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