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Joshua Bell's 'Stop and Hear the Music' metro experiment | The Washington Post

Washington PostCited 4× on HN, 2013–2026
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news · general · evergreen · 2013–2026 on HN

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

@growt2026-05 · in “What happens when you post a real Monet and say it's AI?”

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

@EGreg2023-01 · in “Instagram’s co-founders are back with Artifact, a kind of TikTok for text”

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

@robertelder2016-06 · in “My Experience Busking in San Francisco”

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

@gjmulhol2013-09 · in “The Science Of Snobbery”

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