This music trivia game is the music edition of Rarest, where the rarest right answer wins. Prompts ask for songs by the Beatles, Queen, ABBA, Michael Jackson and Taylor Swift, operas, musical instruments, boy bands and more. Everyone names the singles; album tracks, B-sides and instruments from other musical traditions are what send your balloon to the top.
Play it right here: the game above locks every round to music. You can play the daily round (seven prompts, the same for everyone that day) or switch to Unlimited for as many rounds as you like. For a mix of all eight categories, play Rarest, the rarest answer game on the home page.
How the music trivia game works
- You get seven prompts, each starting with "Name a…" or "Name the…", and 25 seconds per prompt (or no clock at all with No timer).
- Type any correct answer and press Enter. A wrong guess costs one second and you can try again.
- Each correct answer lands in one of six tiers, from Flicker (5 points) to Inferno (100 points). Once per round, Thermal ×2 doubles one prompt.
- After each prompt you see where your answer ranks, the best-known answers and a few of the rarest.
All 40 prompts in the music trivia game
These are the prompts the music edition draws from, with how many correct answers each one accepts:
- Name a song by the Beatles (255 answers)
- Name a song by Queen (99 answers)
- Name a song by ABBA (91 answers)
- Name a song by Michael Jackson (113 answers)
- Name a song by Madonna (129 answers)
- Name a song by Taylor Swift (214 answers)
- Name a song recorded by Elvis Presley (341 answers)
- Name a song by the Rolling Stones (170 answers)
- Name a song by Elton John (128 answers)
- Name a song by David Bowie (181 answers)
- Name a song by Beyoncé (131 answers)
- Name a song by Rihanna (82 answers)
- Name a song by Pink Floyd (156 answers)
- Name an opera (300 answers)
- Name an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (31 answers)
- Name a ballet (200 answers)
- Name a composer of the Romantic era (200 answers)
- Name a Baroque composer (150 answers)
- Name an opera singer (300 answers)
- Name a string instrument (250 answers)
- Name a percussion instrument (200 answers)
- Name a wind instrument (200 answers)
- Name a genre of rock music (150 answers)
- Name a genre of electronic music (150 answers)
- Name a K-pop group (200 answers)
- Name a boy band (250 answers)
- Name a girl group (250 answers)
- Name a British rock band (250 answers)
- Name an American rock band (300 answers)
- Name a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (500 answers)
- Name a winner of the Grammy for Best New Artist (69 answers)
- Name an album that won the Grammy for Album of the Year (68 answers)
- Name a Christmas song (400 answers)
- Name a music festival (150 answers)
- Name a song by U2 (134 answers)
- Name a song by Led Zeppelin (79 answers)
- Name a song by the Bee Gees (133 answers)
- Name a song by Coldplay (71 answers)
- Name a song by Stevie Wonder (77 answers)
- Name a song by Fleetwood Mac (101 answers)
Common answers vs rare answers
Here is what separates a low score from a high one in the rarest answers for a few of the prompts. The left column is what most players type; the right column shows answers from the rarest tier for that prompt.
| Prompt | What most people say | Rare answers |
|---|---|---|
| Name a song by the Beatles | Hey Jude, Let It Be, Eleanor Rigby | When I Get Home, 12-Bar Original, You Know What to Do (Inferno) |
| Name a song by Queen | Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, Under Pressure | Seaside Rendezvous, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, All Dead, All Dead (Inferno) |
| Name a song by ABBA | Dancing Queen, Waterloo, The Winner Takes It All | My Mama Said, You Owe Me One, What About Livingstone (Inferno) |
| Name a song by Michael Jackson | We Are the World, Billie Jean, Beat It | Whoops Now / What'll I Do, Behind the Mask, Morning Glow (Inferno) |
| Name a song by Madonna | Like a Prayer, Hung Up, Vogue | Rebel Heart, Wash All Over Me, Gone Gone Gone (Inferno) |
| Name a song by Taylor Swift | Love Story, Bad Blood, Blank Space | Epiphany, Mr. Perfectly Fine, I Can Fix Him (Inferno) |
| Name a song recorded by Elvis Presley | Amazing Grace, My Way, Unchained Melody | Padre, All I Needed Was the Rain, Sylvia (Inferno) |
| Name a song by the Rolling Stones | Paint It Black, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter | If You Can't Rock Me, Out of Control, Lies (Inferno) |
| Name a song by Elton John | Rocket Man, Your Song, Don't Go Breaking My Heart | Restless, Burn Down the Mission, Sixty Years On (Inferno) |
| Name a song by David Bowie | Under Pressure, Space Oddity, "Heroes" | Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola, She Shook Me Cold, Scream Like a Baby (Inferno) |
For the rarest answers to every prompt in all eight categories, see the rarest answers list.
Tips to win the music trivia game
- Go past the greatest hits. Album tracks and B-sides are the rare tiers for every artist.
- Instruments from other traditions run deep: the tonkori, the buzuq and the ajaeng are Inferno answers for a string instrument.
- Operas reward the less-performed works of famous composers.
- Song titles are matched loosely, so punctuation and a missing 'The' do not matter.
More categories
Rarest has eight categories. Each one has its own page and its own locked game:
- Geography trivia
- Animals trivia
- Food & Drink trivia
- Sports trivia
- Movies & TV trivia
- Science trivia
- History trivia
Answer lists are built from Wikidata, and rarity comes from public Wikipedia statistics; read more on the About page.