Bob Boilen
In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
Significant listener interest in the music being played on All Things Considered, along with his and NPR's vast music collections, gave Boilen the idea to start All Songs Considered. "It was obvious to me that listeners of NPR were also lovers of music, but what also became obvious by 1999 was that the web was going to be the place to discover new music and that we wanted to be the premiere site for music discovery." The show launched in 2000, with Boilen as its host.
Before coming to NPR, Boilen found many ways to share his passion for music. From 1982 to 1986 he worked for Baltimore's Impossible Theater, where he held many posts, including composer, technician, and recording engineer. Boilen became part of music history in 1983 with the Impossible Theater production Whiz Bang, a History of Sound. In it, Boilen became one of the first composers to use audio sampling — in this case, sounds from nature and the industrial revolution. He was interviewed about Whiz Bang by Susan Stamberg on All Things Considered.
In 1985, the Washington City Paper voted Boilen 'Performance Artist of the Year.' An electronic musician, he received a grant from the Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to work on electronic music and performance.
After Impossible Theater, Boilen worked as a producer for a television station in Washington, D.C. He produced several projects, including a music video show. In 1997, he started producing an online show called Science Live for the Discovery Channel. He also put out two albums with his psychedelic band, Tiny Desk Unit, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boilen still composes and performs music and posts it for free on his website BobBoilen.info. He performs contradance music and has a podcast of contradance music that he produces with his son Julian.
Boilen's first book, Your Song Changed My Life, was published in April 2016 by HarperCollins.
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All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen shares the albums and songs that stood out even if some were more peaceful than explosive. -
Steve Martin, John Legend, William Shatner, Lucius and more join hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton for this year's All Songs Considered holiday extravaganza, which unfolds like a bad high school play.
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We all had to kill some darlings to finalize NPR Music's list of the Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Songs. Here are the ones that really should have made the cut. -
The All Songs gang looks back at this year's anthems and unmissable milestones, from Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer to Childish Gambino's mind-blowing video for "This Is America," Rosalía, Mitski and more. -
The trio of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers share the songs they love most and talk about the ways they inspire each other in their new band, boygenius. -
Producer Giles Martin shares the remarkable stories, early demos, outtakes and stunning new mixes from the just-released deluxe version of the album. -
As voters head to the polls today, we hear from artists whose music speaks to our current political and cultural moment. -
Hear an early, behind-the-scenes recording of The Beatles working on "Glass Onion," the third track from what would become the band's 1968, self-titled "White Album." -
This week on the show, we hear from artists who find ways to celebrate life no matter how broken it may be. -
Irish singer/songwriter Hozier sits down with NPR Music's Bob Boilen to discuss the lifetime of listening that led to his new EP, Nina Cried Power, and what American blues means to him.
