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

Washington Post · 8.9M views · 2007-04-11 · 2:37

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

Referenced in threads on busking, art perception and context as the standard example of great work going unnoticed.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2013–2026

Topics

Music performance & songsPsychology & human behaviorDocumentaries & storytelling
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joshua bellbuskingviolinexperimentwashington post

What people said

growt · 2026-05 · Reference

There is a similar experiment where a famous violinist plays in a subway station. Nobody really notices or appreciates him and his music. [VIDEO]

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EGreg · 2023-01 · Reference

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. [VIDEO]

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robertelder · 2016-06 · Reference

Here is a video of Joshua Bell ( [LINK] ) playing a 3.5 million dollar violin in the subway for 45 minutes and making $32: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Washington Post, played through YouTube.

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