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