If a great musician plays great music, yet no one hears him...
 

for those of you who don't know, Joshua Bell is a world-class classical violinist who plays an extremely expensive violin ($3.5 million) and ticket prices for his shows are generally more than $100.

he attempted a social experiment in conjunction with the washington post; busk at a busy metro area to see if he really was noticed.

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

I think this is really interesting; I've seen some good buskers and I've tried it a few times with sometimes good, sometimes poor results. the most I've gotten in about an hour is $40.

Heh I remember reading this a few months back. It just goes to show how much we associate an appropriate setting with that kind of music. I wonder if any of the passerby's actually had tickets to see him live in a concert hall. To be fair though most people's morning commutes are spent in a zombified state anyways, usually planning out the day in advance, cursing their lives, or just lost in their MP3 players.

yeah, the article addresses that. I believe that it's a real problem; I think art inspires the better parts and choices in life. I cannot imagine having more of an appreciation for money than art.

an 'experiment' like this is why there's still a very active stereotype of pretentiousness within classical music. especially considering how few people get worthwhile education in arts and music outside of college / university.

really though, i'd be curious to know the results had they flipped the time around. as opposed to seeing if people would notice a quality musician on their way into work (as if), how about at the end of the day. once the stress of the professional day is over i'd be inclined to believe more than a half dozen people would stop and listen.

Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing tried this once. he earned $3.10
then he turned around and released the session as an EP and earns a lot more :)

Mike Doughty

i think it just solidifies the idea that there's FAR more to music than the sounds we hear.