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Via Washington Post

A man sat at a metro st ation in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

See the video here.

I am so tired of this story getting passed around, especially on Facebook.

The writer of the article is trying to press our buttons about our limited perceptions of class, quality, and value. The proverbial diamond in the rough we overlook because of our prejudicial perception. It’s a large social problem that results in black students have to work harder, Latinos having to ditch any hint of an accent, the poor having problems with job interviews, types of people profiled in a store, or whatever—there are literally uncountable scenarios where perception is detrimentally affected by prejudices.

The writer chose Joshua Bell who plays violin in a crowded train tunnel during rush hour.

Having spent my entire fucking life using a transit system involving crowded trains in a city during rush hour, I’ve got a newsflash for you: people ignore the people playing classical music.

You know who they stop for every time?

• black boys playing drums on buckets
• old Asian grandma on an erhu
• old manly troop singing “My Girl”
• sad white girl with an acoustic guitar
• black woman singing popular “diva” songs
• anyone singing popular Christian hymns

Do you know why they would stop for those people? Because the music is either so freaking strange that it’s entertaining or because it’s so familiar it touches on them.

Classical music hits a very niche crowd: the affluent commuter. Someone who has the time and training to recognize a very inaccessible genre of music (hey, let me know the next time there’s a black conductor for a major symphony orchestra!). It’s arguably why there are plenty of inner city kids hitting the NBA, but not the NHL. Cost of entry has a huge impact on the popularity of classical music.

That’s class 101. Shit that has a high cost of entry is not going to be popular among the poor or lower classes.

You know what else? Stopping and smelling the roses is for non-working weiners. The mom who had to drag her kid away from the musician? Yeah, not going to hold it against the mom that they were late for: a doctor’s appointment, test, class, or whatever that a working mom is taking time away from work to do. That’s bullshit and classist that you can’t accept that they might other pressing shit to do than to listen to someone they don’t care about.

I mean, really, people. You’ve got to be shitting me to think about a guy you have to pay $100/ticket to listen to and then being shocked that the average person doesn’t recognize them.

Can we stop pretending that overpriced bits of strictly white culture is the penultimate measurement of cultural education?

Thanks,

Sincerely,

Someone who doesn’t give a shit about Joshua Bell.

PS. This experiment would’ve meant a whole lot more about perception if the writer could take his little sheltered academic eyes off the over-simplified explanation of class differences and had placed a commonly known musician in Bell’s place.

SLOW CLAP. Excellent criticism, staghunt. 

Look at this, for example… try to tell me people aren’t watching and enjoying this:

Also someone people stop for — there’s a dude in the Philly subway who dances like Michael Jackson. It’s the best thing ever, and people LOVE it. Look, I like classical music, and was raised in part by a classical musician. Yet, I doubt it would have made much of an impression on me, either. It’s just not extraordinary enough. Yet, a dude who dances like Michael Jackson, and well? REBLOG EVER TIM.

^that commentary, tho

zorascreation: Reblogging for that fucking flawless commentary.

welp

Reblogging for the commentary.

Sad but true. I was poor dirt but dad and anime made me love classical music. Dad cuz he was super old school, anime cuz a few had awesome classical instrumental soundtrack. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have stopped either.

Yes, the article is relatively biased and poor journalism and is aiming to get a specific guilt-ridden reaction out of readers. But…isn’t it sad that people will ignore good music, regardless of whether classical music is “hip” or “interesting”?

Clearly Joshua Bell (and though I like classical music casually, I don’t know this guy either) is a very skilled musician, and wouldn’t you think a musician of that caliber would draw SOME looks from people?

Obviously it strikes children as interesting. Want to bet none of them were taught to “appreciate” classical music by their rushing parents? We REALLY aren’t dealing with a case whether people like classical music versus someone beatboxing, this isn’t what this is about. This is about people being too apathetic about shit around them. You want to see the dictionary definition of apathy at work? Watch commuters during rush hour. Places to go, things to do, huh, another rube playing a violin in the terminal? Been there, seen that! No time! Rushrushrushrushrush.

Way to push buttons about class and taste, poster whom everyone is applauding. Clearly just because YOU don’t give a fuck about classical music but think everybody should and would stop for other types of impromptu musicians because that music is supposedly more interesting and relevant to the laypeople.

Isn’t that not giving anyone enough credit? Classical music, people drumming, old ladies on erhus, grizzled old men on trumpets, someone beat boxing over a home-brewed sound system, those salsa guys that are in Grand Central every single freaking day, it’s ALL interesting. One isn’t better than the other just because of cost or perceived societal worth.

While the original journalist who wrote the Joshua Bell piece is trying to say “Look at this magnificent pro violinist, people don’t recognize quality when they see it”, this other poster is saying “Who cares about classical, no one cares about classical, its these other acts that draw attention because they’re more interesting.” Neither writer is free of bias here, guys. It’s a case of lowbrow versus highbrow. Take off your hipster glasses already, you look like a douche for overwhelmingly and blindly championing either on the basis of subjective worth.

You like what you like. I just hope more people are wiling to take a little time out of the day to watch/hear something interesting and beautiful to them, but whether its a talented pro violinist or someone improvising on a five gallon tub, it doesn’t freaking matter, now does it?