Postmodern Jukebox, also widely known by the acronym PMJ, is a rotating musical collective founded by arranger and pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011. Bradlee began shooting videos with friends from college in his basement apartment in Astoria. This group included bassist Chris Anderson, saxophonist Ben Golder-Novick, harpist Brandee Younger, and vocalist Emma Walker. PMJ is known for reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early 20th century forms such as swing and jazz.
Bradlee struggled for years as a jazz musician in New York City before one of his videos (“a medley of ’80s songs done ragtime style”) became popular in 2009. He received a message on Twitter from author Neil Gaiman. Two years later his video for “A Motown Tribute to Nickelback” included Drue Davis (emcee), Steve Ujfalussy (saxophone, EWI) Adam Kubota (bass), Allan Mednard (drums), and Tim Kubart (tambourine).
With over one million views in its first week, and four million in its first year, Robyn Adele Anderson’s cover version of “Thrift Shop” (2012) was Postmodern Jukebox’s first viral music video. The song was included on Introducing Postmodern Jukebox (2013) and reached No. 8 on the Billboard magazine jazz album chart. This was followed by her cover of Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” in 2013.
In 2014, guest Kate Davis performed a cover version of Meghan Trainor’s song “All About the Bass” (2014) in Scott Bradlee’s living room after three hours of practice. Davis performed on double bass. “I knew the song, probably could have done it on the fly. Maybe that’s why it’s so funny. I remember thinking it was so funny at the time I was going to crack up, maybe five times.” The 1940s arrangement and piano accompaniment is by Bradlee with Dave Tedeschi on drums. The single was a success, catching the attention of Billboard.
BuzzFeed featured a doo-wop cover of “Timber” with Robyn Adele Anderson and The Tee Tones fronting, in February 2014. The group’s cover of Radiohead’s seminal 1990s hit “Creep,” performed by Haley Reinhart, was called a “stunning listen” by the Los Angeles Times in April 2015. As of December 2020, the video had almost 88 million views and was their most viewed video.
In 2015, Broadway actress Shoshana Bean became active with the group as a guest artist when Bradlee moved to Los Angeles. Broadway World raved about Bean’s performance of Sia’s “Chandelier” and Billboard did a feature story on Motown version of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry”. Bean joined the Postmodern Jukebox 2016 spring European tour at its midway point.
Sara Niemietz performed with the cast in August 2015, covering “Hey Ya!” (2003) by Outkast, and a club version of the “Pokemon Theme”. Niemietz joined the band’s northeastern leg of its 2015 U.S. tour and the entire 2016 European tour. MTV UK caught up with the show in London and spotlighted a big band cover version of Elle King’s “Ex’s & Oh’s” (2014) with Niemietz on vocals and Sarah Reich tap dancing.
In 2014, PMJ started the first annual #PMJSearch contest to discover musical talent. The month-long competition asks fans to submit videos of themselves performing versions of PMJ songs for a chance to perform on an upcoming official video. Out of the many videos that are submitted each year, the winner is selected by Scott Bradlee. Caroline Baran – the amazing 15 year old singer discovered during PMJ Search sings a soulful version of “Nothing Else Matters.” Her voice must be heard to be believed! In late May 2018, PMJ surpassed the one billion view mark on YouTube. Bradlee, members of the band, and guests hosted their first live stream event from the PMJ Manor to celebrate.