An interesting experiment

[rabidsamfan]

gacked from fernwithy

When you take a famous musician and have him busk in a busy subway station, what happens?

Fascinating article. I'd love to see the experiment repeated. Preferably in Boston, in a train station I'm going through!

Comments

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I don't think that was a fair experiment, for many reasons. And I say that as someone who loves both classical music and buskers.

1) Early morning haze and tight timetables vs an anticipated concert hall visit during a time set aside for music.
2) Musical tastes. A person who's not into classical might know tons about jazz and flock to a busker playing that.

It smacks rather a lot of playing into/on expected stereotypes of Americans as philistines. Maybe that's just me, but that was my take.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think the results for the evening commute would have been quite different, don't you? I know I listen to the buskers more in the evening than in the morning when I'm on a time constraint.

Actually, to me the most interesting bits were the conversations they had with the people who stopped and listened. And that bit about children!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think the results for the evening commute would have been quite different, don't you?

I definetely do. I definetely hope so. :D

Next time I see a busker I'll make sure to give them money, in honor of this.

[oliviaramirez]

That was an interesting read, thanks for the link.
Pity street musicians aren't allowed in subway stations over here. It would make traveling much more interesting :)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Some buskers make things more interesting. Some of them, however, can make commuting vaguely painful... I like the ones who can (and will) do more than the same three songs over and over.

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That is just incredible.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Cool, ain't it?

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Interesting! You wonder, though, if the results would've been different in the evening or on a weekend. I used to listen to a busker or two when hubby and I would go into Boston on weekends when I lived in Burlington - and I think you're more likely to stop and listen if you're not focused on needing to get into work.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I think the results would have been different at the evening commute as well. The professional buskers almost never try it during morning rush hour.

[sayhello.livejournal.com]

Wow. Fascinating. At first, I thought to myself "I hope I would be one of the ones who would stop to listen". But then, I changed that, because I *know* I would be. Being on time has never been *that* important to me (ask anyone I work with) and music that lovely would draw me. I've stopped many times to listen to street performers.

I wish they'd do that here. :-) Free concerts by premiere violinists don't happen that often!

Hewene

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

That was a fascinating article. Thanks for pointing it out!

Wow.

[unhobbityhobbit.livejournal.com]

I have to say I'm with all the people who ignored him. But then, I'm not very fond of classical music (bar a few certain pieces) and I'm even less fond of violin pieces.

I think the most interesting part of the article was the way it changed the player's view and attitude. Suddenly, someone giving him a dollar is a great compliment.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! :-) Thanks for showing it.

[dreamflower]

That was fascinating! I can understand people being in a rush to get to work--they might have actually taken time to listen if they were on the way home.

But the saddest thing to me? The guy who didn't even know Bell was there because he was listening to his iPod...

And I found the Brazilian shoeshine lady's attitude very funny! I'd think having good music for her customers to listen to would actually help her business.

[frankymole.livejournal.com]

I find the analogy with a frameless painting being hidden with aspiring artists' works in a restraunt to be a bit specious. Bach and Schubert cannot be compared with an "abstract". ""Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. " Rightly so - most abstract art could be scribbled or daubed by an infant. Very little of it has any skilful technique, let alone the flair and brilliance require for a musician to interpret one of the great composers.

Controversial? Just calling the emperor's new clothes. Abstract, to me, isn't worth $150, whoever it's by! And too often "artwork" really is more about who painted it when than about the merits of the picture itself.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I'm an accordion woman myself -- one of our regulars in Oakland plays the accordion and I always have a buck for his jar. Makes me feel like an art patron.