Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: June 17 2008, 12:32 |
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Whether I stop or not depends on the situation, I'd say. Sometimes I've stopped and watched buskers for long periods of time (like 15 minutes or more) if they've been good and there's been somewhere to stand and I haven't been in a rush to get somewhere. I've occasionally bought CDs too. In places like tightly packed underground stations, I tend to not hang around, though I'll try and drop a bit of loose change into their case/hats if I have any. Even if I don't, (I think) I always notice them...music tends to grab my attention like that.
People are used to having music in the background - it's there in shops, on the TV (to the point of being intrusive - I caught a children's programme a while back, I think Blue Peter, and found the combination of music beds and flashing messages on screen made it very hard to follow what the presenter was saying - the idea of using those elements to support the message rather than being at odds with it seems to be an alien one) and radio (which I suspect often gets left on in the background even when people aren't really concentrating on it), even in lifts and toilets - and so I think mostly get used to having to pick around it and just take out what's really essential to them. There's so much vying for our attention that we reach information overload very quickly if we try and give our full attention to all of it (hence my trouble with the children's programme). Looked at within that context, I don't think it's at all unexpected that most people walked straight past Joshua Bell - I'm sure they're already quite used to blocking out the sound of world class musicians! That said, I also don't think that the fact that they walked past should be taken as a definite sign that they didn't like it - I walk past quite a few buskers, thinking, "that guy's not bad" but just not feeling compelled to stop (I couldn't guarantee that the sound of Joshua Bell would make me stop, though I think in a spacious area like he was in, I'd be more inclined to). I also think that what Holger says is very true - stopping isn't the done thing. There are some places (like Covent Garden in London) which are areas where street entertainers are encouraged, and people do stop there and form crowds. Try doing the same act just a few hundred metres away in Covent Garden underground station and I think you'd find the reaction completely different, the crowds suddenly unwilling to stop, some of them no doubt rushing to get outside, where they'll then stop to enjoy the street entertainers!
It's sad to see that children get dragged along when they have an interest in what's going on. In my experience, they are usually both willing and able to understand all kinds of music, and they enjoy exploring it. I believe that's something which should be encouraged - there seems to be a worrying tendency to teach only what's easy to examine, and to value an ability to follow, duplicate and repeat above the ability to innovate and create. Of course I accept the difficulties faced in education, and that a balance needs to be struck between many things, but I do feel it's important to introduce children to more than just what's going to be on the next exam paper...and I try to do so myself when I get half the chance!
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