Encountering a performer in an 'El' station is neither a rare occurrence or a frequent one. Often, when such as an encounter does occur it is in one of the downtown underground stations, as compared to an open-air one. Here, drummers, singers, classical string musicians or guitarists may ply their trade. Last week, I found a country guitarist playing. His performance was a mix of country guitar music, and singing. One of his songs sounded to my untrained ear to be that made famous by The Soggy Bottom Boys: that of George Clooney and two others in O Brother Where Art Thou.
The gentlemen caught my attention for a few reasons. First, the subway is far from a hospitable place for a musical performer. Frequent trains arriving and departing create a background where music is the secondary sound. Additionally, the people who may listen to his music are either arriving and waiting for a train, or leaving one. Neither is there for more than a few minutes. To me, there is no one to serve as an audience. Finally, those on the platform had accorded the gentleman a large space that no one intruded upon. While there were only a few people, no one was within five or seven yards of him. It seemed to me to be an excessively large open space. It was almost as if no one wanted to be responsible for acknowledging him. When the train arrived, no one stayed to listen to the performance or to give so money. His guitar case had very little money in it. Personally, a subway location seems to be a very poor location, especially for a guitarist. Whether it was his musical selection, the nature of the people around, or the poor location, the performer and his music seemed to be intentionally ignored and quickly forgotten.
The gentlemen caught my attention for a few reasons. First, the subway is far from a hospitable place for a musical performer. Frequent trains arriving and departing create a background where music is the secondary sound. Additionally, the people who may listen to his music are either arriving and waiting for a train, or leaving one. Neither is there for more than a few minutes. To me, there is no one to serve as an audience. Finally, those on the platform had accorded the gentleman a large space that no one intruded upon. While there were only a few people, no one was within five or seven yards of him. It seemed to me to be an excessively large open space. It was almost as if no one wanted to be responsible for acknowledging him. When the train arrived, no one stayed to listen to the performance or to give so money. His guitar case had very little money in it. Personally, a subway location seems to be a very poor location, especially for a guitarist. Whether it was his musical selection, the nature of the people around, or the poor location, the performer and his music seemed to be intentionally ignored and quickly forgotten.
As I mentioned in class, the Jackson Red Line stop almost always has a musical performer (at least during normal waking hours, and certainly during rush hour), as a station where the Blue Line and Red Line connect, and where northbound and southbound travelers stand on the same platform (rather than two separate platforms). I think that in some ways, having frequent trains changes the skills that are needed—it makes for challenging performance, but also provides time constraints that can let a musician who, for example, may not have an extensive repertory, have success. No one will be there longer than ten minutes or so, and there is rapid circulation of foot traffic. Perhaps there are advantages and not just disadvantages to this music-making spot.
ReplyDeleteBased on our discussion in class about how people avoided this performer, either because they don't want to feel compelled to give money or because they would rather just listen to their iPod, I wonder how this situation would have been differently perceived if he had been using a speaker or had been more confrontational to people walking by. Every Sunday I take the Blue Line to church and my stop is underground as well. As usual, there is always a performer but I have noticed that many of them are singers and they bring speakers to combat the noise of the train and other sounds of urban commute. Although the trains come pretty often from both sides, many people find themselves "avoiding" the performers who set up in the middle of the platform. Often performers start talking to people passing by or even people who waiting nearby. Their presentation seems to be quite different from this performer above and I am wondering what social justice issues are embedded here.
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday, I took the Blue Line from O'Hare to the Jackson stop, and noticed that there was someone performing at Jackson. It was a girl playing the guitar and singing in front of a bench in front of one of the trains. I think it was also close by the stairs/escalators going up. I didn't really have time to stop and observe too much, but at a glance, it didn't seem like too many people were repelled by her music. People were still sitting on the bench in front of her. In fact, one girl even let out a cheer for her (though my first instinctive reaction to that is that they knew each other). Like I said, I didn't have time to stop and observe, but it didn't seem like people were too bothered by the music. Actually, because it is just a train stop, and people shouldn't be standing there for that long, I don't see why people would be particularly annoyed that there is music being played while they wait. From the performer's point of view, it may or may not be the best location for making money (I did not see anyone donate money to the girl or get to see if she had much money in her guitar case), but it does not seem like too bad of a place to perform for the sake of performing.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up an good point Shirley about the subway being a good place for someone to play for the sake of performing but perhaps not the best place for earning money. And I think it ties in well with Chris's comments and our discussion in class about how different street performers use different levels of interaction with their audience and perhaps for different reasons. Like you mentioned, as with any other form of music performance, buskers or street performers perform music with different goals in mind, be it for the sake of performing, brining a smile to people's face, or earning money. What I find interesting is that, regardless of whether the commuter is bothered or pays them full attention, many street and subway performers help to bring people out of the monotony of their day and help break down "just me in my zone, ignoring the world" barriers that many people put up while making their urban commutes. The more interactive the performer is (whether using speakers, engaging in conversation, or sitting next to the escalator ect, ect), the more they break this pattern. Because street performers are so common, perhaps this is not always the effect and some people still go on about their business or ignore them. But perhaps each of their performances are a small form of social justice. Of course, this might not necessarily be someone's reason for playing in a subway but it is perhaps an effect of their playing.
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