Something to think about….
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true 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 people’s priorities.
The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.
How many other things are we missing?
Thanks Gene
Wow. I can understand people might be busy so that makes it a little more complicated, but I’m almost positive I would stop.
Even if there was a fairly bad one I think I would stop just to show respect for their bravery in playing in front of others because it’s so hard for me.
I would most definitely stop and listen for a length of time to a professional musician.
I think the Big Question is, If they all know it was Joshua Bell, then would they have stopped ..then if they did, that would show how out of touch we are… and shallow we have become…
to stop for a moment, a tip of a hat, a listen even without pay would show one can be human anywhere, any place any time… even for just a moment.
katt
I think I would have stopped to listen, but it mostly would be because I’m a nerd and love classical music.
Do you eat ice cream for breakfast?
No I’m not crazy, the question is topical. I eat ice cream when I want ice cream, usually as a snack after dinner. Even though it’s there in the freezer during breakfast, I boringly trudge past it and to the cupboard and make myself some cereal.
Why is that?
We appreciate things when we seek to experience them. In this study, this great performer was playing in a subway. He was offering a sweet, delicious, auditory treat. But you don’t go into the subway for that. You go into the subway to get to work. You boringly trudge past the treat and into the office.
This doesn’t show anything except that to truly enjoy something, you need to be in the right frame of mind. We are not “missing beauty around us” as people seem to imply. We simply are not looking for beauty all the time. We don’t want it. If everything were beautiful and we were exposed to it all the time, it wouldn’t be special.
I know everybody says they would stop to listen when they read this, and I want to say that also. But honestly, I think I would be like all the people who just went on by. The motions of life overtake us so much and sometimes and we just focus on the next thing we need to do or place we have to be. I’m grateful for seeing this. I’m making my New Year’s Resolution to leave earlier for things and take my time more. Hopefully I won’t miss out on any of the beauty anymore.
This is really interesting but you have to think about the context and the type of people who were passing him. The people who paid $100 a seat for the show the previous evening are probably not any of the hundreds of people that passed him in the subway. What I’m getting at is that most people are not musically educated enough to A) recognize an intricate and difficult piece of music and B) recognize it being played well for that matter.
I think this “perception” experiment shows nothing more than the fact that most people aren’t music savvy enough to differentiate between a random dude with mediocre talent and a really talented guy playing.
I bet if one of the people who had attended the concert the previous evening had walked by they would have stopped and “realized the beauty”
Perception/Understanding/Appreciation are realized when the ‘glass is full’ and the physiological needs are currently being met (i.e. Safety Needs). Do you feel safe in all public transportation? When we are not perceiving we are merely ‘observing’ … the sights of a busy station and a guy dressed in casual black.
over the summer my friends and i listened to this guy jam on the bongos for ten minutes…even though he sucked. then we gave him Ramen noodles!!
Here’s another study that implies that our perception and appreciation of something is influenced by stimuli unrelated to the thing itself. In this study, people appreciate wine more when they think the price is high.
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13091
I love classical and I love the violin, and probably would have been there listening as long as he was playing. It’s understandable that people just stopped for a short time or didn’t stop at all as they all may have had to get to work and some were shuffling the children to get to school or daycare. However, 2,000 people is a lot of people with such little response to a violinist. We are a society of doing and not one of “being”. We do not seem to take the time to smell the roses – to breath in life as it happens. A moment is present for only a moment and then it is in the past never to be again. Wouldn’t 2010 be a great place to start to change and add more “being” and less doing into our lives?
In my humble view, this is not about anybody’s love for classical music or being polite. It shows the huge role publicity plays in shaping our tastes and views, and how much attention we pay to celebrity status rather then the content. Are we out of touch with reality?
I think we are!
Just “being” and less doing in life is called LAZINESS. if we were to just be, we wouldn’t get anything done. i agree with “It’s about desire”
this is why so many talented street/small time musicians are never recognized. people by the mass want quality spoon feed to them when it comes to music.reason brittney spears ect. so popular.you take the best throw him out there noone even pays attention.with things like mtv ect. the image and name recognition have made it near impossible for people to just listen anymore and so many great musicians get cut out by cut rate hacks that look pretty or have been shot 6 times and know how “real the streets” are. guess politics have come to music full power.ill stop ranting lol.
here’s an experiment in so-called perception: say you took an astonishingly beautiful woman (and to be fair to everyone a man), and had them stand naked on pedestals in this crowded subway. I promise you that many more people would have taken the time to perceive it. it’s in our nature
People usually go into the subway because they need to go somewhere. People passed by without stopping to listen not necessarily because they don’t appreciate music, but because they had somewhere to be. People don’t go to the subway to listen to music, but for the transportation that the subway provides.
I think it would be been more useful to, a few months later, have had him play again at the same day of the week, same time, and this time have a big sign up explaining who he is. He made a lot of money for such a short time, so clearly some people did recognize the beauty–the reason they didn’t stop may have simply been that they felt that they couldn’t–they were late for work, etc. If lots more people stop when they know who he is, then it’s a lot more significant–but it could have the same result even when people know who he is, just simply because of the pace of our lives.
I would have stopped only because i play the violin but also because before reading this article i knew from that profile that was josh bell
I wonder what the response would be if it was a stripper doing a pole dance.
Every experiment needs a “control”.
Seriously. If you didn’t stop for at least a second listen then I would agree. People don’t recognized good music. I suppose everyone has their own taste of what sounds good to them and what doesn’t
What if the music selection were different?
It wouldn’t need to be performed by a pop star. It wouldn’t need to be a song you recognize.
The stuff on our iPods may not have Bach’s name on it, but his influence and that of other masters are certainly present in today’s music. When done right we _will_ stop and listen. I’ve see it happen. It happened to me. I’ll never forget the day in Central Park when I saw a crowd gathering around a small jazz trio doing a cover of Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon. http://lala.com/zQNe
I’d never heard the song before, but the performance was so moving that I talked to my friends about it. One day I was out with my girlfriend. Her friend’s boyfriend was a musician. I mimicked the base line and he recognized it and filled me in on Herbie and another version by Maynard Ferguson http://lala.com/z7xYI
Herbie started out playing Mozart. Other musician’s study classical music too. The impact of classical masters like Bach remain with us today and they have remarkable influence on other students like Quincy Jones and Wynton Marsalis.
We’ve come along way.
Wow… that must have humbled him a bit.
People must listen to him not because they like the way he plays, but because his name is Joshua Bell. I personally have never heard of him, but (unless I was really, really busy) I would have stopped because I like classical music.
Jenna
i work in d.c. see guys playing all the time. some are very good. i don’t think there is one classical musician i’d recognize on sight. heck i sat next to brett micheals once and you seriously wouldn’t recognize him without makeup!
Betcha everybody would’ve stopped if it was Lady-%$&@-Gaga playing out there…Man, Homo Sapiens is so like domestic livestock
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