I don’t usually spend a lot of time criticizing Facebook memes.
But there’s one floating around from something called
Knowledge Of Today that is sticking in my craw.
The text accompanying the above photo essentially says that a busker violinist (circled) in a metro station played six Bach pieces during rush hour, and made a little over $30. Hardly anyone stopped to listen to him play, apart from a few children. As it turns out, the busker was Joshua Bell (a famous violinist), the violin he played on was worth $3.5 million, and the whole thing was staged by the Washington Post as “part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people.”
The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”
And I can’t help thinking: “What a crock.”
Assuming the text is true (and this being a Facebook meme, there is no guarantee of that), I have a few issues with the message it's trying to get across:
1. Joshua Bell is not a household name.
Obviously it depends on the household, but generally speaking, classical music isn't all that popular, and classical musicians aren’t rock stars. Yes, they have fans, but how many people who passed by Joshua Bell that day even knew who he is? I’d never heard of him until I read this meme.
2. Buskers are commonplace in metro stations.
Buskers are already an accepted part of the scenery of most subway stations (except where they’re banned, which is presumably not the case in DC), and people walk past them every single day without stopping to listen, no matter how good they play. And some buskers do play amazingly well. There’s no reason for anyone who walked past Bell to assume he’s anything more than the usual part of the scenery.
3. It’s called Rush Hour for a reason.
People are RUSHING. They have someplace to be. Even if they wanted to stop and listen, they probably don’t have the time to listen for more than a minute.
4. Music is portable.
Lots of people listen to music on trains, via iPods or smartphones or whatever. Some of them may even listen to Joshua Bell recordings. The fact that they didn’t stop to listen to a busker doesn't mean they’re not taking the time to listen to beauty – they just have a more time-efficient way of doing it.
5. Who says Bach is the best music ever written?
Some people hate classical music. And many of the ones that do like it don’t necessarily like Bach. So the meme’s reasoning is not only flawed, it’s pretentious.
(While we’re at it, some people have no appreciation for art, either, even if they have all the time in the world to stop and check it out.)
So all up, the stated conclusion (“If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”) is highly flawed.
For one thing, it’s not even a conclusion. It’s a question. Moreover, it’s a leading question that assumes everyone who passed by Bell would either know who he is, know exceptional (vs good but not Carnegie-Hall good) violin playing when they hear it, like Bach (or at least classical music), and actually had the time to stop and listen to him play for 45 minutes.
I give this meme an “F”.
Or am I being snotty here?
Well, maybe a little. I guess I have a problem with memes that try to make some half-assed point about how the Modern Age makes us all workaholic robots and wouldn't the world be a nicer place if we all stopped to listen to classical music played by people as talented as Joshua Bell.
Or something.
Unplugged,
This is dF
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