Music Trivia | 100 facts & trivia about music industry (part 1)

Some people say that you are the music you are listening to. But how many things do we know about music after all?

We are about to explore the music industry and find out some exciting and intersting facts about -what else- music.

1. Musicians have shorter life spans than the rest of the people.
2. According to a study, they live 25 years less than the average people.
3. In 2016, Mozart sold more CDs than… Beyonce!
4. Singing as a part of a group provides numerous physical and emotional benefits.
5. When you sing with others, the body releases oxytocin and reduces cortisol.
6. Per the results of one study conducted at the University of Barcelona, 5% of participants did not feel any emotion while listening to music.
7. In one study, exercise provides enhanced physical performance.
8. In one study, participants who cycled in time to music found that they required 7% less oxygen compared to cycling with background music.
9. Michael Jackson was only five years old when he first performed with his siblings as the Jackson
10. They were only paid $8, but over $100 was thrown on to the stage for them by the audience.
11. Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr owns a modified Fender Stratocaster with nine (yes, nine) adjacent single-coil pickups.
12. Zildjian is the oldest family-run business in America and one of the 300 oldest companies in the world.
13. Its first cymbals were produced in 1623 in Armenia.
14. The world’s most expensive-ever guitar plectrums (or is it plectra?) cost $5,000 AUS a pair.
15. The 2007 Starpics were made from meteors that were 4 billion years old. (Or 4,000,000,002 years by now).
16. Rod Stewart hosted the largest free concert ever.
17. An estimated 4.2 million people were in attendance at this performance.
18. It took place in 1993s’ New Year’s Eve in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
19. The second most-attended free concert was Jean-Michel Jarre’s September 6, 1997.
20. This performance took place at the University of Moscow and had an estimated audience of 3.5 million.
21. “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls is the… catchiest song ever.
22. And there is research proving it!
23. People were able to recognize it in about 2.3 seconds.
24. It was way below the 5-second average of identifying other popular songs.
25. Scandinavian countries are famous for their metal bands.
26. But Finland has the most metal bands per capita.
27. More specifically Finland has 53.5 metal bands per 100,000 people.
28. The second place was tied between two other Nordic nations Sweden and Norway(27.2).
29. Iceland stole third (22.7).
30. Heavy metal is native to the U.S.A. and the U.K.
31. Their numbers for those countries were 5.5 and 5.2 accordingly.
32. A Canadian astronaut named Chris Hadfield released his first album, which was entirely recorded while he was in orbit.
33. This amazing thing happened in 2015!
34. He was also the first Canadian to walk in space.
35. Hadfield spent 144 days at the International Space Station recording his 11 original songs for his appropriately-titled album.
36. His album’s name was Space Sessions: Songs for a Tin Can.
37. British naval officers play Britney Spears songs to scare away Somali pirates off of Africa’s eastern coast.
38. Her songs “Oops I Did It Again” and “Baby One More Time” are the songs that are used.
39. At first, “Jingle Bells” was a Thanksgiving song.
40. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and was published in 1857.
41. The song’s original title was “One Horse Open Sleigh” and then it was changed to “Jingle Bells, or the One Horse Open Sleigh” when it was reprinted in 1859.
42. Music affects your perception of the world.
43. Music helps plants grow faster.
44. It was tested actually by playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” in rice fields.
45. Prince could play a dozen instruments before he was 16.
46. Green Day singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong’s cat Zero died in his washing machine.
47. Bronzed-metal mentalists Manowar claims to be the loudest band ever.
48. The reason why it is the loudest one comes for their performance of 139dB at 2008’s Magic Circle Fest.
49. No member of the Beatles could read or write music.
50. Paul McCartney finally admitted it during a 2018 60 Minutes interview.
51. Paul McCartney mentioned that the music just came to him and his bandmates John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, and it was never written down.
52. he world’s most expensive drumkit belonged to The Who’s Keith Moon.
53. His ‘Moon The Loon’s’ custom-made 1968 Premier drum kit was auctioned off at Christie’s in London in 2004 for $252,487.
54. Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes and the late Notorious BIG all attended the same Brooklyn high school.
55. Neil Diamond’s middle name is Leslie.
56. The most expensive musical instrument sold for $15.9 Million
57. . In 2011, the “Lady Blunt” Stradivarius violin sold for a world-record $15.9 million.
58. It was four times the previous auction record for a Stradivarius.
59. Lil Wayne signed to Cash Money Records at the age of 10.
60. The beats of Rihanna’s Umbrella were created via a slowed-down drum loop from Apple’s free GarageBand software program (Vintage Funk Kit 03).
61. Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in Soho, London, was the setting for the last public appearance of Jimi Hendrix.
62. Hours later the guitarist was found dead.
63. Seasick Steve and Kurt Cobain were once neighbors in Olympia, Washington.
64. Metallica was the first band to have performed all over the world- meaning all the 7 continents.
65. It’s also the only one.
66. They set this record after performing for 120 scientists and competition winners in a transparent dome at Carlini Station in… Antarctica.
67. In 1893, the Hill sisters needed a song for their kindergarten class to sing on birthdays.
68. And they created the really famous “Happy Birthday” song.
69. The song’s ownership had changed hands a few times over the past 100 years.
70. Music holding company Warner Chappell bought the rights for $15 million in 1990, and have held them since.
71. Today the song brings in $2 million a year in royalties, which comes to $5,000 per day.
72. The song costs $25,000 to use it in a movie or TV show.
73. Courtney Love was the first person to have their e-mail subscription shut down by AOL after using the service to send, allegedly, death threats.
74. The only member of the ‘Rat Pack’ to win an Oscar was Frank Sinatra.
75. Brad Wilk, of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave, is a Buddhist.
76. He is also diabetic.
77. Queen’s Brian May solely used old-school curly guitar leads (cords) well into the 1990s.
78. He favored them because they reminded him of vintage telephones.
79. The Beatles featured two left-handed members
80. Madonna’s hit Like A Virgin was originally written for a male singer.
81. Michael Jackson so badly wanted to play Spider-Man in a movie that he attempted to buy Marvel Comics.
82. A 639-year performance based on avant-garde composer John Cage’s “As Slow as Possible” started in September 2001 and is still running at St. Buchard Church in Germany.
83. It is about to end in the… 27th century.
84. The exact expiration date is… 2640.
85. The performance by an automated organ progresses so slowly that visitors have to wait months for a chord change.
86. The performance is so slow that the organ it’s played on was not even completed before the concert began.
87. Pipes were added to keep the music steady in 2008.
88. A study conducted at the University of Pavia in Italy showed that music promotes a healthy cardiovascular system.
89. Researchers also found that “rich” classical music phrases, lasting 10 seconds long, caused the heart rate and other parts of the cardiovascular system to synchronize with the music being played.
90. There is an International Strange Music Day.
91. It was created by a New York City musician named Patrick Grant.
92. The reason why he created it was to encourage people to play and listen to new types of music they’re not familiar with or appreciate the music you might otherwise consider to be strange or bizarre.
93. On this day many music-related events are organized.
94. A Sea Organ is built into the Croatian coast.
95. The Sea Organ is an architectural sound object which plays music when hit by sea waves through tubes which are located under large marble steps.
96. The steps, which offer both protection and allow tourists and locals a place to sit or stand while listening to the music caused by the wind and sea, were built later.
97. Loud music causes you to drink more in less time.
98. A song that gets stuck in your head is called an earworm.
99. It is also called a “brainworm”.
100. Earworms could also be triggered by experiences that bring up a memory of a song.