Comments (17)

• cljo

  Low blow, Mr. Tucker. I'd like to see this experiment conducted in NYC or LA. I would predict similar results.

  Published: April 10, 2007 2:29 PM

• Andrew T

  Government employees, most of whom I imagine are products of public schools.

  Published: April 10, 2007 2:31 PM

• jeffrey

  In Auburn, he would be surrounded and fawned over, and hired instantly by every church, restaurant, and country club. He would be invited immediately to the local museum to play. He would be given a seat on the arts council. The Mises Institute would have him for an evening concert and podcast it!
  

  Published: April 10, 2007 2:32 PM

• dex

  I wish I had been there. I love any kind of classical music, and I would have sat down against that wall for the entire time regardless of whether I would lose my job for being late---but that is because I am easily distracted---and I would have applauded, too.

  What I don't understand is WHY this is such a big deal. If Bell had been playing in the park or somewhere people go to relax because they have time, the story would have been different. But to expect people to stop and listen to music when they have to catch a cab/train to work is hardly fair, and I think people are reading too much into it. Would they react the same way if some rapper was there and ignored?

  What this story says to me is that people don't really value music. The same people who pay $100 for tickets to see Bell in concert value the social effect, they value the ability to say, "yeah, I went and saw Bell perform last night in Carnegie Hall. It was wonderful." The actual music is kind secondary to the perception of culture.

  Although, I guess it is also saying that people have conditioned themselves to ignore people on the street because a lot of the street musicians are terrible, and also because a lot of street people just beg for money---and people who earn money resent the feeling of guilt that comes with the feeling of resentment when someone standing on the corner with a sign asks for money instead of "getting a job."

  Published: April 10, 2007 2:53 PM

• Shawn R

  Perhaps he was ignored BECAUSE he was Joshua Bell. Bell is WAY overrated. Now if the ignored violinist would have been Julia Fischer, THAT would be a tragedy!

  Published: April 10, 2007 4:14 PM

• Justin Ptak

  There is a very revealing aspect of this story that Gene Weingarten wrote about in the Live Discussion of it on Monday (a link to this talk is included at the end of the original article):

  There is an interesting backstory to this event, and it reveals something enlightening about the nature of government bureaucracy, versus private industry.

  I first got the idea for this story about two years ago, when I emerged from the McPherson Square Metro station on the way to work and saw a ragged-looking man playing keyboard. He was quite remarkably good, and no one seemed to be noticing him. He had maybe a buck or two in change in his open case.

  I walked away kind of angry. I thought, "I bet Yo Yo Ma himself, if he were in disguise, couldn't get through to these deadheads." When I got to the office, I actually tried to reach Mr. Ma's agent.

  Life intervened. Time went by, but this story idea always stayed with me. It was my friend Tim Page, The Post's brilliant classical music critic, who eventually suggested Joshua Bell. (Later in the game, Tim would also tutor me in classical music; he was actually at L'Enfant that day, whispering in my ear, explaining what the heck was coming out of that fiddle. Josh had given me no playlist in advance.)

  I had thought that the most difficult part of this story was going to be securing Bell's cooperation, but that proved relatively easy, as explained in the story. The hard part was yet to come.

  We had very little choice in when to do this stunt: Bell's schedule was extremely tight. So we took what we could get, which was a Friday in January. Unfortunately, that created a problem; the cold eliminated any outdoor venue, Stradivariuses being what they are. We needed to find someplace indoors and heated and that would have steady commuter traffic. The only logical choice was inside a Metro station.

  That would require a special, secret dispensation by directors of the transit system. Metro regulations ordinarily forbid busking within the stations.

  So, with great confidence, I set up an interview with Jack Requa, who was at the time Metro's acting director.

  Requa listened to the proposal, agreed it was an appealing use of public space for a potentially revealing urban behavioral experiment, and that it would be a nice thing to do for the citizenry of Washington. Then he said:

  "I don't think we can do it, because it violates our rules."

  I said: "I know. That's why we're coming to you. We'd like you to loosen the rules, just this once, for 45 minutes, for a worthwhile reason."

  Requa said: "Well, also, it might look as though we are giving preference to one news organization over all others."

  I said: "Uh, well, The Washington Post would have no objection if you made the same concession to any other news organization that happens to be proposing placing a world-class violinist in one of your stations as a sociological experiment!"

  Requa said he would investigate the possibilities. A day later he called to report it was looking problematic, and urged The Post to pursue other possibilities. But he said he wanted to discuss it with his security personnel. Days passed.

  Finally, a verdict: No. The regulations were complicated, Requa said, but under one interpretation, busking in the Metro was not only against the rules but against the law, and he did not feel jurisdictionally empowered to authorize a breach of law. If Bell performed, Requa said, he would be arrested. Metro would do nothing to stop it.

  Total time elapsed to get a "no" answer: Eight days, four hours.

  Things were looking bad. Time was running out. I started traveling the Metro and getting off at every downtown stop, seeking adjoining indoor areas. Eventually, I hit L'Enfant Plaza, which was ideal. The indoor arcade was at the very top of the Metro escalator, and had three exit doors: Two to the outside, and one to a retail mall operated not by government, but by a private management firm called The JBG Companies. JBG managed the arcade area, too.

  I laid out the proposal to Amanda B. Kearney, JBG's senior property manager.

  "Sure," she said.

  "No one can know anything about this in advance," I cautioned. "No one other than you. A single breach in security and the whole experiment is compromised. "

  Amanda said: "I won't even tell my husband."

  Total elapsed time to get a "yes" answer: Six seconds.
  

  Published: April 10, 2007 4:32 PM

• tMoC

  This is simple. No one in the subway was impressed because they weren't actively told to be impressed. You can only play the violin so well, just as you can only paint so well or write so well. What makes the difference is that some of the very, very many excellent violinists, painters, and writers are proclaimed to be somehow much better than the rest of the excellent violinists, painters, and writers, even though they are not. And so it is believed.

  (Actually, in the case of painters, you don't even have to be very good to be considered one of the best.)

  Published: April 10, 2007 5:16 PM

• Axel Riemer

  No way. I saw this guy, Sergey Khachatryan, play Bruch's violin concerto a month ago. He was unbelievable. I have no doubt that if I saw Josh Bell on the street, I would stop for as long as humanly possible.

  But I'm a musician of sorts. I think most people these days don't have any sort of ear for any music prior to their teenage years. If there had been a guitarist strumming out beatles songs, people would have been better able to judge his skill. If a guy is ripping out sick riffs on the bridge, more people would be able tell he's better than your average bum with a guitar.

  But it's a bit of arrogance on the musician's part. People pay to hear popular music, music that they like. Since fewer average Joe's actively enjoy classical music, is it any surprise that his take was as small as it was?

  You never can tell. It reminds me of a story my music professor told us this year. He and a friend were walking in downtown Cleveland, by the library, where there was a guitarist standing out front playing some kind of bluesy country. My professor's friend said,"Hey, I'm gonna go ask this guy to play Klactoveedsedstene (or maybe it was Donna Lee or Ornithology, something by Charlie Parker anyway)." My professor replied, "C'mon don't do that, there's no way he'll know that!" But his friend went up to the guitar player and made his request. With absolutely no warning, the guy blazed into Klactoveedsedstene at twice the speed that Parker played it at, and ripped out a 10 minute solo (and when you're a jazz guitarist, there's a lot you can do). Afterwards, my astonished professor gaped, "Where.. wtf?" Apparently this guy was in town visiting a friend prior to heading down to Bonnaroo.

  So you never can tell.

  Maybe Bell's just not a good street performer.

  Published: April 10, 2007 8:08 PM

• josh m

  Bell needs to work on his intonation. Maybe that's why he only got $32 and change.

  :)

  Published: April 11, 2007 9:15 AM

• Patrick

  I think the point missed is that as children, we have a nutural inclination to natural phenomenon and I hand crafted instruments qualify IMHO. It's not like a beatbox that creates something only a computer could reproduce. The parents would not let their kids listen and insisted they move on. Life is about balance and making it to work on time isn't the most important thing at the end of day, your family is.

  Published: April 11, 2007 1:19 PM

• Morr

  There is a great response to the Joshua Bell article by a NYC subway musician in her blog: www.SawLady.com/blog
  She interprets the situation differently from the Washington Post reporters... I thought you might find it interesting.

  
  

  Published: April 11, 2007 3:25 PM

• Lisa Casanova

  To me, this seemed like just another one of those annoying "boo-hoo, the common people are such rubes with no culture" articles complaining about how the public just doesn't appreciate any great art (makes you wonder why Bell has such a successful career in the first place). This article tries to take a few simple facts 1) not everybody likes classical violin music 2) even people who do may not necessarily have a discerning ear for different artists on the violin and 3) people in a subway station are in a hurry to get someplace, and make it seem like this tells us some huge, depressing truth about the human soul. I would guess that people who would be in a frenzy about this article are the same people who would insist that government must fund the arts. Obviously leaving art to the market and the voluntary choices of individuals won't work, because look at them- they don't even appreciate the music of Joshua Bell (and of course the tastes of writers from the Washington Post who love his music should serve as the benchmark for everyone else).

  Published: April 11, 2007 7:30 PM

• Vanmind

  What a wonderful example of the free market at work.

  Published: April 11, 2007 11:25 PM

• Artisan

  Mr. Jeffrey Tucker always posts the most inspiring articles.

  So here you have at last the proof that it is possible that great artists die unnoticed from the masses. (for those who forgot VanGogh, or Rembrandt, or Gaudi). Is it perhaps a valid argument for copyright protection thus?

  The experiment is worth what it is… some “happening” yet financed by a private enterprise… not a public museum for once. Saying: there’s no room far Art any more. That’s quite true, even if paranoid Mrs Casanova prefers not to mention it (because someone could hear it in the government committee for art subsidies).

  Objectively… I 'd say the rationalization has some flaws though as obviously the “public audience” aspect has been deeply neglected from scratch. That’s also the main conclusion then.

  An art work makes only sense with an audience however. The purpose of the artist is to unite and lead that audience with his magic power somehow. Under those given circumstances it was ridiculous though. Even God can’t beat a pair of aces with a pair of twos.
  

  Published: April 13, 2007 12:49 PM

• tMoC

  Eh?

  Published: April 13, 2007 5:19 PM

• Artisan

  
  OK tMoC, so you believe all artistic glory today is just “made” by the communists. Or what are you exactly saying in your own obscure post above ?

  No magic, no nothing? Of course you are the expert and so we should believe your own deluded analysis. You mean the actual glory of someone who can’t paint - like Keith Haring for instance - is at the same level as Michelangelo’s glory now or back then? Not quite.

  Published: April 14, 2007 4:11 AM

• Donald Hedrick

  I have been pretty down ever since I read the article. I don't believe I was under any false illusion that a large crowd would gather, but the total lack of acknowledgment was really painful. We all sometimes wonder what kind of society we belong to, and the heartbreaks we have experienced in our political system in recent times has been almost too much to take as it is. As a high school teacher, psychology, sociology, and US government, I like to think a big part of my life's work is to try to build an appreciation for the best results of human creativity. The Joshua Bell experiment has left me feeling more empty purposeless than I can ever remember. I wish the Post would try another similar experiment in different setting to try to broaden the data base a little and perhaps mitigate this dark and empty feeling about the society we belong to at least somewhat.

  Don Hedrick

  Published: May 3, 2007 3:58 PM