I know the Music round is my chance to score points on University Challenge, but for gods sake!!!

Paxman seemed amazed that they got the bonus questions right.

I was quite surprised myself, given their team captain's Streisand gaffe. "X-Offender" wasn't an easy one to throw at them, either. (The theme of the round being "acts who started out at CBGBs".) And then they got "Psycho Killer" within seconds, ditto "Blitzkrieg Bop", with what looked like simultaneous recognition from all four team members. That's the power of the canon for you, I guess...

xpost: The last time I tuned into Radio 2, Chris Evans was indeed playing Born To Run! (They're also allowed to play Make Me Smile, of course...)

Well, they'd been clued in by the CBGB's reference by then.

Funnily enough, I'd been playing the Velvets to Voidoids comp in the car on the schoolrun last week.

Last week or the one before, question something like "What controversial record was placed at number 2 on the official singles chart during the 1977 Jubilee week despite widely being reckoned to be that week's number one seller?", blank looks all round and someone says "err... the Bay City Rollers", accompanied by the sound of me smacking my forehead

Mind you, I might've missed some of the ones on this thread already, so...

Need to make the questions harder, e.g. which TV soap opera featured guest appearances in 1993 from Gerry Marsden and Them Two Blokes Out Of Swinging Blue Jeans, The?

The (barely) revived Crossroads? Or Brookside?

Array it were Brookie, Frank Rogers and the Scotty Dogs like.

Haha. Man i miss Brookside. 'The Magic Rabbits' theme was great too.

Yesterday, JPax played "A Hard rain's a gonna fall" Bob Dylan to the two teams, but they failed to recognise it. Although one team member eventualy offered "Bob Dylan, um, Times they are a changing?"

So after some normal starters three cover versions of "Hard Rain", but blank faces all round for Barbara Dixon and Bryan Ferry, and one guess of Karen Carpenter for Joan Baez.

So, no students listen to old Bob anymore.

That Bryan Ferry one was hard to get, though, as it didn't really sound like him until the end of the sound clip when he went to the next verse, and my ears immediately clicked 'Roxy'.

They should have got Joan Baez simply by process of elimination -- it was clearly a '70s folky singer who wasn't Joni Mitchell, so there's only one other person it could have been.

My favourite was: jazz musician, born in Belgium in 1910, famous as the founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Answer given: Adolphe Sax. I suppose at least they knew Adolphe Sax was Belgian.

at trivia last week there was a question about which singer was previously known as Elston Gunnn. Nobody got it.

I don't what singer was previously known as Elston Gunn

had to wiki it

I didn't know that either!

There was once one were they had to identify different genres of dance music, made deeply unfair by the fact that Paxman didn't have the faintest clue about any of it, but acted as if he did. Contestant: "That's jungle" Paxo: "No, it's obviously drum n bass" (withering stare).

Recently, they had a round where they played brief snips of the intro for all the tracks off an album. Kinda easy, and the team got them all except for:

"tinklytinkly/BAMBAMBAMBAM/skirrrrskirrrr"

Stude: "Um, The Velvet Underground?"
Paxo: "No, that's the third album, this was the Velvet Underground and Nico.."

that's totally unfair.

Well that depends on whether the question was to name the artist or the title. If he was after the title then I think Paxo was within his rights.

It was for the title, yes.

Suggests that Paxo is familiar with the VU oeuvre

The question was to name the album title and the dick was wrong and I was yelling him the right answer at the telly.

It was a "kooky" female art/design student who got it wrong

Was that the London College of Art or whatever? Pretty knowledgeable team on the whole in that episode.

Stude: "Um, The Velvet Underground?"
Paxo: "No, that's the third album, this was the Velvet Underground and Nico.."

I never really pay much heed to who's actually playing on the telly.

Tonight's resident indie dude recognised Strokes, Arcade Fire and Yeah Yeah Yeahs but mistook Radiohead, of all people, for Jose Gonzalez. You could see him wracking his brains for the name of the Gonzalez album. Tsk.

That made me laugh a bit.

Haha, oh God, none of them recognised John Lennon.

Or Otis Redding

Or Eva Cassidy (ok I can let them off that one).

I figured then most likely to have recognised Eva Cassidy given Lennon fail, tbh.

Times change:

Recently, the music round featured "bands/acts that Jack White has featured prominently in"

and the one guy on the Uni team got them all right.

I guessed at all but the last "White Stripes" one, in hope.

yeah the last few pop music rounds have been tough!

This weeks music round is a "Pazz and Jop" themed round.

I got none but the starter, the team guessed more obscure bands than the correct answers, and Jeremy clearly knew none of them.

I guess the days of "ummmm, The Who?" are well and truly over.

I somehow got TV on the Radio right even though I don't think I've ever heard them.

This week, music round was based on the momentous "Sex pistols 1st gig at the Lesser free trade hall" gig.

Specifically, the bands that had members that were there. As opposed to the 2nd etc.

(Mark E Smith wasn't at the first one, it has now been established)

I know the Music round is my chance to score points on University Challenge, but for gods sake!!! even my gran knows that Cole Porter sounds bugger all like Bo Diddley!!

Well, I laffed. So did paxo..

Trying to think what the other team got that wrong with.

But god to think further on that, unless Cole Porter was a totally random name, what does that say about timeless vital music. Just wondering if Bo can just sound like old music to people. I guess it's 60 years old now but I'd just find it too electrifying to categorise like that. Not to disparage Porter of course.
I guess the Sex Pistols are grandad music by now too. Does dadrock gain a generation as it gets older?

Yeah, I was laughing at that sequence.

Cole Porter/Woody Guthrie for Bo Diddley
Modest Mouse for The Cure
"don't know" for The Clash
Wham for George Michael (so close!)

Not that anyone needs to know this stuff, but the kids looked so lost.

Really do wonder if there was any thought behind the 2 suggestions for Bo Diddley beyond being names of old artists that the tema member had heard of.
Or odes it all blend into one great big continuum of old timey folky stuff without electronic beats.

Since most of the Cole porter I've heard has tended to be later interpretations wonder if there is much real similarity. An attempt to make popular music based on black rhythms and influences? But I bet the original still sounds pretty staid by today or even 50s/60s standards.

I'm guessing they were just naming old artists whose music they'd never actually heard (or never linked up with that name). And to be fair to Manchester, Paxman wouldn't let them go without taking a guess.

I'm constantly amazed at how simple the popular music questions are and how rarely they get them. Like I don't understand how you can live your life knowing the most obscure aspect of fluid dynamics but not recognise a really famous top ten single.
I guess more and more it's basically 'they're young'

Most 19 year-olds not hugely interested in 20-30 year-old pop music feels reasonable

Also less and less likely to access music thru older curators like "classic radio" etc

Also always been posh kids on UC who don't have much interest in pop music of any era

infuriates me when they act all embarrassed for actually knowing a pop music question

Plummet Airlines would have foxed me, but probably nothing else.

Nah, no bother even there