Washington Post
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2013–2026
2:37 · 8.9M views · Apr 11, 2007
Washington Post video of the experiment in which violinist Joshua Bell played incognito at a D.C. metro station. It asks whether commuters would notice a world-class musician in an ordinary setting.
Referenced in threads on busking, art perception and context as the standard example of great work going unnoticed.
4 comments from Hacker News
Someone else told me also that I’m using the wrong fonts and colors. They said once they saw Comic Sans used in a text bubble they instantly closed the website and didn’t look any further. Tomorrow I am supposed to interview Noam Chomsky again, with David Harvey. I wonder how many people have said “Noam speaks in such a slow and boring way, I tuned out immediately.” Guess what… he is famous so people don’t say that :) I enjoy getting these reactions because later on when we finally turn on the hype I will have a collection of how people react to substance rather than superficial things and hype. this video
Joshua Bell, one of the greatest violinists of our time, as a busker has only 2 people take any notice, and only one person realize how great he is -- and that is because she recognized him, not his playing. this video
There is a similar experiment where a famous violinist plays in a subway station. Nobody really notices or appreciates him and his music. this video
Here is a video of Joshua Bell ( [LINK] ) playing a 3.5 million dollar violin in the subway for 45 minutes and making $32: this video