Grr.

[labellementeuse]

I am grouchy today. monkeycrackmary linked to this: Joshua Bell plays at a subway, makes $30. And I wrote up a whole comment but it had nothing to do with her post, so instead I'm ranting here.

I've made more than that busking and I suck, and I'm sorry, but this is just part of it, that very very good music is not universal. It's just, it's not. The difference between bad and good, yeah, that's obvious to the layman, but between very good and Joshua Bell? Not intuitive, it actually is something that you have to learn. The reason Bell tickets sell for so much is that there are two select groups of people who go to classical music concerts: music critics and enthusiasts, and rich people. The first group have enough of an education to recognise it, and the second group wanna look cool. And the first group, I don't mean eminent music critics, I mean people who care about classical music and listen to a lot of it. And the probability is that most of the people going past at rush hour aren't in one of those two groups. And that's just borne out by Picarello, because he's played and he's listened a lot - it's not that he was tortured into giving up his art, or whatever.

It hasn't got shit to do with recognising beauty. People like to hear what they know. If Bell had stood there and played, say, Pachelbel's Canon, some Bach minuets, Humouresque by Dvorac, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... he probably would have got a lot more, you know. Busking is an art just like classical musicianship is, and that's just leaving aside the problem of time (rush hour can be good for money, but it's awful for getting a crowd; there are a whole other bunch of problems with this kind of busking set-up.)

The article really hit the nail on the head about people looking at you, and giving money, and kids, though. When I busked regularly I used to love kids, especially parents with kids, because they would stop (and, um. Also, sometimes the parents could be generous.)

The other thing that made me pissy today was my boss. Yesterday I was working with Andy who, it turns out, doesn't have access rights to a no sale - opening a till. I talked to Mike today, assuming this was a mistake. Nope, apparently only "shift supervisors" are supposed to be able to open tills - "like at New World and McDonalds". Um, okay. The problem with that is a) we don't have dedicated shift supervisors and b) we aren't a New World. We have different needs. Apparently Andy doesn't need to be able to open his till, because he should be on forecourt the whole time and I should be on tills. What about, you know, the other work that needs doing? Oh, Andy should do that. Except that either Andy doesn't know how to do it, or they're privileged jobs. I love doing the drinks fridge, and it's the prerogative of the most senior or most pushy staff member, because it gives you at least an hour away from customers. Taking that privilege away so you can take away no sale access? DUMB. Plus, anybody who is working a till will need to do no sales. A lot. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Comments

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

Eh, I've known people get in very similarly preachy moods about other types of music that they consider to be 'the best' and the fact that other people can't recognise it. One person on my flist (who is no longer on my flist, but not for this reason) ranted about how people were constantly listening to rock bands that don't feature long meedly guitar chords that require lots of complex fingerwork to do, since according to her this was the most skilled form of music, and anything that lacked it - i.e. anything with any energy - was lame.

Luckily for me, I consider the greatest musical work of all time to be the Birthday Party's 'Junkyard', and I long ago came to terms with the fact that everybody else thinks it's a bunch of atonal shit.

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

Fuckn aye go the Birthday Party!

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

OK, maybe not everybody else.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Discussion about what kind of music is the most valuable always strikes me as frustrating and pointless. Like science, everyone is standing on the shoulder of giants when they write music. I do think having a classical background can be really valuable for a musician because you tend to pick up a lot of musical theory, and IMO musical theory normally makes for better music - but it's by no means vital. *shrug*