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
This idea is inaccurate. A train station where trains are leaving at specific times is not a good place to conduct this kind of experiment. People didn’t stop because they were either rushing to get home to see their beloved families, or to get to their job that pays them so that they can eventually go experience this art in an actual theatre in the comfort of a seat. A better place to try this would be in a mall or on the streets of a busy city. As for factoring in the idea of money… irrelevant. The same song can be played on a $200 violin by a musician who plays just for fun and for the love of music. You shouldn’t put a price on art. Terrible fail for an experiment. What a shame that this was published.
One of the most intelligent men I know instilled many things to me. One of the most reserved is the thought that ( Perception is reality). In my opinion; the reality of the matter is we as a society are too busy to take time to enjoy the simple and beautiful moments in life.
Stephen
November 27th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Wow, terrible fail of an analysis. What a shame you committed it to words.
You’ve clearly mis-interpreted or not fully understood the purpose of the experiment. It was by placing a work of what would be considered high culture, that the comstruct of the thesis takes place. The very fact that people weren’t occupying the environment specifically to listen to music is the factor which contributes to our understand of social constructs.
I’ve no doubt a mall wouldindeed garner a more responsive crowd, it’s true, they would have more time and patience to listen, but that’s not the point. The principal intent is to discover whether people would consider themselves to be “experiencing this art”[sic] if the art was not presented to them directly. The question it poses is “what is good music?” as opposed to your prognosis; “can people recognise good music?”
Maybe hold your tongue (or your fingers) and realise there is more than your own perspective before criticizing other people’s (incredibly insightful, in my opinion) work.
@Stephen
I believe you are still missing the point, on top of being arrogant and poorly informed. Not every single person was in a desperate hurry, some people had time to stop and smell the roses but chose not to. Some were indeed in a hurry, but a life where I can only find beauty when looking for it? What a shame… Joshua Bell is a world class musician and a far cry from any hobby violinist. Violins have intricacies all their own so do not discredit the production of an instrument. Jeff Gordon might be able to get the most out of VW Beetle, but I sincerely doubt he will still be placing in a race where the others were not forced to take lesser machines. Do you see what you’ve done Stephen, you’ve gotten me to reference NASCAR you evil bastard! I have to shower with bleach now!
The most striking thing about this is not how so few people stopped but rather that the people conducting the experiment expected people to stop. If you expect people to stop and listen to a musician the people you must target must be able to appreciate good music. Second people who are refined and intelligent enough to appreciate a piece by Bach most likely have busy schedules being in general businessmen or people of importance. If you expect the common person in a train station to stop you must draw them in with something recognizable. I have competed in talent shows with my violin and preformed better than all other people in my category but have lost simply due to low crowd enthusiasm.
Well, lets say this experiment was being conducted at a park,do you think the outcome would’ve been the same? Or even if that person was playing in the theater during war,would people still come?think about why people did’nt come, no one noticed the music because they didnt want to, because everyday they pass these people.
you missed the entire point of the article. the whole point was that it was an inconvenient place and people are too caught up in their schedules and stressed out by time that they can’t spare even 5 minutes for a once in a lifetime experience. the entire article is about opening your eyes even when its inconvenient…and the price of the violin is relevant affected the quality of the sound, which is undeniably greater that that of a $200 violin. yikes. if this article was over your head life must be a bitch for you.
or maybe they didn’t like bach. maybe they loved it but given the circumstances chose to keep their appreciation to themselves. a train station is not a place to stand slack jawed and drooling over a street performers work; at least not if you have any street smarts. it is an interesting anecdote but a flawed experiment and several erroneous conclusions with a touch of liberal elitism thrown in. it is inevitable that each persons experience was effected by the performance even if only peripherally. but what exact reaction where you looking for? a crowd of classical music fans to suddenly materialize and throw their panties at him? again, this smells more of a veiled (subconscious) cultural critique than a proper social experiment. maybe next time try having jay-z perform sinatra with a solid gold microphone…
People’s stopping or not tells us nothing of the quality of the art. That is not a matter of opinion–I mean it literally.
If say, the Mona Lisa or some other artifact of “high” culture (a problematic term in and of itself, but the subject of another conversation) were posted on the wall of the subway station, and I had to go to work (I am an NYC teacher with strict sign-in time), I don’t think I would stop. Perhaps, I would think, “Oh, that’s really a shame that I cannot view this masterpiece,” but it’s irrelevant. I will not be late for work; it affects my students.
This experiment, substantively not pejoratively, does not tell us about the value of the art, even if such a calculation were possible.
Whether or not you believe certain art can be better than other art is a matter of aesthetic philosophical opinion, but let us not draw hasty conclusions from what was certainly an interesting (rather than informative, necessarily) experiment.
I think we are all missing the fact that this guy made $33/hr…. something i have yet to do. Call it unappreciative but i call it pretty amazing considering he was in a crowded subway system.
I wonder how many of those people gave money that normally would have just kept walking.
I don’t give every musician on the street money myself, only some dependent mostly on their flow.
I presented this article to my father and he came up with a very simple arguement to this experiment.
Most of the people that passed by the musician that day, or any other day for that matter, probably did not know who he was or that we was playing an instrument worth $3m. With classical music being such a niche genre, the majority of people would probably never recongnise that he was playing some of the finest and most intricate music in the world.
It could have been anyone, playing any instrument of any value and the result would have been the same.
Beauty as he pointed out, is the eye (or ears) of the beholder.
Just because someone IS, does not mean, that to everyone they ARE.
Seems the people who set this up stacked the deck to get the outcome they desire. Is anyone really surprised that as a rule human beings are so self involved?
i found this through stumble, and ironiclly i almost passed through it. glad i took a minute to gain some insight.
The noise in the subway must have been loud. That variable may have thrown off the experiment a bit, but wow. Interesting results!
And what lovely bullshit you’ve expanded upon in your review, Stephen. It is fantastic that we have people who can worry about the people who are fixated upon making money (presumably so they can spend it to go and see “art”), and also worry about the misfortunes of putting a price on the aforementioned art.
Indeed, what a “terrible fail” it was. But not you — you know why? ‘Cause you’re f’in golden.
Abram:
Are you saying that only refined, intelligent, important businessmen can enjoy Bach? And are you also saying that refined, intelligent, important businessmen never have time to stop and enjoy life?
So in fact, nobody will ever actually listen to Bach – the only people who would appreciate that music never have time to listen to it!?
Stephen’s correct, at least to a point. The Bell experiment merely shows that people who have obligations aren’t convinced to drop them because something pretty is dangled in front of them.
Bell parked himself in a public space which is designed for people to walk *through*. Had he chosen a station platform where people wait for their trains, I’m sure a number of people would have been delighted to hear his music. But if I were in a hurry to catch a train leaving in one minute, I don’t care if it’s Jascha Heifetz come back from the dead to play the Bach Chaconne one more time, I’m getting to my train. Plenty of time for Hochkultur once I get where I’m going; I don’t need to be fired for tardiness, or to have my wife pissed at me because I’m late for dinner, or what-have-you.
I’m generally unimpressed at all the tutting about how we don’t have time for the Finer Things anymore. And this little stunt doesn’t prove anything of the sort; it only proves that people have higher priorities in life than listening to a random guy play the fiddle in a train station.
I personally really liked this demonstration. Giving people precise information on the high specifics would ruin the point of the experiment. Why? Because most of us (I include myself here) would do a lot more to say that we listened to someone rich and famous than we would to say we listened to some unknown person playing good music. Example (understandable to people who prefer classical and orchestral music, like me): a regular person would rather spend 100 dollars to stand next to a stage where some rapper is performing, to be drowned in the noise so loud you can’t even make out the words, and pretty much do nothing at all for the duration of the performance, which may be over an hour long, whereas he could stand in the Subway for 10 minutes, listening to a good violin player playing classical music, if he has that time free, and he wouldn’t even have anything to do for an hour when he comes back. In other words, we search out and chase fame instead of quality, fakeness which is popular rather than something good and unknown to the masses. We very often judge the outside, and very rarely the inside. That is the same reason why people often choose the bright and flashy women instead of the simpler, but loving, caring, and compassionate ones.
You all need to understand that this was a terrible experiment. The variables were too many and there is a heavy bias of the fact that this w as at a train station. the most time people can afford to spare is a few seconds, which some people did do. Some stopped. You also cannot deny that people don’t have to express the fact that they appreciate the beauty of it. They don’t have to stop. This was a terrible experiment and was staged thus so that it would have favorable results for the person conducting the research.
The only person who commented and made the most sense so far is Matt.
Stephen was sort of right but he was way too extreme which pissed a lot of people off.
Sure people don’t have enough time to appreciate beauty anymore, but that’s probably because they had higher priorities in life. I’m sure if noone was in a hurry or didn’t have to catch their train, they would stop and listen.
Some people were right. This is a horrible experiment. They set it up to get favorable results. I think Joshua Bell himself probably agree, but why not… he gets paid to do it. Matt was right. The place they chose was a place designed for people to walk through. The people are people with jobs, responsibility, family. If everybody were to do whatever they want to do and stop to experience everything that is pleasant and appreciating, they we would all go smoke crack and become hippies.
Sure, the experiment was interesting. Hopefully there will be better people who are willing to do this experiment again, this time with better set ups and more controlled.
This experiment was written to get a bunch of “Awwwww”s from people. And it worked. Look how many of you defended this experiment even when you know that if you had a job to go to, if you were running late, and if you had responsibilities that you have to take care of, then YOU YOURSELF would not stop either.
Also, using classical music is a little.. old.. I’m not a great fan of classical music. I love music..that’s right. I’m a musician and I love jazz. I love broadway. I love a few pop, and very few classical music. Even if my mom buys me a $200 ticket to see a classical music concert with her, I wouldn’t want to go, because I’m just not a fan of classical music. And to be honest, even if I wasn’t in a hurry, I probably wouldn’t stop either unless it’s a piece that I know or is very appealing to me.
And really, kids stop to look at everything. If you stand in a subway station with a very weird hairstyle or very colourful shiny clothes, or make loud noises that aren’t just talking, they will look at you. If you bring a tv there and play some soap opera, they will look at you. Because kids are easily distracted and they don’t have as much sense of responsibility or attention span as adults.
I wonder if the experiment would have turned out differently had they propped up a sign that indicated exactly who this person was, and what he was playing. I would like to think a great many more people would have stopped. I know some wouldn’t. Perusing the comments, I find some of them to be particularly ignorant. For example: “Proud” is such a big, responsible adult with a such a sophisticated attention span, he wouldn’t notice a large plastic bag filled with $3.5 million if it smacked him across the ass. By the way, it seems he’s projecting a bit – not everyone likes to smoke crack.
And not everyone is in such a god damned hurry to attend to their “higher priorities”. The *perception* of a perpetual hurried crowd is there, but I find it hard to believe that every person in of a crowd of two thousand is desperately late for their departure and hasn’t the time of day for a once-in-a-lifetime event such as this.
I found this experiment very accurate in defining what beautiful things we are missing. I’m sure if I had passed that man I could have identified and appreciated the art and intricacy of the piece of music.
I pity the people today who are running after excess money and fame, leaving the beauty of this world un-noticed.
It’s a fair comment that these people are people with jobs and places to go. But it does beg the question- how many people would have gladly strolled in late to work or been willing to wait for another train had the likes of Taylor Swift or Britney Spears been performing?
I’ll be blunt, this proves absolutely nothing.. whatsoever. There is a right time and place for everything, and whomever defends this garbage has apparently never been to a train station before.
I agree that the train station was probably not the ideal place to try this experiment. People are on tight schedules there. Perhaps a busy New York street corner would have been more appropriate. People are still on a busy schedule but could possibly spare 5 minutes if they so desired.
I don’t get why so many people hated on the experiment?? The question it wanted to answer is how much of the potential beauty around you do you actually experience?? The answer is ‘Not much’. The excuse is ‘well we’re all busy and hectic people’.
Don’t put the cart before the horse!! The point was to expose and have us question our mindsets. Not condemn the experiment because it wasn’t tailored to your convenience. That was the POINT.
One conclusion could be we should enjoy our lives more and be less hectic.
Instead you attack the ‘mirror’. This experiment could teach you something.
You guys are trying to make this out to be way more than it actually is. Of course it isn’t a scientific study. It would be ridiculous to assume so, it is more along the lines of a social experiment of anything. And true, some people were late for their trains and did not have 20 seconds to spare. But the remaining 80% of the subway visitors most likely had at least a minute to spare. Are you telling me that all of them chose to leave their homes at exactly the last moment? Of course not. Some did not even have deadlines at all (and were merely shopping or sight seeing). With this said, I, and I would hope most people, would at least stop and appreciate such an expression of creativity. He was obviously playing an incredibly difficult piece, which anyone, yes ANYONE would have been able to figure out. A simple glance in his direction would have meant they at least were slightly interested or intrigued by his talent. No-one was required to look, but honestly, why wouldn’t you? The only reason I can think of is because you are a)busy b)lazy or c)uneducated
We already know we are missing lots of things… beautiful, rare… some so rare that we don’t even care they exist… like mother’s love…
Knowing is nothing… understanding is everything… once we stop a bit to listen to the music, we will realize how easy it is to enjoy the most beautiful feelings…
It’s amusing to consider the fact that we each perceive our own reality, a subjective world, and fail to realize what precious moments we have together; I for one very often fail to realize. This article reaally does illuminate how we react to each other. Each of us has something to say about it. How many of us understand beauty and what it means to have a beautiful mind? Things in themselves have no inherent beauty. Beauty is cognized entirely by the subject mind. I like what 8powers has said, this is very much an experiment to teach us something. There are no inherent faults in anything other than what the subject mind experiences.
Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? Why is there something wrong with someone who is not interested in music, whether it is some tv musical or famous classical music, or even just some beginner blaring noise out of a trumpet? If I don’t really care to listen to any of them does this make me less of a person? I think not. My life does not depend upon music being in it. There are many other things I find beauty in, and if music is NO part of my life I think I can go on living just fine. In my opinion, this experiment seems to start with the premise that if people don’t appreciate music there is somehow something wrong with them. What utter nonsense.
“Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.”
This is so sad… I think this is an important point we are also missing in the comments.
I think there’s no more beauty around, we don’t feel nor see… we just pay the price to let others tell us what beauty is. But do they see beauty or just are like us?
JS Bach is so often used as background music. Perhaps if something a bit more modern were played there might have been more of a reaction, Say string quartet arrangements of radiohead, or jazz, or hip hop, one type of music is not necessarily going to be appropriate for grabbing the attention of 2,000. Not that I don’t love baroque music but, much of the population do not appreciate it. Perhaps if the experiment where repeated at say noon, or 5pm the results might have been different. who knows…
the point of the article is stated in the last line of the article, please read. and by last line I mean, the line before “Thanks Gene”
Well, that’s just my take.
i wonder how much would have he earned if he played just crappy notes for an hour at the same station at the same time that would give us some thing to compare
@Proud: I think your post raises and interesting question, did we ever have time to appreciate beauty?
I would claim that we didn’t, people have always had to work to survive (at least the majority of us) if the option is admire beauty or be able to eat, survival instinct will leave us little option as to which we find more important. Nowadays the choice is neither so black or white nor so immediate as it has been in the past, however the sense of urgency has still yet to lessen. The experiment tells us nothing nothing about our ability to appreciate beauty (or lack thereof), it simply highlights that from an evolutionary perspective our priorities are organised logically. If we assume busking to have been as common in all periods of history as it is now, then I doubt very much that anyone would have paid any more attention in times gone by than they did in the modern day.
With regards to the skill of the musician, the cost of his instrument and the piece chosen, I’m sure many people (regardless of personal taste) would have been able to identify that the player was skilled and that he was playing a difficult piece of music. Were the people responsible for the experiment to have asked people leaving the station what they thought of the musician many would probably have commented on his being more capable than the average busker.
this social experiment has created it’s own social experiment, how interesting the replies (including my own of course)
that is pointless what did you want the people to do take time out of their packed busy schedule for some what they thought was just a street musician. well sorry that the world isn’t perfect whoever published this. deal with it
I found it very interesting how the children were able to pick up on the music, and the parents that society has corrupted, are the ones to drag them away from something that is a great piece of art
I agree with you stephen…that was what jumped out to me most of all as well…the kids were the ones who seemed to truly appreciate it, w/o any knowledge of who the performer really was or how expensive his instrument may have been.
We need to slow down and smell the roses. Look around us as we’re in route home. If some of this people could have given a min. or two possible the stress from rushing or work could have faded before getting home and throwing it on some-one else. My respects to Mr. Joshua Bell. I would have loved to be here and see him playing for just a minute. God Bless us all.
Alright I didn’t read every post comment here but I’m somewhat perplexed by the relative amount of criticism on the first comment by Stephen. Hasn’t it occurred to anyone that maybe we can interpret this experiment the other way around? I mean perhaps Bach on a multimillion dollar violin is simply overrated? The people that pay $100 for a violin concert seem to me like a minority compared to the subway going masses. Maybe this experiment tells us that Bach really isn’t worth that amount of money and attention anymore.
I would have stopped. Even just for a moment. And just let the notes sink in. A breath of fresh air. In a crowded station, full of robots. Out of tune with reality. The real reality. The beauty of our universe. Spoken through a violin.
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?
Did no one else read that part? Or am I the only one who appreciates this experiment?
I’m amazed that in this Obama regime those people had jobs to hurry to.
It’s really sad, that many people here get upset in the experiment coz they know that they too wouldn’t have stopped had they been on that train station… Instead of trying to figure out how to live life better, they keep on justifying their current ways of living (which we all know, could use a little more improvement). In the end, regrets will haunt you, and sadly, you won’t be able to turn back time.
I want to try the opposite. Sell $100 tickets to see one of the world’s “finest” musicians, and have some first year music student play crap on a $35 mail order violin.
I guess that the point of this experiment was to prove that so-called high culture and classical music are niche genres and no one really cares about those.
If you put, say U2, to play in a street corner and do the experiment again, do you think that you’d get the same outcome (people not stopping) or would the result be any different?
She may be a mental case but I would still do Britney Spears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myq8upzJDJc
this article is lying there are a few people who noticed watch the video to the end