How to Make a Good Music Quiz

Answer: "Bob Dylan Lyrics"

"Bob Dylan Lyrics" is a good title because it's descriptive and to the point; "Music" and "Songs I Like" are too vague. When making a quiz in Music or any other category, the more specific the scope of the quiz, the better. "Britney's Boyfriends" is an indicator that the quiz will be about an artist's personal life, which is not acceptable in Music.

Answer: All of these

Many people have trouble thinking of interesting information to give. Interesting information is what makes a good quiz; players like to feel that they've learned something when they take a quiz. This is your opportunity to shine as a quizmaker and share your enthusiasm for your topic, whether it's Verdi arias or Madonna. You can make personal observations, such as "I love Janet Jackson!", but you must also provide facts with it.

In Music or any other category, you can't use obscenities, even if they're "censored" with punctuation signs.

Answer: Mozart

When making a quiz, try to limit your use of fill-in-the-blanks. This is where many quizmakers run into problems. FITB answers are not case-sensitive, but they are sensitive to everything else- quotes, punctuation, spelling, etc. That is why you should keep your FITBs as short and simple as possible.

Avoid using answers that are more than four words long, or are too hard to spell (many players are not good at spelling and get frustrated when they miss a question due to spelling). Avoid answers that have punctuation in them, such as apostrophes ("Dexy's Midnight Runners"), hyphens ("VH-1"), periods ("Mary J. Blige"), or some unusual form ("Soul II Soul").

These just cause confusion. And never put FITB answer in quotes.

Answer: All of these

Also, titles of tours (e.g. Madonna's "Like a Virgin" tour) go in quotes, as well as anything that seems to be the title of something. Names of bands and singers do NOT go in quotes. For example: The Eurythmics' song "There Must be an Angel" is from their album "Eurythmics". Exception: this rule does not apply when the answer is stand-alone, meaning it's an answer of a multiple-choice question.

Answer: "What was the name of the Bee Gees' 1972 album?"

In Music, we do not allow questions that are "dated", or are valid for only a specific period of time (i.e. the time that the quiz was made). The quiz must be able to be as "fresh" ten years from now as it is the day you make it. Some words to avoid are "latest", "recent", "now", "lately", "currently", or anything else that puts a time-stamp on the quiz.

In addition, you can't ask about things that haven't happened yet, such as "Jennifer Lopez's next duet will be with who?" An exception would be for an artist who is no longer alive, as in "What was Elvis' last single?" In this instance, it's obvious that Elvis is not going to be producing any more songs (at least, according to most people).

Answer: "Richard Melville Hall, aka Moby, got his nickname from his great-great-granduncle, Herman Melville."

The key words are INTERESTING INFORMATION. What track the song is on the CD is not interesting; it's also not a good idea to use, because sometimes CDs that are released in different countries have different track listings. Also, comments such as "I hate this song" or "This is the greatest band ever" are not information- they're editorial comments. Feel free to make personal comments, but only after you've provided some facts.

The item about Moby's dating habits is dated, as the word "currently" is used (especially when referring to celebs dating each other, which could change the next day.)

Answer: Go to a website and look up some info on the question

When making a quiz, you should ALWAYS be able to provide at least one tidbit of interesting information! Although they fill the space, song lyrics are not really information; people want to learn something new when taking a quiz. Many people say that they have trouble coming up with information to provide.

Here's what I do when I make a Music quiz: I type the name of the band or singer into a search engine such as Yahoo or Google, and come up with several websites. Then I read the websites and pick out some facts that are interesting and relevant to the quiz.

For example, "This song reached number 3 on the US charts in 1983". Be careful to put information in your own words, however; if you use info from another source, you must cite it properly. (See the Quiz Creation guidelines for more on this.)

Answer: Find another lyric

Many times we Music editors come across song lyrics that are obscene, vulgar, or in some way inappropriate for a family website. There is only one acceptable answer here: find another lyric to use. The First Amendment (freedom of speech) does not apply to this site; this is a family site with standards and rules that everyone must abide by.

Answer: Most quiz players like quizzes that are all FITB

FITBs are hard to deal with due to their nature. The rule of thumb when making FITBs is KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid, for those of you not familiar with this acronym). The simpler, the better. Avoid punctuation such as commas, apostrophes, and hyphens, and long or hard-to-spell words.

Many players, especially those who are not good at spelling, do not like FITB questions at all and may even hit the "back" button if they see a quiz that has too many FITBs!

Answer: "Hope you enjoyed my quiz!"

When making a Music (or any other) quiz, it's best to limit editorial comments and chatter. Be especially careful not to say anything that may make players feel dumb if they miss a question, such as "Duh!" You want people to feel good after they take a quiz, not bad.

As for the "dopeheads" comment, this should be obvious- you don't want to offend anyone by categorizing them or calling them offensive names ("dopehead", "redneck", etc.) Now go out and make a good Music quiz!