Soundcheck Smackdown: Cell Phones at Concerts

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

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(Brian Boros/flickr)

To some music fans, a concert isn't a concert until they've taken a picture using their cell phone. Or text-messaged their friends. Today, we debate whether cellular phones are enhancing or ruining concerts. Also: pianist Simone Dinnerstein, whose recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was among last year's most talked-about classical recordings, joins us to preview her upcoming CD, of works by Bach, Beethoven and Philip Lasser.

Mobile Madness

At many pop concerts, the audience is so busy filming and recording the experience with their cell phones, they forget to pay attention to the music. Today, a "Soundcheck Smackdown" debate over whether cell phones are enhancing or ruining concerts. We're joined by Thor Christensen, pop music critic for the ...

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Simone Dinnerstein

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein's 2007 recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" became an unlikely hit, topping the Billboard classical charts, reaching No. 3 on the Amazon charts, and for a time, leading iTunes in downloads. This summer she releases her follow-up CD, "The Berlin Concert," and tonight she performs at Le Poisson ...

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John: It's For You

By John Schaefer

Ah, the cell phone. What an amazing little gadget: it plays music videos, records brief movies, takes and shares photos, sends and receives instant messages, and I think you can talk into them too. Has any other device connected us so efficiently? Has any other device set concertgoers at each ...

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Smackdown: Cell Phones at Concerts

By Joel Meyer : Executive Producer, Soundcheck

Check out today's Soundcheck Smackdown on cellphones at concerts, featuring pop music critic Thor Christensen of the Dallas Morning News and Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired.com's 'Listening Post.'

Thor and several listeners pointed out the poor quality of many images and sounds captured at live concerts. Ray from Greenpoint sent ...

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