Scott Bradlee (born September 19, 1981)[1] is an American musician, pianist, and arranger. He is best known for his viral videos on YouTube, including his work under the moniker Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ) — an ever-evolving, revolving collective of performers playing popular music in period styles.
Bradlee became a successful performer in the New York jazz scene,[6] and served as music director for an interactive, off-Broadway theater experience called Sleep No More.[7]
In looking for creative inspiration, Bradlee began reworking popular music as an exercise. In 2009, he released "Hello My Ragtime '80s," which incorporated ragtime-style piano into popular music from the 1980s. After playing and experimenting on stage at his regular gig at Robert Restaurant, he released the compilation Mashups by Candlelight. Bradlee gained popularity in 2012 with A Motown Tribute to Nickelback, a collaboration with local musicians which arranged Nickelback's songs in the style of 1960s style R&B music.[7]
In 2013, Bradlee began to work more seriously on forming Postmodern Jukebox, a rotating group of musicians producing covers of pop songs in alternate styles, including jazz, ragtime, and swing. The group burst onto the public radar with their doo-wop cover of Miley Cyrus's "We Can't Stop", featuring Robyn Adele Anderson and guest artists, The Tee-Tones. As the viral surge grew, Bradlee was interviewed by news outlets such as NPR[8] and also performed live on Good Morning America and Fuse.[9] The group visited Cosmopolitan magazine's New York office for a year-end review of their work and popular songs from the year.[10]
Several artists have publicly noted their appreciation for the group's work. Among the group's prominent guest musicians are Dave Koz, who collaborated with them in jazz covers of "Careless Whisper" and the Game of Thrones theme music, and Niia, who joined them for a "space jazz" version of "The End of the World". Postmodern Jukebox's October 2013 collaboration with Puddles Pity Party on a cover of Lorde's "Royals" generated particularly strong interest; as of June 2020, this video remained among the five most popular on Bradlee's YouTube channel with over 28.6 million hits.[11]
In early September 2014, Bradlee uploaded a 1940s jazz interpretation of "All About That Bass" called "All About That (Upright) Bass", featuring Kate Davis singing solo while playing double bass, with Bradlee on piano and Dave Tedeschi on drums. The video received 8 million hits in three months.[14][15] Also in 2014, Bradlee's YouTube Channel "Postmodern Jukebox" was listed as #42 on NewMediaRockstars' "Top 100 Channels".[16]
In late 2014 to 2015, Postmodern Jukebox toured extensively through America and Europe with its rotating cast of musical contributors.[17] On Feb. 24th, Postmodern Jukebox co-headlined the Dubai Jazz Festival, alongside Sting, Toto, Chris Botti, and David Gray. On February 26, the band kicked off a 75-date international tour at Vicar Street in Dublin, Ireland, wrapping on June 4 in Ankara, Turkey.
In early February 2016, Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox covered the late David Bowie’s classic song "Heroes" in honor of World Cancer Day – featuring vocals by Nicole Atkins. The track became one of his most popular arrangements to date and was sold on iTunes to earn money for the Cancer Research Institute.[18] In 2016, Heineken announced their global partnership with Formula One racing management and in September released its first "If You Drive, Never Drink" campaign commercial featuring Sir Jackie Stewart (the "Flying Scot”) which featured Bradlee's cover of “Heroes” as the soundtrack.[19][20]
In 2016, Adweek featured Bradlee as one of "20 Content Creators Who Are Setting the Bar for Creativity in 2016."[21]
On June 12, 2018, Scott Bradlee released his first book, a memoir entitled Outside The Jukebox: How I Turned My Vintage Music Obsession Into My Dream Gig (Hachette Books[22]). The book garnered rave reviews from artists such as Kristin Chenoweth and Mick Fleetwood, as well as features from Publishers Weekly,[23]The Weekly Standard,[24] and Billboard.[25] Scott performed a series of special intimate Book Release Parties during the book's release week in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, and his hometown of Flemington, NJ.
Bradlee's most notable work to date has been with the collective he created - Postmodern Jukebox. He posts weekly covers of recent pop songs with jazz or other genre variations. As of May 2023, the Postmodern Jukebox YouTube channel has over 5.95 million subscribers and has surpassed 1.9 billion views.
Each week, Postmodern Jukebox puts out a new video on YouTube, most of which are filmed casually in Bradlee's living room. The band has covered songs by artists ranging from Lady Gaga and The Strokes to Katy Perry and the White Stripes. Since their beginnings as a small group of friends making music in a basement in Queens, New York, Postmodern Jukebox has gone on to feature 70 different performers and tour six continents.[26]
^BiographyArchived July 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox. Accessed July 9, 2015. "Which isn’t to discount the importance to Bradlee’s development of Michael Jackson’s Bad, the vinyl incarnation of which was, he says, 'the first album I ever loved.' That was when he was six, growing up in Pattenburg, New Jersey, where he moved at four from Nesconset, New York. He took piano lessons, but they didn’t take. Then, at age 12, Bradlee heard Rhapsody in Blue and was forever changed."
^Post Modern Jukebox Coming to Lehigh!, North Hunterdon High School, October 16, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015. "Scott Bradlee, the creator of Post Modern Jukebox (the band that covers contemporary pop songs in jazz, ragtime, etc. styles), WENT HERE! That’s right; the father of PMJ was once in your shoes as a North Hunterdon High School student!"
