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60 free 90s Rock trivia questions with answers. The 1990s started with Nevermind knocking a pop giant off number one and ended with a file-sharing app that terrified every record label. These 60 questions cover what happened in between: the Seattle bands who broke first, the Britpop chart war of August 1995, the punk revival that made Dookie a diamond seller, the nu metal wave out of Bakersfield, and the women who owned the decade's biggest rock albums. You will find questions on studios and producers (Butch Vig, Steve Albini, Bob Rock), on album covers and band names with odd origins, on chart records that still stand, and on the festivals that defined the era, from the first Lollapalooza to the fires at Woodstock '99. It is built for anyone who wore out a CD of Ten, Jagged Little Pill or OK Computer. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary references before publication, so the dates, sales figures and Grammy wins are accurate. Play it solo, or use it as a round for a pub quiz night.
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Q 01Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in January 1992 by knocking which album off the top?
Dangerous
Dangerous had topped the Billboard 200 since mid-December when Nevermind replaced it in the second week of January 1992; Geffen had hoped Nevermind might sell 250,000 copies, and it was certified Diamond by 1999.
Q 02Who produced Nirvana's Nevermind, giving it a far more polished, radio-friendly sound than Bleach?
Butch Vig
Butch Vig had recorded Nirvana's 1990 Smart Studios demos, which won him the Nevermind job; he later played drums in Garbage.
Q 03The swimming baby on the Nevermind cover, who sued the band in 2021, is named what?
Spencer Elden
Spencer Elden, four months old and the son of photographer Kirk Weddle's friend, was paid $200 for the shoot; Cobain's proposed compromise for the nudity was a sticker, not a crop.
Q 04Nirvana left Sub Pop and released Nevermind on which Geffen imprint?
DGC
DGC, the Geffen imprint Sonic Youth had joined, signed Nirvana in 1991 for a $287,000 advance, with Kim Gordon among those steering them there; Nevermind followed in September 1991.
Q 05Which indie producer recorded Nirvana's In Utero in two weeks in February 1993?
Steve Albini
Steve Albini recorded In Utero in about two weeks in February 1993 at Pachyderm Studio, taking a flat $100,000 fee and refusing royalty points on principle.
Q 06Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were married in February 1992 in which location?
Waikiki Beach
Waikiki Beach in Honolulu hosted the ceremony on 24 February 1992, days after Nirvana's Pacific Rim tour ended; their daughter Frances Bean was born that August.
Q 07Which fellow frontman was chosen as godfather to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter?
Michael Stipe
Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is Frances Bean Cobain's godfather; he had planned to record with Cobain in 1994 and sent him a plane ticket, but Cobain never came.
Q 08Kurt Cobain wanted the MTV Unplugged set, with its lilies, black candles and chandelier, to look like what?
A funeral
A funeral was what Cobain asked for, hence the stargazer lilies, black candles and crystal chandelier; the show was taped in a single take on 18 November 1993, less than five months before his death.
Q 09Members of which band joined Nirvana on stage for several songs at the MTV Unplugged taping in 1993?
Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets' Cris and Curt Kirkwood played on three of their own songs, Plateau, Oh Me and Lake of Fire; MTV had wanted bigger names such as Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos.
Q 10Pearl Jam recorded Ten under what earlier band name, borrowed from an NBA player?
Mookie Blaylock
The name was changed after Epic worried about rights once the player signed a Nike deal; the album title kept his jersey number.
Q 11Pearl Jam's Vs. set a first-week sales record in October 1993 with roughly how many copies?
950,000
950,000 is the rounded figure: Vs. sold 950,378 copies in its first week, a record at the time, outselling the rest of that week's Billboard top ten combined.
Q 12In 1994 Pearl Jam accused which company of monopolising concert tickets?
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster was the target of Pearl Jam's 1994 complaint to the Justice Department over service fees; the band spent years playing makeshift outdoor venues to avoid its exclusive contracts.
Q 13Which 1994 Soundgarden album debuted at number one and produced two Grammy-winning singles?
Superunknown
Q 21Under what name did Radiohead first play, referring to their usual school rehearsal day?
On a Friday
On a Friday, the day the five rehearsed in Abingdon School's music room, was their name until they signed to EMI in late 1991 and became Radiohead after a Talking Heads song.
Q 22Weezer's 1994 Blue Album was produced by the frontman of which band?
The Cars
The Cars' Ric Ocasek produced Weezer's 1994 debut at Electric Lady Studios in New York in 1993; its cover was inspired by a cheap Beach Boys cassette.
Q 23How many awards did Weezer's Buddy Holly video win at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards?
4
Buddy Holly took 4 awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Alternative Video, Best Direction and Best Editing; Spike Jonze, who also shot the Undone clip, directed the Happy Days mash-up.
Superunknown entered the Billboard 200 at number one in March 1994; Spoonman and Black Hole Sun won Grammys, and Soundgarden had been the first grunge band to sign with a major label, A&M, in 1988.
Q 14Which 1994 Alice in Chains release became the first EP ever to debut at number one on the Billboard 200?
Jar of Flies
Jar of Flies, written and recorded in about a week at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, entered the Billboard 200 at number one in February 1994 and went triple platinum.
Q 15Which album became the first from Seattle's grunge scene to be certified gold, in September 1991?
Facelift
Facelift had sold under 40,000 copies in six months until MTV put Man in the Box into daytime rotation; the RIAA certified it gold in September 1991.
Q 16Stone Temple Pilots won the 1994 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for which song from Core?
Plush
Plush won Best Hard Rock Performance at the March 1994 Grammys; Weiland and Dean DeLeo had also played it acoustically on Headbangers Ball, and Purple debuted at number one that June.
Q 17Under what band name did Stone Temple Pilots record a demo before a bluesman's claim?
Mighty Joe Young
Mighty Joe Young was the name on the band's 1990 demo, which included funk and even yodelling; a bluesman's claim to the name forced the switch to Stone Temple Pilots.
Q 18Which R.E.M. single from Out of Time was the band's highest-charting and best-selling hit?
Losing My Religion
Losing My Religion reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991, R.E.M.'s highest placing, and helped Out of Time to seven Grammy nominations; the follow-up Automatic for the People topped the UK chart.
Q 19Which Mellon Collie single gave the Smashing Pumpkins their highest Billboard Hot 100 peak?
1979
1979 peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1996, the Smashing Pumpkins' best showing there, and was nominated for Record of the Year at the 1997 Grammys.
Q 20Radiohead recorded much of OK Computer at St Catherine's Court, a mansion owned by which actress?
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour's Tudor manor near Bath, St Catherine's Court, hosted the sessions in 1996; the album won Best Alternative Music Album at the 1998 Grammys and joined the US National Recording Registry in 2014.
Q 24How many copies of Beck's Loser were pressed for its March 1993 12-inch release on Bong Load?
500
500 copies made up Bong Load's first 12-inch pressing in March 1993; after Geffen picked it up, the song reached number ten on the Hot 100 while Beck was living in a rat-infested shed.
Q 25Which single from Beck's Odelay won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 1997 Grammys?
Where It's At
Where It's At, with its 'two turntables and a microphone' refrain, won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in February 1997; Odelay sold two million copies and ended the one-hit-wonder talk after Mellow Gold.
Q 26Which guest played the one guitar part Dave Grohl didn't on the 1995 Foo Fighters debut?
Greg Dulli
Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs played guitar on X-Static; Grohl recorded the rest of the album mostly alone in six days at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle in October 1994.
Q 27The name Foo Fighters comes from a World War II term for what?
UFO sightings
UFO sightings by Allied pilots were nicknamed foo fighters in the war; Grohl took the name hoping to stay anonymous with a limited-run release.
Q 28After signing a major-label deal for Dookie, Green Day was banned from which Berkeley punk club?
924 Gilman Street
924 Gilman Street, the all-ages collective where Green Day had cut their teeth, barred major-label bands, so the Reprise deal shut them out; Maximumrocknroll piled on, and Dookie sold over ten million in the US anyway.
Q 29Green Day's Woodstock '94 set became infamous for what?
A mud fight
Opening with Welcome to Paradise after three days of rain provoked the crowd, and Armstrong taunted them back.
Q 30Which independent label released The Offspring's record-setting Smash (1994)?
Epitaph
Epitaph, owned by Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz, put out Smash in April 1994, and its sales of over ten million worldwide set the record for an independently released album; the band jumped to Columbia in 1996.