music: Talking Heads- The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, d.2
This one came down the pipe a couple weeks back but I’m still thinking about it: what happens when a world-class musician plays the subway with a $3,500,000 instrument during morning rush hour? (It’s a long read, but well-worth it.)
That day, to the 1,100-odd rat racers, one of the most famous classical violinists in the world was relegated to background hum. This is a guy who commands the cultural upper crust to maintain absolute silence during performances, this is a guy who can take in more money per minute of performance than i probably make in a month. And coolest of all, this is a guy who, despite his fame and fortune, is willing to go along with a devilish social experiment. The results were quite clear: context matters. Do people rate a meal as better if it were more expensive? I bet they would. Are people more inclined to litter on the concrete sidewalk or the backcountry of a national park? Probably the sidewalk. So it goes with art. All artifacts of human creation exist in a medium of place and time which lend it certain properties, and often times great works of art are largely altered when removed from that context. Imagine Jackson Pollack in Renaissance Italy, the Beatles in pre-colonial Africa. Such drastic contrasts between time emphasize the point, but there are plenty of examples here and now: hip hop on the street corner and hip hop in the record executive’s board room, modernist paintings made by a 5 year old and modernist paintings hanging in the MOMA, and here, classical music performed in the subway versus the same music performed at Carnegie Hall.
Context matters. True enough. The other piece is prior knowledge on the subject matter. People who are “experts” in certain fields are able to discern more nuance than the layman, understand deeper layers of meaning, and most people aren’t “experts” in classical music. So in the same way that i can’t tell a 1997 ford from a 1999 ford, most people don’t know their Handel from their Haydin. My roommate pointed out something interesting: in the US, classical music buffs are generally more well off and tend to not ride the subway in DC, so there’s potentially a class thing at work here as well.
Most of the effect demonstrated can safely be explained by the current state of urban living, especially during morning rush hour. ipods, job stress, lack of wakefulness, bystander effect, and all that. But there’s also the anonymity factor in this particular situation. Part of why the social experiment here worked is that Joshua Bell wasn’t recognized by face. Classical musicians aren’t necessarily the rockstar types by way of looks and tabloid fodder and are very rarely recognized by face (they audition from behind a screen, for godsakes!). No doubt Paul Mccartney couldn’t pull the same thing off. And furthermore, I don’t think you can completely rule out people’s taste in music. I’d be very curious to test this out on other “virtuoso” musicians that do not play classical. what do we think would happen if one of the Marsalis boys dresses down and plays a subway station? Bela Fleck? BB King? i’d bet you’d get a different reaction.
And still.
This all confirms my worst suspicions: music does not speak for itself. Instead it’s packaged, tied up with image, personalities, lights and ambiance, cover charges, celebrity status, ticket fees, certain cultural traditions, promotional efforts, subcultures, distribution medium, method of consumption (LP vs. ipod), product lines, and the like. Music: buy the t-shirt, see the movie. it’s a pity.
Posted by davidtaus at April 24, 2007 01:24 AM | TrackBack