Washington, DC Metro Station: on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about an hour. During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes: a middle aged man noticed the musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on 4 minutes: The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw the money in the hat without stopping and continued to walk. 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and walked away. 10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The child stopped to look back at the violinist again, but the mother pulled hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head back 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. Findings 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 theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each. 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 take 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?
Interesting. I'm not sure how fair of an experiment it is, based on the relative obscurity of the artist and the setting in which he was playing. If it was Madonna in a mall instead of Josh Bell in a subway station, the reaction would have been a little different.
Perhaps folks are dumbed down to the point where they think so outside the box, they don't even know how the box look like. And I find it very interesting that the children who haven't experienced any social conditioning can separate the good from the bad so easily. Perhaps this is why giant corporation prefers to control the population through constant brainwashing. We are too dumb to understand anything that is not the norm. Like the lady that drop off a buck into the violin case and proceed to keep walking without stopping for 3 minutes to even trying listening to the music. However, if the same lady was blind; would she have donated a dollar or ten? Would she have stopped to listen to the rest of the song? I would say perception and taste are constantly distorted to trick our input sensors i.e. eyes, mouth, etc.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw
Damn those yankees and their Madonna! If I were there, I would have recognized him. Send him out to the west Coast. I'll give him all the applause he wants. Also we're more laid back out here.