40 theme ideas for a music game night
“Pick a song you like” makes for a nice game. “Pick the song from your worst night out” makes for a game people talk about for months. Here are 40 themes, grouped by mood, for Who put this ? or any music quiz with friends.
Using themes in Who put this ? When you create a room, each song gets its own theme: tap our ideas, edit the wording or write your own. Players see the theme of each box, and during the game the theme shows before each song (the songs are shuffled, not played theme by theme, so nobody can guess by elimination).
Nostalgia
- A song from your childhood
- The song you had on repeat at 13
- The first album you ever bought
- A cartoon theme song
- A TV show theme from your teens
- A video game soundtrack that stuck with you
- Your summer anthem from high school
- A song your parents played in the car
Guilty pleasures
- Your musical guilty pleasure
- The song you'd never admit to liking in public
- A song you know by heart against your will
- Your go-to karaoke song
- The soundtrack of your worst night out
- Your break-up song
- Your shower song
Party
- The song that has to play at a party
- The track that gets everyone dancing
- The last song of the night
- A remix better than the original
- A song made for shouting along
- The best wedding song
Decades and genres
- An 80s classic
- A 90s hit
- A 2000s banger
- A 2010s hit
- A song in a language nobody here speaks
- An instrumental track
- A cover more famous than the original
Movies, TV and the internet
- A movie soundtrack
- A Disney song
- A song from an ad
- A song that became a meme
- The music from an iconic scene
Portrait themes (get to know each other)
- The song that describes you best
- The perfect road-trip song
- Your favourite love song
- Your morning energy song
- A hidden gem nobody knows
- A song that reminds you of someone in this game
- The song you'd play to an alien
Picking the right theme
Broad enough that everyone finds something. “A 2000s banger” works better than “Swedish indie rock from 2004”. A theme should be a fun constraint, not an exam.
Personal enough to reveal something. The best themes make people talk about themselves: a memory, an embarrassment, an era. That's where the “wait, YOU picked that?!” moments come from.
One theme per game, new theme for the rematch. Let the loser pick the next one.