STORY link is hiding in HERE!
Last January, the Washington Post hatched a plan to take advantage of unsuspecting commuters at the L’Enfant Plaza metro station. They decided to place world famous violinist Joshua Bell in plain street cloths to play violin, and catch the commuters' reactions.
Washington Post staff writer, Gene Weingarten came up with the idea for the experiment. After, he heard a highly talented keyboardist playing at a metro station without not even getting recognized by commuters.
Weingarten had Bell play inside L'Enfant Plaza for 45 minutes, so, he played leaving his violin case open hoping for donations. When all was said and done 1,097 people walked past and only twenty-seven left tokens of appreciation, totaling to $30.
Three months later, Weingarten's article was published by the Post about the brain dead commuters.
The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) decided to do a recap about this piece in order to probe deeper into the idea of social experiments and journalism. CJR explained the relationship best by saying, "Indeed, Weingarten’s experiment was a recent entry in a journalistic genre with deep, quirky roots."
The idea of social experiments goes back as far as 1887 with yellow journalists like Nellie Bly. Who faked hearing voices to get admitted into a loony-bin in order to do her story. Critics believe these types of experiments to be unethical and lacking of actual scientific content.
Journalism is always pushing the known bonders of what is "social acceptable" making it pioneering field and proving grounds for reestablishing the status quo.
6 comments:
It is disheartening that so many people did not stop, not even for a moment, to enjoy such beautiful music. The metro is a place of busy transit, so people might not have been giving themselves time to actually listen. It is a sad day when being in a rush can trump our ability to enjoy a master violinist. I think, though, most people are guilty of this tunnel vision. We are in an age where speed and technology supersede an insouciant lifestyle. For the most part, we do not allow ourselves moments of tranquility that we desperately need, due to time constraints.
I believe it is very sad that people in today's world are too busy to even enjoy the violinists music, however, I don't find it surprising. Our lives today are causing us to be so rushed, so busy, so consumed in ourselves and lifestyle that people today miss out on so much that we had 50 years ago. Everyone in America needs to slow down, but accomplishing that is impossible for it takes realizing this on the individuals level for everyone to gain what we have lost.
It is dissappointing that people didn't appreciate the good music by leaving a tip. However, society is very complexed and for the journalist who did the article opened up my eyes. After all, you never know who you will come across in the artist industry on the streets performing their talents. In any case, people should be a little bit more curtious, because you never know if they actually need the tips or not.
The next time I see an artist performing, whether it is musical, painting, or acting on the streets I will definently leave a tip.
I recently visited New York city and rode the subway everyday. Each time there were people or bands playing all kinds of music. You think it would the New Yorkers stop and slow down but it didn't. I was amazed at the idea of being able to hear live music at all times of the day and in such a hectic place. Maybe people are jaded or maybe they just don't care. I think the science part of their experimient might not be accurate but it shows that people don't know good music when they hear it. Save the music!
I really enjoyed when visiting New York City that I really enjoyed having live music all around me. Even though it was 25 degrees in New York, it really made my day a little better when I heard music. I think that this was an interesting experiment, it was cool how they had that many people walked by and nobody paid attention.
Being from the Washington D.C. area, and familiar with the Metro systems, and I can understand how many people were too busy to stop and listen to this violinist. Yet, there are also many people who sit in the stations for 20 minutes or more while they wait on their train to show up, but most are too consumed with their own lives to care whats going on around them.
I think it is remarkable the things journalists will do to get a story. Wether is be socially accecptable or not, I commend them for it!
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