Mondo Knows Facts
30 Music Facts, Each One Checked and Sourced
Instruments, composers, recordings and the stories behind the songs.
30 facts on this shelf, each with a named source and a link onward to something to play or use on the same theme.
30 facts in Music
MusicBeethoven composed his Ninth Symphony while almost totally deafIt premiered in Vienna in 1824MusicMozart was composing at the age of fiveHis father showed him off across the courts of EuropeMusicThe piano was invented in Florence around 1700Bartolomeo Cristofori built the first one for the Medici courtMusicOrchestras tune to A at 440 hertz by international agreementThe standard was agreed in London in 1939MusicHundreds of Stradivari instruments still surviveAntonio Stradivari made well over 1,000 instruments in CremonaMusicThe Beatles recorded their first album in one dayPlease Please Me was done at Abbey Road on 11 February 1963MusicElvis made his first commercial recording at Sun StudioThat's All Right was cut in Memphis in July 1954MusicThriller is generally listed as the best-selling album of all timeEstimates put sales at around 70 million copiesMusicBohemian Rhapsody ran almost six minutes but became a hitThe label feared it was too long for radioMusicThe long-playing record arrived in 1948Columbia introduced the 33โ
rpm LP in June 1948MusicThe compact disc launched in 1982Billy Joel's 52nd Street was one of the first albums releasedMusicOne of the first electric guitars was nicknamed the Frying PanRickenbacker began selling it in 1932MusicThe theremin is played without being touchedLeon Theremin invented it in Russia in 1920MusicA piano has about 230 stringsIts 88 keys span just over seven octavesMusicJohann Sebastian Bach had twenty childrenTen of them survived to adulthood, and several became composersMusicWoodstock drew around 400,000 peopleThe 1969 festival ran for four days on a dairy farm in New YorkMusicJohn Cage wrote a piece made of silence4'33" was first performed in Woodstock, New York, in 1952MusicHip-hop's birthday is traced to a party in the BronxDJ Kool Herc played at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on 11 August 1973MusicMTV's first video was Video Killed the Radio StarThe channel went on air on 1 August 1981MusicThe first Eurovision Song Contest had seven countriesIt was held in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1956MusicAretha Franklin was the first woman in the Rock HallShe was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987MusicThe Beatles have had 20 number ones on the US Hot 100No other act has moreMusicReggae is on UNESCO's heritage listIt was added in 2018 as an intangible cultural heritage of humanityMusicMฤori have their own family of traditional instrumentsTaonga pลซoro include flutes, trumpets and bone whistles
All 30 Music facts
- Beethoven composed his Ninth Symphony while almost totally deaf
- Mozart was composing at the age of five
- The piano was invented in Florence around 1700
- Orchestras tune to A at 440 hertz by international agreement
- Hundreds of Stradivari instruments still survive
- The Beatles recorded their first album in one day
- Elvis made his first commercial recording at Sun Studio
- Thriller is generally listed as the best-selling album of all time
- Bohemian Rhapsody ran almost six minutes but became a hit
- The long-playing record arrived in 1948
- The compact disc launched in 1982
- One of the first electric guitars was nicknamed the Frying Pan
- The theremin is played without being touched
- A piano has about 230 strings
- Johann Sebastian Bach had twenty children
- Woodstock drew around 400,000 people
- John Cage wrote a piece made of silence
- Hip-hop's birthday is traced to a party in the Bronx
- MTV's first video was Video Killed the Radio Star
- The first Eurovision Song Contest had seven countries
- Aretha Franklin was the first woman in the Rock Hall
- The Beatles have had 20 number ones on the US Hot 100
- Reggae is on UNESCO's heritage list
- Mฤori have their own family of traditional instruments
- Do-re-mi traces back to an 11th-century monk
- Jimi Hendrix played the US anthem at Woodstock
- Vivaldi's Four Seasons was paired with poems
- Chopin's heart is in Warsaw
- Spotify launched in 2008
- Lorde had a US number one at 16
Test what you know
Turn these facts into a quiz: Music trivia questions, with an explanation after every answer.
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Questions people ask
- How many music facts are there?
- 30, each with a named source and a link to it. Instruments, composers, recordings and the stories behind the songs.
- Where do these facts come from?
- Mostly primary sources: NASA, the ESA, museums, universities and peer-reviewed papers. A fact is only published here once a source can be linked, and the wording is written fresh rather than copied.
- Can I read them in one sitting?
- The page lists the newest first and the search box narrows by word. Every fact links onward to a quiz, game or calculator on the same subject, so it works as a browse or as a jumping-off point.