I take it as a positive that whatever algorithm Facebook uses to suggest pages, not one has yet interested me. They’re unable to guess, from what I post and look at on the internet, what I like. They same goes for YouTube and Instagram. I’m happy thinking that my areas of interest can’t be second-guessed by their billion-dollar electronic brains.
I do find some suggestions not completely devoid of interest. Recently, for a reason known only to a series of complex circuits, the algorithm thought I’d subscribe to a page which showed one of the bearded singers from the rock band ZZ Top busking while on vacation. No one was watching him. The caption said something to the effect that the passersby had no idea of what they were missing and had they known, surely a large crowd would’ve gathered. Once I saw a video of the classical violinist Joshua Bell in the Washington, D.C. metro playing Bach. Again, no one was paying any attention and again the idea was that the uncultured slobs rushing past didn’t know what they were missing.
However, I think the same would happen with almost any musician in a similar context. Very few things can survive outside of their context. Imagine if John Cage had done his aleatoric routine at a bus stop. ZZ Top, in an arena, with people who’ve paid $100 or more for a ticket would, I’m sure, be surrounded by adoring fans, all singing along, holding up cigarette lighters and dancing. However, on the street, without the ballyhoo, the guy looked like a homeless man playing for quarters. Joshua Bell, on the Carnegie Hall stage would receive bravos, looks of admiration and receive a hefty paycheck. In the metro he looked like an ex-conservatory student trying to make pocket money.
I see buskers here in Paris who have nowhere near the talent of Bell who are surrounded by large and enthusiastic crowds. I think this is because they pick the right spot and play music which is targeted to a specific situation. By the Louvre I saw a violinist playing the most sappy, schmaltzy garbage imaginable to a captivated crowd. He knew how to find the right context. He knew where to set up shop, and knew his audience. These were tourists, mostly exhausted from walking around all day, who welcomed the opportunity to stand there and listen to him, not asked to exert the least intellectual effort, allowing them to zone out before trudging on to the next obligatory destination.
What can maintain interest outside of any context? If Shakespeare had read Othello in the metro, would he have attracted attention? I doubt it, people want to get home, take off their shoes, get a beer, maybe get ready to go out for the evening. I can imagine someone rushing past Shakespeare to get home, change clothes and go to the theater to see Othello performed by a second-rate troupe.
A beautiful woman will always attract attention. The other day while riding the bus, I saw a woman walking on the sidewalk when we stopped at a traffic light. Every other man on the bus noticed her and within a second or two, all were looking through the window at her. She embodied life’s essence simply walking down the street.
And if women embody life, the only other thing that grabs people’s attention are scenes of death. People always have time to look at a horror scene. Take a car accident, they’ll slow down, take in all in, perhaps compare themselves to the person who was on the wrong side of fate, happy knowing that they can continue down the road. Death has allure, though I read that in wartime people get used to death and are more likely to cry over a dead cat than a human child they may see laying in the street.
Context is the key to recognition. Advertisers know this and sell trash by creating contexts in which people can imagine themselves. But much of what we do personally is also an attempt to create a context through which others see us. From clothes to tattoos to jewelry to perfumes, we knowingly or unknowingly, construct the context through which we hope to be noticed.