Britney Vs Bach: A Social Experiment.
I figure we're all guilty of it, to a certain extent it's probably always been this way. Perhaps modern life, with all of it's trappings - both digital and environmental - only serves to exacerbate this age-old human blind-spot?
Blimey, that feels awfully heavy for an opening gambit, especially one intended to - hopefully - convey a pretty uplifting message! So if you don't mind, to lighten the mood a little I'm just going to write 'Boobs' in calculator language, as was the craze back in the heady days of 2002.
Here goes: '80085'..
.. loses it's magic a little away from the old calculator screen, but dig out the calculator and give it a go. Or maybe don't. It's probably in the attic, under the stairs or somewhere equally dusty and spider-infested. It's probably not worth the risk of getting a spider in your hair or your pocket or something. I did that once and only realised when I reached on in there to root out a Fruit Pastille, I don't know which of us was more surprised at the grand-reveal. I'll do better next time, I promise.
Anyway.
It was 2007, the Uk bank 'Northern Rock' was in collapse, the original Wii was causing pandemonium throughout Toys-R-Us' across the globe, and a colossal squid weighing in at a whopping 450kg was being hauled out of the ocean by - presumably legitimately bonkers - fishermen off the coast of New Zealand. With all of this (amongst other, more important events I'm sure) going on, perhaps it's no surprise that the odd social experiment managed to slip under our collective radar.
The Experiment.
Interested in finding out just how finely tuned the everyday commuters senses were to the presence of - what would in the 'appropriate' setting generally be considered, beautiful music - researchers organised by 'The Washington Post' devised a deceptively simple, yet as it turned out, incredibly insightful social experiment.
The plan?
Send an acclaimed musician at the peak of his powers, into the subway. Then simply sit back and record the results. Before delving into the results (I'm sure you can see where this is going!), lets take a look at the musician in question.
Joshua Bell:
- World-famous, acclaimed violinist.
- Equipped with a handcrafted violin, at the time valued at $3.5million.
- Playing one of the most intricate pieces of music ever written for the violin.
- Had played to a sold-out Boston theatre the night before the experiment - Average ticket price? $100.
In the 45-minutes that Joshua played to the lucky commuters that day, only six people were observed to have stopped for anything more than a few seconds. He made $32, mostly thrown hurriedly into his case as commuters rushed past through the cold January morning air.
( For anybody interested, here is a short clip of his performance. The sound quality is unfortunately not great.
Bigger Questions than Britney vs Bach.
Understandably, no style of music can ever be to everyone's taste. Maybe you're more a fan of Britney than Bach? I think the question posed goes deeper than that, deeper than personal taste or opinion. Is true 'Beauty' a neutral party in the battle of tastes, or is it situated within it, a very much personal choice?
Personally, I would say both yes & no (very helpful this blog is turning out to be ey). It's fair to presume that there were likely many people encountering Joshua's music that day who would have had no interest or knowledge in classical music, and so perhaps would not have viewed his music as 'Beautiful' regardless of the setting within which it was situated.
However, by the same logic, it is likely that many of the people passing that day would have possessed both the knowledge and interest required to appreciate the beauty of what Joshua was playing. If so, why is it that they missed the chance to appreciate it fully in the moment? And perhaps more pertinently, by extension, how many little moments like this are each and every one of us missing, day-in, day-out?
Listen to the Music.
It's not a thought that I find particularly comfortable. I love to listen to music - maybe some of you like to do this too - how often do you truly drink in the song that you're listening to, really give it your 100% attention and appreciation? I know for me that percentile would be pretty low.
Maybe you love being surrounded by nature, but find yourself flicking through your phone while walking the dog each evening. No no, that picturesque sunset, framed by the herd of wild horses, rocky mountain backdrop and figure-skating acro-monkeys can wait, I need to check my emails and I need to check them now.. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but I think the point stands.
Wasting these little moments of happiness, surely this is wasting the most precious experiential resource that life has to offer?
Luckily, I'd say it's a very easy problem to fix. Stop and listen to the music.
'80085'.
Source material and further (Very interesting!) reading can be found at:
I hope you've enjoyed this post, as always any feedback (or just general chat) is more than welcome! If you found it bearable or perhaps even, dare I say, not bad? Then you're more than welcome to follow me for more bits and bobs from the world of Psychology.
Have a lovely day all!