John Schaefer

I think we can all applaud the idea of doing something well, becoming successful at it, and then deciding to try something a bit different instead of just repeating yourself. And if the results aren’t always what one might’ve hoped for, well, it’s like that old line from the Mary ...

First of all, everybody calm down. We are not really suggesting that the electric bass is expendable. But sometimes you just gotta stir the pot a bit, you know? And it is true that what used to be a novelty (“hey look – the Doors don’t have a bass player”; ...

I am, and have always been, a big sports fan. And therefore, I have always hated the Olympics opening ceremonies. Huge spectacles, garish costumes and even more garish music, and not ...

Musicians generally hate being stuck into one stylistic box. Debussy and Ravel disliked the term “Impressionist.” Steve Reich and Philip Glass still rail against the use of the term “Minimalist” for their music. Miles Davis hated the term “jazz.” Well, you might think that someone like Lead Belly (and that ...

It’s the summer of the superhero. Batman returns in “The Dark Knight,” and we have eponymous films from Hancock, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man (wow – just had to type that three times because I kept writing “Iran ...

It's tempting to look down on all those people standing in lines around the block at the various Apple stores, waiting to buy yet another Apple gizmo. Tempting to say, 'look at them; they're like addicts. Apple hooks them, and then ...

Abba is on the big screen (Mamma Mia was the #3 movie in the country this past weekend). Abba is on the Billboard charts (the Mamma Mia soundtrack is #3 there too). And Abba is on Broadway (Mamma Mia has been playing to full houses for 7 years). What year ...

Last year we polled our Soundcheck listeners for their pick of the Summer Song of 2007… now, my recollection was that the listeners correctly picked Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” which of course did go on to become the de facto anthem of last summer. But in checking the actual results, it seems ...

Is anybody REALLY surprised to find that babies respond to music? I don’t mean the so-called “Mozart effect,” which has been pretty well debunked at this point – even though lots of unscrupulous producers continue to market Classical Lite recordings to gullible parents. I mean the recent studies that show, ...

As longtime listeners will know, I am a huge fan of new music. My nightly “New Sounds” program here at WNYC has celebrated many types of new music since (gulp) 1982. So when I read Joe Queenan’s article, “Admit It, You’re As Bored As I Am,” my first inclination was ...

Sarfraz Manzoor’s book, “Greetings From Bury Park,” would seem to be pretty specific at first glance: the surprising story of how a young Pakistani immigrant to Britain deals with his strict Muslim father and the very different society around him – through the intermediary of Bruce Springsteen’s music.

The ...

So hip-hop is in trouble? Sales are down? The music's lost its edge? Sorry, but weren't we just saying those exact same things about rock a few years ago? And it turned out that rock wasn't dead at all - ...

When I was a kid, some of the older kids in my neighborhood in Queens were making noise about a concert they were going to see at Shea Stadium. Part of the excitement was just the fact that Shea was hosting a concert. And part of it was the band ...

I love music. I love live music. I love lots of live music. I just don't love it all at once. To me, that's one of the problems with the big summer music festivals - when the music is coming at you all day and into the evening, it doesn't ...

Music has probably been used as a weapon of war for as long as we’ve waged wars. The Scots marched with their highland pipes and drums because they believed the music would pump up their warriors – and if their enemies got ...

As Alex Ross points out in his recent article in the New Yorker, we’re being increasingly told that China is the future of classical music. The numbers are staggering – 30 million piano and/or violin students (conservatively – more enthusiastic numbers-crunchers say as many as 100 million); conservatories 10 ...

So I’m trying to figure out just what I think of live albums. My initial reaction is: not much. At least, not in rock music. If you like an artist or band enough to go see them live, odds are the recording of that very same event just won’t live ...

Today’s Smackdown is about Coldplay, but for me, you can’t talk about Coldplay without also talking about Radiohead. 40 years ago it was the Beatles or The Stones. Now it’s Coldplay or Radiohead – two British rock bands with big ambitions, grand ideas, and apparently unlimited time to muck around ...

What’s new? Well, a bunch of music venues are new – Drom, Le Poisson Rouge, the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, the High Line Ballroom. And there are new locations for some old ones – both Galapagos and the Issue Project Room are moving from their Brooklyn neighborhoods (Williamsburg and Gowanus, respectively) ...

Reading accounts of concerts in the days of Beethoven, it’s evident that what we now call Classical Music was in fact the arena rock of its time. Orchestras played almost free-form events, with movements of a symphony played again, immediately, if they went over well the first time, and solo ...