'David Bowie Is' Is An Odd Title And An Even Odder Film
The exhibit with the ungainly title, David Bowie Is got rave reviews when it opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London last year. Today, it opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in...
View ArticleBeyond 'Fame': Ten Deep Cuts That Reveal The True Genius Of David Bowie
The opening of the museum exhibit David Bowie Is has once again focused attention on this shape-shifting, game-changing artist. Bowie’s hits, like “Fame,” and “Rebel Rebel,” and “Changes,” are in the...
View ArticleGeeking Out About David Bowie, Deeply
Any longstanding Soundcheck listener knows that David Bowie holds a very special place in John Schaefer's heart. But he might have just met his Bowie match. Simon Critchley, philosopher and professor...
View Article#3299: Chamber Folk Pop
For this New Sounds program, hear music that falls in the space between classical and pop, as well as in the small hollow between chamber music and folk. There’s electronic chamber pop music by...
View ArticleChris Hadfield: How to Brush Your Teeth in Space
Chris Hadfield’s recent cover of David Bowie’s classic song “Space Oddity” received more than 20 million views on YouTube. And not because of Hadfield’s voice (which isn’t bad, for an astronaut)....
View ArticleSideshow Podcast: How Animation Helps Us Appreciate Good Audio
The greatest interview ever recorded won’t get as many hits on YouTube as a cat giving a high five. The people behind Blank on Blank want to make audio go viral. They take audio gems that fell on the...
View Article#3329: Extended Covers
For this New Sounds, hear new works based on existing ones. There’s a work by the 2012 Pultzer Prize winner, Kevin Puts - his Symphony No. 3, “Vespertine,” inspired by Icelandic singer Bjork’s album...
View ArticleFive Things You Had to See Online This Week
This week in “Thanks, Internet” — David Bowie gets jazzy, Trent Reznor gets quizzed, an Australian conquers the Uncanny Valley, a stick figure conquers his creator, and Jimmy Fallon has a little too...
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Five Things You Had to See Online This Week
This week in “Thanks, Internet” — the difficulty of getting drinks, the longest mixtape in the world, making enemies with glitter, the best Bowie GIF you'll ever see, and vintage McConaughey. 1. Let's...
View ArticleTracy K. Smith: Life on Mars
Tracy K. Smith’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Life on Mars contains many references to the man she salutes as the “Pope of Pop,” David Bowie (read one of the poems below). Smith admits she became...
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Five Things You Had to See Online This Week
This week in “Thanks, Internet” — emoticons find a new purpose, Deez Nuts runs for prez, a professor becomes Bowie, publishing houses outwit each other, Eminem loves mom's spaghetti. 1. Deez Elections...
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Tony Visconti Talks Four Decades of Bowie and 'Blackstar'
The following interview was conducted days before David Bowie's death at 69. Read and listen to more of our David Bowie coverage here.David Bowie was 19 when he met producer Tony Visconti. Tomorrow,...
View ArticleDavid Bowie Is Back At It With 'Blackstar'
David Bowie hasn't released an album in years. Suddenly, the musical legend is everywhere. On Friday, "Blackstar," his latest album, will be released. The Off-Broadway play "Lazarus" opened last month...
View ArticleZwillich: 'Bowie is the Most Influential Living Musician'
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.David Bowie, the Diamond Dog, is 69 today. And to celebrate, he released a new album, "Blackstar." We all know that Todd Zwillich, Takeaway...
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It’s David Bowie Day! Listen to this all-day marathon of his music
Ziggy plays guitar. Photo by Getty ImagesSeattle-based KEXP will pay tribute to pop music’s favorite saxophone-wielding androgynous alien with an all-day broadcast Friday that runs through David...
View Article#3819: David Bowie, A Tribute
Listen to an hour of music to mark the passing of the legendary David Bowie. This man who fell to earth, a multi-instrumentalist who imaginatively experimented with countless sounds and styles,...
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David Bowie, the man who fell to earth, dies at 69
Musician David Bowie performs onstage during his “Ziggy Stardust” era in 1973 in Los Angeles. The legendary music man died after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 69. Photo by Michael Ochs...
View ArticleIconic Singer David Bowie Dies at 69
Soundcheck’s John Schaefer, a longtime Bowie fan, spoke with Soterios Johnson this morning about Bowie’s legacy.David Bowie, the other-worldly musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his...
View ArticleRemembering Shape-Shifting Rock Icon David Bowie
David Bowie, one of rock’s most iconic stars, died on Sunday after an 18-month battle with cancer.He just turned 69 on Friday, the same day that his latest album “Blackstar” was released.WNYC host John...
View ArticleRemembering Bowie
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.Just last week, Takeaway Washington correspondent and David Bowie superfan Todd Zwillich celebrated the release of a new Daivd Bowie album,...
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PHOTOS: How David Bowie transformed into a cultural icon
David Bowie performs on the TV show “Ready, Steady, Go” on March 4, 1966 in London, England. Photo by Michael Ochs/Getty ImagesFrom David Robert Jones to Davie Jones to David Bowie to Ziggy Stardust...
View ArticleHelping to Put the Sound in David Bowie's Vision
Tributes continue to pour in across the world as music fans absorb the news that rock visionary David Bowie died Sunday after an eighteen-month fight with cancer. Among those expressing sadness are...
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David Bowie made androgyny cool, and it was about time
David Bowie performs live on stage at Earls Court Arena on May 12, 1973, during the Ziggy Stardust tour. Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/RedfernsAndrogyny doesn’t get a lot of style icons. That’s what I...
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Remembering David Bowie, constantly changing icon who inspired
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioJUDY WOODRUFF: One of the most influential and revolutionary musical artists of his generation, David Bowie, died yesterday after an 18-month battle with cancer.In a...
View ArticleDavid Bowie's 7 Close Encounters with Opera
With the sad news of David Bowie’s passing at the age of 69, appreciations of him and his overwhelming influence on music and culture are proliferating online, including our own look at his connections...
View ArticleAlejandro Iñárritu, Steve Martin, & David Bowie
The director Alejandro González Iñárritu explains why filming “The Revenant” under punishing conditions made it the film that it is — a box office smash nominated for 12 Oscars. Also, we hear the story...
View ArticleGoodbye, Starman
"As a teenager I liked the music this English guy was putting out, and his singular personae: Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs," Kurt Andersen remembers. "But it was relatively late David...
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Five Things You Had to See Online This Week
This week in “Thanks, Internet” — all things Bowie win the internet this week. 1. Ch-ch-ch-changes(Helen Green)It's hard to sum up the force that is David Bowie, a man who helped shape popular culture...
View ArticleDavid Bowie’s Last Band
David Bowie never stopped pushing himself creatively, and, in his last couple of years, he enlisted a group of unknown jazz musicians to shape the sound of what would be his final album, “Blackstar.”...
View ArticleGig Alert: David Bowie Tribute
EVENT: David Bowie Tribute at Mercury Lounge The Massachusetts-based songwriter Casey Dienel records as White Hinterland. When she stopped by our studio in 2014, she explained that this song, called...
View ArticleWeekly Music Roundup: Left-Handed Kisses and Congolese Trance
Week of March 14. Our roundup of music news, videos, and songs just might help you get through the rest of the week. This week, a new record from some public radio favorites, trance music from Congo,...
View ArticleAlternative Christmas Songs to Get You Through the Holidays
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. It's that time of the year again: Christmas music is playing everywhere, from stores, to offices, to car radios. You're bound to hear staples...
View ArticleHow Glam Reinvented Rock, Identity, and Culture in the 1970s
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.It may not be shocking to see a male musician wearing makeup or feminine clothing in the 21st century, but back in the early 1970s, this was...
View ArticleDavid Bowie’s Last Band
David Bowie never stopped pushing himself creatively, and, in his last couple of years, he enlisted a group of unknown jazz musicians to shape the sound of what would be his final album, “Blackstar.”...
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In 2016, what stood out in music
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioHARI SREENIVASAN: But first: a broader look at music and some of the best work of this past year.As we say goodbye to 2016, we also finish our week-long series on the...
View ArticleIn Memoriam 2016: Prince, Bowie, Cohen & Others
It's been a tough year for music fans after a number of major artists passed away in 2016. To name just a few: Prince. David Bowie. Leonard Cohen. Sharon Jones. Merle Haggard. Pierre Boulez. And then...
View ArticleDavid Bowie's Classical Music Impact, One Year Later
Tuesday marks the first anniversary since the death of legendary musician David Bowie. In the year since his death, fans of various musical styles have come together to appreciate the ways his music...
View ArticleWeekly Music Roundup: Lazarus & Two-Toothed Troll
Week of Jan. 9: This week, the new year kicks into gear with new songs from The Shins, Dirty Projectors, and the late David Bowie.An Unexpected Transmission From Major TomSunday would’ve been David...
View Article10 of the Coolest Musical Mentors Throughout History
We just passed the centenary of Juilliard professor and music educator Dorothy DeLay, who taught some of the world's finest violin masters. It got us thinking about other notable — and sometimes...
View ArticleEXTRA: Lea + Bowie = Jazz
If you've watched (or binged) Orange is the New Black you might know Lea DeLaria as Big Boo. But as we showed in her Naked American Songbook episode last fall, Big Boo Sings, Too. The new season has...
View ArticleListen: Boston Musicians Join for Sold-Out 'Orchestral Tribute to David Bowie'
Friday, Jan. 29 at 7 pm, Q2 Music presented MIT Music and Theater Art's "Orchestral Tribute to David Bowie" with a live webcast from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's prestigious Kresge...
View ArticleDavid Bowie Leaves Behind Modern Classical Music Influence
Rock icon David Bowie passed away on January 10, 2016, just days after the release of his album Blackstar, following an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 69 years old. One of the most celebrated and...
View ArticleComposers and Musicians Pay Tribute to David Bowie
In the wake of David Bowie's passing, composer Daniel Felsenfeld invited a handful of composers, producers and songwriters in the new-music community to share personal tributes to the legendary rock...
View ArticlePhilip Glass on David Bowie and Trekking Across Central Asia
On Monday, Feb. 22, the annual Tibet House Benefit stages its 26th installment at Carnegie Hall with an array of cross-cultural collaborations. including Iggy Pop reading poetry alongside kora virtuoso...
View ArticleSomething Happened on the Day He Died: Remembering David Bowie, Two Years On
Today is the second anniversary of David Bowie’s death. I will not refer to it, as some have, as an “untimely passing,” because Bowie was a master of timing, and while I’m not claiming that Bowie...
View ArticleChoir! Choir! Choir! and David Byrne (Weekly Music Roundup)
Gig Alert: Choir Choir Choir and David Byrne – "Heroes" (Weekly Music Roundup)David Byrne recently joined forces with the Toronto-based organization called Choir! Choir! Choir! to perform David Bowie’s...
View ArticleWeekly Music Roundup: Sons Of Kemet And August Greene
Week of Feb. 12: This week, Sons Of Kemet hail the queen (but not THAT Queen), Rev. Shawn Amos hails Bowie, and a Rap/R&B supergroup, August Greene, hails optimism.PREMIERE: The Reverend Shawn Amos...
View ArticleEmmanuel Macron Is Stepping Into 'Peter and the Wolf'
On March 1, French President Emmanuel Macron’s musical enthusiasm will be on full display, when he takes the stage as the narrator for a production of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.The concert...
View Article'David Bowie Is' Reaches Its Final Destination, the Brooklyn Museum
"David Bowie Is" is a museum exhibition that thinks it’s a rock concert. And it has toured the world like a rock star. Beginning in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in 2012, it has “played” to...
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David Bowie: The Subway Station
New York's in love—with David Bowie. The late iconic artist spent over 20 years living in SoHo, and on Tuesday the MTA announced that Bowie was back in the neighborhood.Rail Control to Major Tom: David...
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