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Answer Key
1. A
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45. A
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1. Thomas Edison made his first sound recordings on a cylinder wrapped in tinfoil.
A) True
B) False
2. The word phonograph comes from the Latin words phone and graph, which put together
mean “recorded speaking.”
A) True
B) False
3. Thomas Edison initially expected his new phonograph to be used as a kind of telephone
answering machine.
A) True
B) False
4. Edison’s early cylinder recordings were made out of durable vinyl.
A) True
B) False
5. Unlike Edison’s phonograph, Emile Berliner’s gramophone played flat disks.
A) True
B) False
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6. One advantage of polyvinyl records over shellac records is that they were less likely to
break.
A) True
B) False
7. A war among vinyl recording disk formats in the late 1940s and early 1950s resulted in
the 45-rpm record format being used exclusively for the release of album music collections.
A) True
B) False
8. Audiotape was developed by the Japanese after World War II.
A) True
B) False
9. In 1958, after audiotape became more accessible, recordings were made on two separate
channels (tracks or sounds) and were put to commercial use.
A) True
B) False
10. Until the invention of digital recording, records were made using an analog recording
process.
A) True
B) False
11. Compact discs hit the market in the early 1980s, and by 2000 their sales were still
lagging way behind the albums and cassette tapes most people were familiar with.
A) True
B) False
12. A key factor in the success of the MP3 format is its ability to send or receive music
without having to compress sound.
A) True
B) False
13. The music industry has successfully hindered peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, which enable
free music file-sharing.
A) True
B) False
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14. The music industry — especially major labels — ultimately embraced the MP3 format by
supporting services like iTunes.
A) True
B) False
15. Streaming music is quickly becoming the format of choice. We are shifting from
ownership of music to access to music.
A) True
B) False
16. In the 1920s, many radio stations went off the air because they couldn’t afford to pay for
the rights to broadcast recorded music.
A) True
B) False
17. The popularity of the jukebox caused record sales to drop sharply in the 1930s.
A) True
B) False
18. Competition from TV in the 1950s helped the radio and recording industries become
allies.
A) True
B) False
19. Blues music originated in the urban taverns of Southern California.
A) True
B) False
20. Sometimes called the first integrationist music, rock and roll blurred all sorts of cultural,
class, and geographic boundaries.
A) True
B) False
21. White Cleveland deejay Alan Freed played black music for his audiences beginning in
the early 1950s. He was given credit for making rock and roll a popular term.
A) True
B) False
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22. Elvis Presley created the sound called rockabilly.
A) True
B) False
23. In the late 1950s, singer Little Richard stopped performing rock and roll because he
believed it was the “devil’s music.”
A) True
B) False
24. In the 1950s, it was common practice for white artists to cover songs first recorded by
black performers.
A) True
B) False
25. Payola is the practice of record promoters paying deejays to play certain songs on the air.
A) True
B) False
26. The first congressional hearings on radio payola started soon after the quiz-show
scandals in television.
A) True
B) False
27. The record industry groomed singers Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard
as replacements for rebellious rock and rollers like Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson.
A) True
B) False
28. The Rolling Stones emphasized chord-driven rhythms in their music, while the Beatles
stressed melody.
A) True
B) False
29. British rock-and-roll groups such as the Beatles drew much of their inspiration from
black artists.
A) True
B) False
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30. TV host Ed Sullivan promoted the career of the Beatles, but he considered the Rolling
Stones “bad boys.”
A) True
B) False
31. Motown music groups had a more stylized, softer sound than the funk music of James
Brown and Wilson Pickett.
A) True
B) False
32. Folk is considered the sound of social activism.
A) True
B) False
33. Punk rock emerged in the 1970s partly to protest the commercialism of the recording
industry.
A) True
B) False
34. Grunge music became a significant form of rock and roll in 1992 as a result of a
breakthrough album by Nirvana.
A) True
B) False
35. Gangster rap developed in the 1980s partly to tell the truth about gang violence in
American culture.
A) True
B) False
36. Oligopoly is the term for a business situation in which a few firms control most of an
industry; film studios and record labels are examples.
A) True
B) False
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37. Universal Music Group controls nearly 20 percent of the U.S. market share of the
recording industry.
A) True
B) False
38. Streaming and downloading music have caused independent music labels to lose market
shares.
A) True
B) False
39. Independent labels produce only about 2 percent of all recordings.
A) True
B) False
40. About 40 percent of all music recordings purchased in the United States are digital
downloads.
A) True
B) False
41. Spotify is a German-based company that debuted in the United States in 2011 to provide
streaming services.
A) True
B) False
42. Physical recordings made as recently as 2011 accounted for nearly 25 percent of U.S.
music sales.
A) True
B) False
43. Online piracy is unauthorized online file-sharing.
A) True
B) False
44. Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy mark up CD prices 65 percent above the wholesale
price.
A) True
B) False
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45. The digital download and streaming market has now surpassed physical sales, but the
standard for measuring music sales still remains the album.
A) True
B) False
46. Established music artist Amanda Palmer built her online community and sells music
directly to fans through her personal Web site.
A) True
B) False
47. A major difference between sound recordings made by Emile Berliner and those made
by Thomas Edison was that ______.
A) Berliner’s disks were flat
B) Edison’s disks could be mass produced
C) Edison’s disks were coated with lamp black
D) Berliner’s disks were made of vinyl
E) None of the options are correct.
48. Emile Berliner’s invention of ______ was significant because it allowed for mass
reproduction of sound recordings and for labeling, which enabled the development of a star
system.
A) wax cylinders
B) lamp black
C) flat disks
D) audiotape
E) 331/3 rpm records
49. Magnetic audiotape and tape players first caught on in the ______.
A) 1950s
B) 1940s
C) 1910s
D) 1890s
E) 1960s
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50. Under the compromise reached by CBS and RCA in 1953, the standard for record
singles became the ______ format.
A) 331/3-rpm
B) 45-rpm
C) 78-rpm
D) CD
E) MP3
51. In 1958, ______ allowed for the recording of two separate tracks of sound, which could
be mixed together.
A) digital recording
B) graphophones
C) MP3s
D) analog recording
E) stereo
52. The biggest seller of recorded music in the United States is ______.
A) BMG Music Service
B) Best Buy
C) Walmart
D) Target
E) iTunes
53. Which of the following is true about the MP3 music file format?
A) It creates music files that are very large and slow to download.
B) It was very important in the fight against the pirating of recorded music.
C) It makes recording, transferring, and downloading music quicker and easier.
D) It hasn’t been popular with consumers because MP3 players break easily.
E) None of the options are correct.
54. Thousands of lawsuits were filed against online file-sharing services. What was the
result?
A) Grokster, eDonkey, Morpheus, and LimeWire we shut down in 2010.
B) Amazon stopped streaming music.
C) iTunes was sold to Google.
D) iTunes sold more than 50 billion songs in 2013.
E) The MTV awards was created.
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55. Commercial radio and the recording industry have always been linked. Which streaming
service is most like commercial radio?
A) iTunes U
B) Beats Music
C) Pandora
D) Google Play
E) None of the options are correct.
56. Which of the following does not fall into the category of pop music?
A) Rock
B) Country
C) Classical
D) Hip-hop
E) Blues
57. Which of the following boundaries did rock and roll not blur in the 1950s?
A) The country and the city
B) Sacred and secular
C) Masculinity and femininity
D) North and South
E) Old and young
58. In the mid-1950s, which artist had record sales second only to Elvis Presley?
A) Fats Domino
B) Pat Boone
C) Little Richard
D) Ray Charles
E) Bob Dylan
59. Little Richard became the first African American artist to chart higher with his own song
than a white cover artist because ______.
A) he cleaned up the music and lyrics so white audiences wouldn’t be offended
B) he pretended to be white
C) nobody cared about race anymore
D) he wrote and performed a song with lyrics and a style that white artists like Pat
Boone couldn’t imitate
E) he made a deal with white cover artists so they would respect his creative efforts