Loading...Most popular songs these days have a certain feel, that feel called “pop music”. Of course, that term is constantly changing, but currently music icons like Taylor Swift, One Direction, Katy Perry and more dominate the genre. And despite the fact pop music is incredibly popular now, throughout the years many different just as good music styles were developed, from bluegrass to 1930’s jazz. Because these styles are so different, they don’t usually mix. pop songs usually stay pop songs and jazz songs stay jazz songs. There are exceptions to that general rule though, and one of those exceptions is the YouTube channel Postmodern Jukebox. Created by Scott Bradlee, Postmodern Jukebox is a channel that does exactly what I described: takes famous songs, usually pop but sometimes of other genres, and plays them as if they were written in another style.
Postmodern Jukebox isn’t afraid to tackle any style either; they’ve redone songs in the style of doo-wop, the 1959 movie “Grease”, and even mariachi. All of the videos are arranged and played perfectly, with very talented musicians and vocalists performing each song. To be quite honest, many of the covers they perform and create are, in my and many others opinions, better than the original songs themselves. To see what I mean, above you can watch Postmodern Jukebox’s rendition of the recent hit by MAGIC!, Rude.
In the video, the band, consisting of a drummer, a bassist, a pianist, two backup singers and the lead singer, Von Smith, perform a frankly amazing cover of the song Rude in the style of 1950s sock hop. Rather than a modern, reggae/pop song, they perform it in a great vintage, jazzy style that somehow perfectly fits the song. Not to mention the singing and playing by all of the musicians in the performance is just as great as the arrangements, which is to say very good.
Another great cover Postmodern Jukebox has made is their recent cover of the Imagine Dragons song Radioactive, sung by Blake Lewis. Not only does the cover totally change the feel of the song, from modern, very computer generated, heartfelt and dark song to a much lighter, vintage jazz song. They even took advantage of Blake Lewis’ talents and added in some beatboxing, which fits surprisingly well. And I can’t help but point out that at 2:33, the saxophonist performs a ridiculously good solo that I notice every time I listen to this cover.
Altogether, Postmodern Jukebox is a very creative and fun channel. Every video they create features amazing musicians and singers, and they put them to good use by performing unique, outstanding covers of many popular songs. The videos I mentioned above are only a tiny sliver of all the great covers they have created, and they continue to make more. As I said before, many of their songs are even better than the originals, so if you want to listen to them as a song as I do, they are on iTunes and Spotify, and Postmodern Jukebox are even going on tour. Their videos are great examples of creativity in music on Youtube, and I enjoy them so much I hope they will never stop making them.