Think of Cher’s hit “Believe” and that robotic, computerized sound of her voice. (Now try getting it out of your head. Sorry.) The Autotune effect that sounded so radical at the turn of the 21st century became the defining studio effect of the decade since. Every era of pop ...

Bonus: The Pop SFX Playlist

Marc Branchworks at NASA as an aerospace engineer testing instruments used on outer-space telescopes. When he's off the clock, Branch is one of the most sought after hip-hop DJs around the country. Leading a double life as "DJ Scientific" he hopes to ...

Movie ticket sales are up. Book buyers can't get enough of Malcolm Gladwell. What makes pop entertainment recession-proof? Jocelyn Gonzales looks into which films, books, and music are popular when economic times are tough.

It's become a kind of sport for music-lovers to mourn yet another almost-obsolete technology. For Jocelyn Gonzales it's the cassette tape. Her old mix tapes can't be recreated in a playlist on iTunes -– they're a special medium unto themselves.

The Tony-nominated revival of Steven Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park with George" is shaking up the theatre world with how it uses video projections and other high-tech effects to tell the story. Produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.

At New York University's Kanbar film school, undergrads are training to be the next generation of filmmakers. Jocelyn Gonzales talked to some of her students, and the school’s associate dean, Sheril Antonio, about the ways female characters are portrayed on screen and ...

Writing love letters takes courage, but it’s a little gutsier to write and perform songs about the object of your affection. Steve Nelson and Jocelyn Gonzales have their own takes on rock and roll's long love affair with that one special girl.

The writer Akiko Busch explains how, over the years, kids’ school accessories have ascended into high style. Produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.

Japanese-born artist Takashi Horisaki used to live in New Orleans. He recently returned to the Lower 9th Ward to bring attention to the city’s continuing struggle the best way he knew how: by making a sculpture. It's based on a wind- and water-ravaged shotgun house. Before its ...

In the Philippines, seashells are more than souvenirs -– they’re an art form. Jocelyn Gonzales explains the history and craft of capiz, a traditional method of transforming clamshells into something much more.

In movies, the sounds of punching and smashing are created by someone sitting in a room with a microphone and a bunch of props - just like in the days of radio drama. Foley artist Sue Zizza explains how to make a fight sound really good, or ...

Hospital architecture usually stirs up feelings of anxiety and dread—which may not encourage patients to recover quickly, according to several new studies. Jocelyn Gonzales reports on the architects and medical professionals who are designing a new wave of feel-good hospitals, as part of our on-going series on ...

Michael Chorost was born with a severe hearing impairment, the result of a rubella epidemic in the 1960s. He used hearing aids, learned to speak, went to regular schools and got his Ph.D. in English. Then, a few years ago, Michael's residual hearing abruptly gave out. His ...

In movies, the sounds of punching and smashing are created by someone sitting in a room with a microphone and a bunch of props -- just like in the days of radio drama. Foley artist Sue Zizza explains how to make a fight sound really good, or ...

In the summer of 1942, Aaron Copland accepted a commission to write the score for a new dance by modernist innovator Martha Graham. Their now-legendary ballet, Appalachian Spring, looks at the tension between community and individualism through the story of a bride and groom in a straitlaced frontier town -- ...

In 1942, the composer Aaron Copland was commissioned to write a piece of music for the choreographer Martha Graham. Dance and music in America have never been the same.