Historical Context
Where is Kingston, Jamaica?
This decade witnessed the mega-success of a few recording superstar musicians.
What was the 1980s?
This new digital sound recording format was introduced in the 1980s.
What is the compact disc, or CD?
This genre featured cheerful songs aimed mainly at preteens.
What was "bubble gum"?
This band launched the alternative rock boom, opening the door for Seattle bands.
What was Nirvana?
This city witnessed the formation of punk and new wave.
Where is NYC?
This album was the #1 album for 37 weeks in 1983.
What was Thriller?
This decade witnessed hugely popular soundtracks, including songs from The Bodyguard, and Titanic.
What was the 90s?
Unlike alternative, this genre thrived as underground music in the 90s.
What is "indie rock"?
This musician's songs related stories of still young but aging men and women with dead-end jobs, or no jobs at all.
Who is Bruce Springsteen?
This decade was known for having six large music corporations, including Columbia, Warner, RCA, Capitol, and United Artists-MGM.
What were the 1970s?
By the end of the 1990s, almost every major genre had its own subcategory named this.
What is "alternative"?
The sales of these physical audio formats in 1984 surpassed sales of vinyl records for the first time in history.
What are cassette tapes?
The musicians of this genre dressed casually, projected themselves as amateur instrumentalists, and initially rejected major labels to work with smaller labels.
What was alternative?
In the early 80s, this artist could not break into MTV, though the artist's songs were covered by others.
Who was MJ?
Hip hop grew out of this neighborhood in NYC.
Where is the Bronx?
This music genre broke out in the mid to late 1970s when DJs noticed dancers responded to the "breaks" on funk and salsa records.
What is hip hop?
Synthesizers, drum machines, and synchronized turntables fueled this popular music dance genre in the 1970s.
What was disco?
This genre was the first alternative movement within rock in the 1970s.
What was "punk"?
This artist had self-revealing lyrics, like "what if there are no damsels in distress?", with a minimalist studio sound, and focused on voice and acoustic guitar.
Who is Ani DiFranco?
The original term for this genre implies nightclubs devoted to recorded music for dancing.
What is discotheque?
This dance song popularized a sequence of hand and hip movements with a rhythmic side-step in 1996.
What was "The Macarena"?
The launch of this in 1981 changed how the music industry operated because it became the preferred method for launching a new act.
What was MTV?
This genre is an extension of the old crooner tradition, with varying degrees of rock influence.
What is "adult contemporary"?
This musician owned their own studio, produced their own records, and played most of the instruments on their album.
Who is Prince?