Discussion on the 2007 Joshua Bell D.C. subway performance experiment

This week in my class we're discussing live music performance. The class is required to answer three questions based on the following article. 

You may remember the social experiment conducted in 2007 by the Washington Post in which they set up a camera to observe the public's reactions to a performance by classical violinist Joshua Bell.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html 

1.     Would you have stopped to listen? 

2.     Why do you think others didn’t? 

3.     Why do you feel he made less than $35 in 3 hours? 

I remember this experiment very clearly, since I played violin at the time I was fascinated by the story; I remember watching the story on the news and then discussing it in my orchestra class that following Monday, where my teacher had asked similar questions to the ones presented in this discussion post. My 8^th grade orchestra teacher made it a point to communicate with her students the importance of performance for both career purposes and personal fulfillment. Her lessons have greatly impacted and helped to build my passion for live performance.

I live in the suburbs, about 25 minutes from the center of Atlanta, but I spend a large portion of my time in the city attending many different local shows in the infamous and popular hole-in-the-wall venues. In the East Atlanta Village (known to the locals as the EAV) and especially in the famous art district Little Five Points there are countless people in courtyards and on street corners and outside of retail stores who perform every single day for tips and for personal promotion reasons. I make it a habit to stop and listen to every street performer I come across. Some are better than others, some are well known local artists and others are train hoppers/ travelers passing through. I have watched countless people pass by, paying no mind to the beauty before them. Had I been in in that particular station in D.C. on my birthday in 2007, I would have loved nothing more than to stop and listen to an incredible violinist.

I think that other people didn't stop to admire the technical skills and musical complexity of Bell’s performance for various and individual reasons. It can be argued that a large portion of the population lacks the appreciation for classical music and this could be a one of the many reasons why people did not stop that morning. I think that the main reason why people did not stop was due to the time constraints of busy work-life and the monotonous repetition of their daily schedules. The threat of reprimand for being late for work and the urgency to arrive at their designated location is, possibly, the biggest reason for people all over the world to not stop and admire the beauty of the world around them. They, simply, do not feel that they have time to do so.

I have know people personally to make hundreds of dollars in a day street performing in Atlanta, and others who have made enough to purchase a value meal. Again, there are so many possible reasons for why people chose to pay attention to Bell’s performance and there are equally as many reasons as to why they chose not to pay monetary attention as well. One of the reasons might be that the consensus of the passing audience felt that his skill level indicated that this was already his profession. Others might have been constricted by the thin walls of their wallets. I have encountered people, terrible people mind you, that believe that street performance is nothing more than begging and, therefore, look down on the act. I have seen instances where the less fortunate attempt to play the heart strings of the public in order to score easy money for whatever vice they may have but, generally, this is not the case.

Whatever the reason the D.C. public had that morning for paying attention and monetary support or not, I think that the musician still accomplished the goal of his performance art. Art is created for personal fulfillment and shared for the purpose of inciting emotion within the audience. Whether or not the emotion is a positive one, if the art has affected the receiving audience in some way and fulfilled the artist then it has achieved it’s purpose. Although majority of the people did not stop that day, I can almost guarantee that at least some of them were positively impacted by the beauty of the performance. They, simply, did not feel they had time to show their appreciation.



I'd like to thank you for reading tho, and I'd love to hear your opinion on the matter. Please feel free to respond to the questions in the comments below.

Thank you!