90s Music Quiz: Guess the Song With Your Friends

This 90s quiz covers everything that was on MTV and the radio between grunge and Y2K: alt-rock, movie power ballads, R&B, West Coast hip hop and the Eurodance you heard at every school disco. It's built for millennials and Gen X, but younger players hold their own, because a lot of these songs never left wedding playlists and stadium sound systems. Hit "Play this quiz" and you're playing in a minute.

How to play this quiz

1. Open this page on the big screen (smart TV browser, laptop on the TV, or a laptop), hit "Play this quiz", then start the game. The room opens with the 90s playlist loaded.
2. Everyone scans the QR code and types a name. No app, no account. The first person in is the host and picks the mode and target score.
3. First to buzz stops the music and has 20 seconds to type the song, with suggestions from the playlist. Wrong answer: minus one point and a 3-second lockout, while the music keeps playing for everyone else.
4. Our pick: "Song and year" mode, first to 10. The 90s jump between very different sounds (grunge, R&B, Eurodance), and telling 1993 from 1998 is harder than people think.
5. If your group are 90s experts, switch the search to title only. Lots of 90s titles aren't the line everyone sings, and that's where people come unstuck.

Songs that can come up

Deezer maintains the playlist and it can change. These are some of the songs in it, among others. For the longer list of essentials that also show up here ("Wannabe", "Creep", "Song 2"…), see our 90s songs for a music quiz.

Alt-rock and guitars

• "Thunderstruck" – AC/DC (1990): the tapped guitar riff and the "Thunder!" chants.
• "Under the Bridge" – Red Hot Chili Peppers: clean guitar and Anthony Kiedis half-speaking. On the 1991 album; the single came out in 1992.
• "November Rain" – Guns N' Roses: piano and strings. Same story: 1991 album, 1992 single.
• "What's Up?" – 4 Non Blondes (1993): acoustic strumming and that "Hey-yeah-yeah".
• "Linger" – The Cranberries (1993): soft strings and Dolores O'Riordan's voice.
• "Mr. Jones" – Counting Crows (1993): acoustic guitar and a "sha-la-la" up front.
• "Iris" – Goo Goo Dolls (1998): an odd-tuned acoustic guitar; from the City of Angels soundtrack.
• "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" – The Offspring (1998): the "Gunter glieben glauchen globen" intro.

Pop and power ballads

• "Enjoy the Silence" – Depeche Mode (1990): the synth and guitar line, well before "Words like violence".
• "Ironic" – Alanis Morissette (1996): acoustic guitar and that drawling delivery.
• "Don't Speak" – No Doubt (1996): Spanish-flavored acoustic guitar.
• "Lovefool" – The Cardigans (1996): "Love me, love me, say that you love me"; it's on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack.
• "Torn" – Natalie Imbruglia (1997): acoustic guitar and voice. It's a cover: the band Ednaswap did it first.
• "Angels" – Robbie Williams (1997): piano and voice; a karaoke staple, especially in the UK.
• "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" – Aerosmith (1998): the Armageddon ballad.

R&B, hip hop and dance

• "California Love" – 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman (1995): Troutman's talk-box vocal.
• "No Diggity" – Blackstreet (1996): the piano sampled from Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands".
• "Killing Me Softly" – Fugees (1996): a cover of the 70s classic, with Lauryn Hill over a hip hop beat.
• "No Scrubs" – TLC (1999): plucked guitar and a crisp beat.
• "Mambo No. 5" – Lou Bega (1999): "One, two, three, four, five" and the horns. Built on a Pérez Prado mambo.

Difficulty and tips to win

Medium to hard. The songs are familiar, but the playlist jumps between styles with no warning, and a lot of the intros are similar-sounding acoustic guitars ("Torn", "Ironic", "Don't Speak", "Iris", "What's Up?"). How to get the edge:

• Acoustic intro? Wait for the voice. One second of vocal settles it. Raw and raspy: Alanis or 4 Non Blondes. Softer: Natalie Imbruglia or Gwen Stefani.
• Watch for covers. Plenty of songs here aren't by the original artist: "Killing Me Softly", "Torn", "Mambo No. 5", Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", Cher's "Walking in Memphis", Guns N' Roses' "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and Big Mountain's "Baby, I Love Your Way". The search suggests the version in the playlist, so pick that one, not the original artist.
• Year traps. Black Box's "Ride on Time" is in this playlist but came out in 1989. Scorpions' "Wind of Change" is about the end of the Cold War, so people guess 1989; the single is from 1991. And Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Otherside" was a late-1999 single that feels like the 2000s.
• Repeat artists. The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alanis Morissette, Annie Lennox, Blur, Britney Spears and Cher each have more than one song.

If dates are your weak spot, here's how to guess what year a song is from.

For a 90s party

If the quiz is part of a themed night, wait until everyone's arrived and start with a short game to 5 points in "Song only", everyone on their feet in front of the TV. The winner picks what's next: a rematch in "Song and year", or a jump back a decade with the 80s songs quiz. If your crowd lives for Biggie and A Tribe Called Quest, the 90s hip-hop quiz is the next level.

FAQ

Do we need an app?

No. The big screen runs the game in the browser and phones join by scanning a QR code. No Spotify or Deezer account needed.

How many people can play?

A group of friends or the whole family. One phone each, or teams sharing one.

Can we play without a TV?

Yes. A laptop and some decent speakers will do.

Is there much hip hop in this one?

Some — 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Coolio, A Tribe Called Quest and Luniz all appear — but it's mixed in with rock and pop. For a full hip-hop game, use the dedicated 90s hip-hop quiz.