Scott Bradlee (Postmodern Jukebox) on Jazz, Nostalgia, and Surviving the Age of Algorithms

Scott Bradlee has been making viral covers since the early days of YouTube. The pianist, arranger, and founder of the Postmodern Jukebox music collective is known for his old-school renditions of modern hits.

After filming some videos with us, we chatted with Scott about nostalgia, genre, and the struggles musicians face in the algorithm age. The following is a (edited and condensed) conversation that spans musical eras.

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What gave you the idea to start Postmodern Jukebox?

I’m kind of an old soul when it comes to music. Going back to high school, when my friends were listening to Sublime or Red Hot Chili Peppers, I was listening to Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington. So, I’ve always loved older styles of music and have always wanted to find a way to tie them into what’s going on in the present. Because when I listen to those old songs, I feel like they’re super fresh, you know?

I had a cool party trick when I was in high school where I would take a modern song like “Big Poppa” by the Notorious B.I.G. and play it as jazz. And my friends would be like, “Wow, that’s so crazy! I can hear the song!”

But I didn’t do anything with it until I moved to New York City and was, essentially, an out-of-work jazz pianist. I did some gigs here and there, but New York City is very competitive.

That’s what led me to YouTube. Those days, YouTube was mostly cat videos and it was only amateur musicians that were putting themselves on there. But I thought to myself, I’ve got nothing to lose.

So I found myself with one of those cheap flip camcorders, sat at the keyboard, and played fast, ragtime versions of 80s songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Never Gonna Give You Up.” I put it online and within a couple of days, I guess it went somewhat viral. We got maybe 10,000 views very quickly.

That number seems quaint today, but back then, that was more people than had ever heard me play piano in my whole life.

So I realized there was something to this idea of using the internet as a concert venue. It took me another few years to figure out what was going to be the finished product, and that’s what led me, over time, to Postmodern Jukebox.

What would you say to someone who thinks that old music isn’t relevant?

Well, I think most people in their heart of hearts know that that’s not the case. Old music remains vital. But if somebody was really clinging to the idea that this stuff isn’t relevant…or, perhaps more common would be “not marketable.” 

I think I was even told that when I used to send my stuff to record labels and pitch ideas. Somebody would write back very politely saying they didn’t see any place in the market for it. But I think people don’t realize what works until after it’s happened.

Really, you can make any genre of music relevant. Genre isn’t this fixed thing where jazz only happened from the 1920s to the 1960s. Or that rock’n’roll died with Elvis. 

These genres transcend the period of time they originated in. I think of jazz not so much as a genre but more as something you do to music. So, you can incorporate jazz into anything. Like EDM or a dance track. You’ll hear samples from jazz records (or things that were influenced by jazz records) in a lot of modern day tracks. And if you follow that thread, it always leads back to jazz, rock’n’roll, or other great styles from the 20th century. Or classical for that matter. 

I think it just takes thinking about genre in a different way.

I think of jazz not so much as a genre but more as something you do to music.

Scott Bradlee

When you’re finding songs to arrange, are there certain things you look for? Are some songs easier to arrange than others?

I try to find something that reminds me of a record from the past. And that could be a musical element, a bass line, a guitar riff, or it could be something lyrical. Most of the time it’s something lyrical.

The example I like to give is “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” You look at the lyrics and it’s just a blues song: the way it’s written, the imagery that’s used, the way it does verse-refrain-verse-refrain. It’s all stuff that borrows from the blues tradition.

I wanted to reimagine it as a 1920s blues piece, and the empress of the blues was Bessie Smith. She was the greatest singer from that era. So I invited a phenomenal blues singer that has performed as Bessie Smith in a one-woman show for many years. Her name is Miche Braden, and that was the sound I wanted.

From there, I built the arrangement. Back then, you would hear a lot of New Orleans style horns. You would hear a lot of polyphony, which means they’d be improvising collectively in places. In the 1920s, you would hear a real dirty blues beat but still retain that marching band sound. You’d think of John Phillip Sousa or any of those marching band composers. That sound was still happening in the 1920s, New Orleans as well.

So we put all these elements together with the goal of taking the song back in time without tampering with the song’s actual DNA. We still retained the lyrical structure, the melody, and even the iconic guitar riff; we just put it in the horn section, instead. The goal is to listen to it, and when you listen to it in a different historical context, it changes the song a bit too.

I was reading your Substack earlier. There’s some great stuff there about social media. How do you stay true to your vision in the age of algorithms? 

This is the question every artist is grappling with right now. Pre-social media, we had different gatekeepers. You had to get a record deal if you wanted to get heard by lots of people.

Now the gatekeepers are digital. It’s engagement algorithms. You have to understand the game, particularly on social media since that’s essentially the internet now. That’s how people are discovering things.

But at the same time, you don’t want to let that stuff influence you to the point that you’re not making art anymore. You don’t want to be making just content. The approach that I take is: I want to make art. That means doing the songs I want. Remaking songs in the styles I want. Recording videos in the way I want.

And I keep that as the top priority. But at the same time, when I’m sharing clips, we still utilize those practices that allow them to be seen by lots of people. So, I think every artist should focus on making the work they want. But from there, you can frame that work. That’s up to you and that’s where you’ll wind up editing things for social media consumption.

I never recommend creating for an algorithm because you won’t feel good at the end of the day. Also, that stuff doesn’t last. Trends come and go. But if you create a body of work, that can transcend time.

Case in point, TikTok is the most ephemeral of platforms, right? Things go viral on there and then they’re gone. But you’ll see old songs or videos resurface that were created in a completely different era. Those artists weren’t creating for an algorithm; they created this awesome body of work and down the road, it can be framed in so many ways.

Do you have any advice for a young musician who wants to succeed in 2024 but is nervous about social media and the algorithms and all that?

Think of the big picture. Focus on doing that authentically and not letting the algorithms influence you.

I came up during the early days of social media where things were pretty positive. And I was able to use those platforms to amplify my work and bypass all the traditional gatekeepers. I didn’t need a record deal.

Trends come and go. But if you create a body of work, that can transcend time.

Scott Bradlee

I think it’s a little different for young musicians today. But I would say: just ignore the metrics. Don’t base your worth as an artist on how many people watched your reel or follow you on TikTok. Those metrics are becoming increasingly meaningless. There are people who have very large followings that have no potential for touring because they can’t get those people to show up in real life.

The online world is getting increasingly untethered from reality. A lot of artists believe that if they’re not going viral, then they don’t have potential. And that’s completely not true. The folks that we work with in Postmodern Jukebox, a lot of them aren’t even on those platforms. There are some musicians that will always have a gig because they’re so talented, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re going viral on TikTok or doing the latest dance craze on Instagram.

I guess the traditional way of going to a bar and asking if they need a cocktail pianist still works!

Certainly. During this digital age, in-person stuff when people go the extra mile is much more memorable. Actually taking the time to write an email and cultivating relationships that way—it holds a lot more weight than it used to. I think that there will be a return to good old-fashioned thank-you notes. 

I’m also a firm believer that if someone is doing consistent, great work, they will get recognized. It may take a while—and maybe it won’t get picked up by the engagement algorithms—but it will be appreciated. 

Thanks for chatting with us, Scott! Make sure you catch our Pianote videos with Scott on YouTube.

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