The Rise of the Performer: Different factors that have led to the increase in public performers. The blogger gives a human side as to why public performers.
When I was five years old, my mother and father took me to see “The Muppet Movie” for the first time. We had just moved down south from New York City and were visiting my grandparents in Baltimore. As soon as the movie ended, I rushed out of the theater with my parents and ran headlong into one of the most amazing acts I’d ever seen: a group of street musicians called “The Buskers.” They were playing a ragtime jazz version of “Rainbow Connection,” and they were incredible! I stood there mesmerized and don’t remember doing anything else that day except listening to them play.
I didn’t know it at the time, but what I saw was an example of a very ancient art form: street music, or busking. The word “busking” comes from the Spanish word “buscar,” which means “to seek out.” In other words, buskers are people who seek out places where they can perform for money or donations in front of
The Rise of the Performer
What are the factors that have led to an increase in public performers?
The rise in public performers can be attributed to a number of factors. First and foremost, there is the Internet. You can now search for anything you want within seconds and find a video of it. So if you want to see what “busking” is, you can easily find clips on YouTube. There is also coverage of buskers on television shows like Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent, and the upcoming show Rising Star.
Another factor leading to the rise in street performing is that people are fed up with their jobs and they probably would rather be doing something else instead. They have heard stories of people who have been able to quit their day job by performing in public and become successful, so they try it out themselves.
Some also choose this career path because they are entertainers at heart and just want to perform for an audience. In my case, I had always been interested in magic but never really had an outlet for it until I started busking. Now I get to do what I love every day and get paid for it!
The Rise of the Performer:
Recently, I have begun to notice an increase in public performers. I have seen people performing on the street, busking in subway stations, and even dancing on tables in malls. It seems that lately, this has become a trend. While it was once considered peculiar or strange to perform in public, it is now normal and accepted. According to a recent article by The New York Times, there has been a significant rise in the number of street performers.
While there are many theories as to why this is happening, I believe that there are two main factors: The economy and technology. In regards to the former, fewer people are able to get jobs and make money in their chosen field. As a result, they must find other ways to make money. Many of them choose to use their talents in order to make money. For those who do not have particular talents or skills that can be used for profit, they may choose to perform simply because they enjoy doing so, despite the lack of pay.
In regards to technology, social media has made it much easier for performers to gain publicity and exposure. For example, someone may post a video online of themselves singing or dancing and it will be viewed by thousands of
The Rise of the Performer
In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in public performers in the streets of cities across America. One must wonder, what is the reason for this phenomenon? The answer seems to be that there are many factors that have led to this rise. Some may argue that it is due to the weak economy, but others claim it is due to the increased access to social media and technology. Both of these factors are true, but there are even more reasons for why public performers have risen in number.
The first reason for this rise is weak economy. When people lose their jobs or simply cannot find one because of a bad economy, many turn to street performing as a way to make money. For example, when the economy was poor during the 2008 recession, many people were out of work and had no other options than to busk on the streets in order to make a living. However, this trend continued even after the recession ended and faded away. This indicates that another factor plays a part in this phenomenon and not just the problem of a weak economy.
Another reason for this rise is increased access to social media and technology. The rise of sites like YouTube and Facebook has given performers an easy opportunity to market themselves without having to go through much
The Rise of the Performer
I’m not a fan of buskers. I’m even less a fan of buskers who sing and play the guitar, because they’re everywhere, like pigeons or tramps. But there was one guy I used to see all the time in Central Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was worth my spare change. He usually sat outside a cafe on the corner of Mass Ave and Prospect Street, playing his guitar and singing covers of rock songs for passersby. One day he was gone; weeks later, I walked by and saw him again. His beard had grown out and he was wearing different clothes than I’d ever seen him wear before; his guitar case was open, but he wasn’t playing. Instead he sat quietly behind a sign that had been propped up against his microphone stand:
He looked up at me briefly when I read it. He seemed very sad. “Good luck,” I said as I walked past him and dropped some money into his case.
A few years later, after I’d moved back to New York City, I was walking down 8th Avenue when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I remembered him from Cambridge. It was the busker from Central Square — now clean-sh
In the 1880s, there were so many buskers and street musicians on the streets of NYC that the police had to crack down on them.
Since then, we’ve certainly seen a lot less of them. But why?
I’d argue that it’s because of the rise of mass media. As TV became more widespread, it created a new way for performers to reach large groups of people. And as people began spending more time in front of the TV than on the street, performers naturally gravitated towards this new medium as well.
Lately, however, we’ve begun to see a rise in public performers again. There are more street performers than ever before; heck, even I’m one now! And I think there are two main reasons for this resurgence: our increased ability to broadcast ourselves and our desire to connect with others.
A few weeks ago, I was in New York City for a conference. On the way back to the hotel, I saw an amazing busker — one of the best I’ve ever seen. He was playing a theremin, and using it to create some really astonishing music. He had an unassuming setup in the middle of a plaza with a few people sitting on benches and listening intently. I joined them.
It was so impressive that I recorded him on my iPhone:
And that’s when things got interesting. The busker was just finishing up his song when two men approached him and asked him if he had a permit to perform. This is when he said something that surprised me: “No, but it’s okay because no money is changing hands.”
In New York City, you need a permit to publicly perform if any money changes hands. That’s why you see musicians performing inside of subway cars with cups or hats in front of them: they’re not allowed to solicit donations from passersby, but they are allowed to accept gifts from people who choose to contribute spontaneously. The difference between soliciting and accepting is critical, and it has some important implications for public speech — both online and off.