) Minstrel tunes
- 52. Which fife song from the American Revolution is the longest lasting and still well known today?
A) Hail, Columbia
B) Dixie
C) Simple Gifts
D) Yankee Doodle
- 53. What song served as an unofficial national anthem before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner"?
A) Yankee Doodle
B) Dixie
C) The Liberty Tree
D) Hail, Columbia
- 54. Who wrote the Shaker Community song "Simple Gifts" in 1848?
A) Thomas Paine
B) Elder Joseph Brackett
C) Stephen Foster
D) Daniel Decatur Emmett
- 55. Who wrote the song "Dixie", which was originally titled "Dixie's Land" for the closing of a minstrel show?
A) Stephen Foster
B) Daniel Decatur Emmett
C) Thomas D. Rice
D) John Philip Sousa
- 56. What became the first distinctively American form of music expression following the Civil War?
A) Minstrel shows
B) Tin Pan Alley
C) Vaudeville
D) Ragtime
- 57. Who was the most famous popular songwriter produced by minstrel shows?
A) Stephen Foster
B) Daniel Decatur Emmett
C) Thomas D. Rice
D) Thomas Paine
- 58. Which composer and former bandmaster of the United States Marine Band wrote military marches like "The Stars and Stripes Forever"?
A) Aaron Copland
B) John Philip Sousa
C) George Gershwin
D) Charles Ives
- 59. In the early 20th century, what was a major source for popular songs that included Broadway theatres as a center of development?
A) Civil War brass bands
B) American musical theater
C) Shaker communities
D) Minstrel shows
- 60. What were spirituals primarily expressions of?
A) Religious faith
B) Military victory
C) Political protest
D) Secular romance
- 61. Who originally sang spirituals on southern plantations?
A) Slaves
B) German settlers
C) Mexican soldiers
D) European colonists
- 62. In what time period did spirituals spread out of the U.S. South?
A) Early 20th century
B) Early 18th century
C) Late 20th century
D) Mid to late 19th century
- 63. Which university became home to the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1871?
A) Fisk University
B) Columbia University
C) Yale University
D) Harvard University
- 64. What group popularized spirituals across the country starting in 1871?
A) The Cajun Francophones
B) The Tejano Folk Musicians
C) Fisk Jubilee Singers
D) The European Colonists
- 65. What musical groups arose in imitation of the Fisk Jubilee Singers?
A) Gospel quartets
B) Jazz ensembles
C) Symphony orchestras
D) Mariachi bands
- 66. What type of lyrics are typical of the blues?
A) Lamenting lyrics
B) Joyful religious lyrics
C) Strictly political lyrics
D) Navigational sea shanties
- 67. When did the codified form of modern blues come into existence?
A) Late 18th century
B) Mid 19th century
C) Early 19th century
D) Early 20th century
- 68. Which immigrant community maintains a local scene in New England according to the text?
A) Armenians
B) Cajuns
C) Cape Verdeans
D) Italians
- 69. Which immigrant community maintains a local scene in California?
A) Cajuns
B) Armenians
C) Cape Verdeans
D) Ukrainians
- 70. What happened to native Tejanos after Texas joined the United States?
A) They adopted British classical music traditions
B) They moved back to Mexico
C) They began culturally developing separately from their neighbors to the south
D) They founded the Fisk Jubilee Singers
- 71. Which instrument was adopted by Tejano folk musicians around the start of the 20th century?
A) The piano
B) The violin
C) The trumpet
D) The accordion
- 72. What is the period between 1550 and 1825 known as in classical music?
A) The common practice period
B) The modern blues era
C) The jazz age
D) The folk revival period
- 73. How did many American classical composers behave until late in the 19th century?
A) They attempted to work entirely within European models
B) They refused to use traditional instruments
C) They focused exclusively on African American spirituals
D) They strictly incorporated Native American music
- 74. Who was the prominent Czech composer who visited the United States from 1892 to 1895?
A) Ludwig van Beethoven
B) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
C) Antonín Dvořák
D) Johann Sebastian Bach
- 75. What is the United States often described as regarding culture?
A) A cultural melting pot
B) An isolated tradition
C) A musical desert
D) A cultural monolith
- 76. How was West African music incidentally transplanted to the United States?
A) Through religious outreach
B) Through formal educational events
C) Through Irish immigration
D) Through slavery
- 77. Irish music was brought to the United States primarily through what process?
A) Military conquest
B) Slavery
C) Colonial expansion
D) Immigration
- 78. Modern Hawaiian music is thoroughly hybridized and prominently features what instrument style?
A) Slack-key guitar
B) Electric bass
C) Accordion
D) Bagpipes
- 79. What mid-20th-century movement appropriated rural peoples' music to promote political causes?
A) The minstrel show movement
B) The folk revival
C) The colonial expansion
D) The Great Awakening
- 80. What is the primary nature of most Native American tribal folk music?
A) Spiritual
B) Dance-only
C) Secular narrative
D) Military marching
- 81. Modern Native American music is prominently showcased at what pan-tribal gatherings?
A) Minstrel shows
B) Camp meetings
C) Broadside gatherings
D) Pow wows
- 82. The Thirteen Colonies were former possessions of which country, making its culture a foundation for American folk music?
A) France
B) Mexico
C) England
D) Spain
- 83. Anglo-American songs are characterized by having fewer pentatonic tunes, less prominent accompaniment, and heavier use of what?
A) Syncopation
B) Vocables
C) Drones
D) Polyphony
- 84. Anglo-American traditional music includes broadside ballads, humorous stories, tall tales, and disaster songs regarding mining, shipwrecks, and what else?
A) Poverty
B) Immigration
C) Murder
D) Farming
- 85. The American square dance is descended from which European dance?
A) Klezmer
B) Quadrille
C) Polka
D) Quadratic
- 86. What American innovation was added to the square dance?
A) A caller instructing the dancers
B) Polyphonic vocal harmonies
C) Descending melodic figures
D) The use of slack-key guitars
- 87. Which religious communal society emigrated from England during the 18th century and developed their own folk dance style?
A) The Shakers
B) The Amish
C) The Ephrata Cloister
D) The Harmony Society
- 88. Where were the Amish, Harmony Society, and Ephrata Cloister located?
A) New England
B) Pennsylvania
C) Virginia
D) Louisiana
- 89. When black people began singing adapted versions of Protestant camp meeting hymns, what were they called?
A) Work songs
B) Tejano music
C) Negro spirituals
D) Blue-eyed soul
- 90. What economic and social class division is associated with upper-class patronage in American music?
A) Rural folk performers
B) Symphony-goers
C) Hip-hop artists
D) Blues musicians
- 91. What identity does popular American country music appeal to, regardless of its listeners' actual status?
A) Aristocratic identity
B) Working-class identity
C) Academic identity
D) Upper-class identity
- 92. For much of American history, what has music-making been considered?
A) A strictly military duty
B) A forbidden practice
C) A feminized activity
D) An industrial profession
- 93. Recorded traditions in popular music quickly became more dominated by which group?
A) Women
B) Children
C) Foreigners
D) Men
- 94. What kind of documentation exists for colonial-era African American music?
A) Detailed sheet music libraries
B) Little documentation
C) Extensive documentation
D) Complete audio recordings
- 95. How many distinct fields of early classical music were there during the colonial era?
A) Two
B) One
C) Three
D) Four
- 96. Which region was associated with the colonial classical tradition of composers who worked almost entirely within the European model?
A) New England
B) Mid-Atlantic cities
C) The Western frontier
D) The Deep South
- 97. What was the origin of most of the mid-Atlantic classical composers who worked in the European model?
A) English
B) Spanish
C) French
D) German
- 98. Where was William Billings born?
A) Philadelphia
B) Boston
C) New Orleans
D) Baltimore
- 99. Who is recognized as the founder of the American church choir?
A) John Knowles Paine
B) William Billings
C) Supply Belcher
D) Anthony Heinrich
- 100. Who was the first American composer to write for a symphony orchestra?
A) Anthony Heinrich
B) Louis Moreau Gottschalk
C) William Billings
D) John Knowles Paine
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