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Busking

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Busking is the practice of doing live performances in public places to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips. Those engaging in this practice are called buskers. While busking is found throughout the world, in the United States the term busker is not as widely known, and so buskers there are more commonly called street performers.

Buskers at work in New York City's Central Park.
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Buskers at work in New York City's Central Park.




Contents





Description


Busking performances can be just about anything that people find entertaining. Buskers may perform: music, clown, comedy, twist balloons, dance,  acrobatics, juggle, magic tricks, eat fire, sword swallowing, charm snakes, tell fortunes, present a flea circus, street theatre, street art (sketching and painting, etc.), puppeteering, tell stories or recite poetry or prose as a bard, or do mime or a currently popular mime variation where the performer simply stands still as a living statue. 


People busk for a variety of reasons, including for money, for fun, the attention they get, to socialize or meet people, the love of their art, or to practice their skills in front of an audience. Some performers only busk part time, while others make a full-time living performing on the streets. Some buskers do professional entertainment gigs in addition to working the streets. 


Some people manage only pocket change from busking, while others can amass substantial incomes. An act that might make money at one place and time may not work at all in another setting. A busker's income depends on many conditions, including the composition of the audience, the type and quality of the performance, and the time of day. Location can be the key, including the amount of pedestrian traffic, the degree of background noise and other interference. Competition from other entertainers can also play a role, both positively and negatively.


Busking can be the bottom rung of the entertainment industry, and some of the most famous groups and superstars started their careers as buskers. Examples include the Blue Man Group, Cirque Du Soleil, Stomp, Bob Hope, George Burns, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton, Eric Clapton, Simon and Garfunkel, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, among others. Many other buskers have found fame and fortune, and some of them can be found in the  here at Wikipedia.  



Elements




Musicians polish their art at a railway station in Japan

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Musicians polish their art at a railway station in Japan







There are several basic forms of busking. Circle shows are shows that tend gather a crowd around them. They usually have a distinct beginning and end. Usually these are done in conjunction with street theater, puppeteering, magicians, comedians, acrobats, jugglers and sometimes musicians. Circle shows can be the most lucrative, but the busker may have to worry about the crowd growing so big that it obstructs pedestrian traffic. Walk by acts are typically with the busker providing a musical or entertaining ambience. There is no distinct beginning or end and the crowds do not particularly stop to watch.  Cafe busking is done mostly in cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars. Musicians and balloon artists can frequently be found using this venue. Making a living on the piano bar principal is an experience well known by many musical keyboard artists.


A bottler is a British term (may also be known as the "hat man" or "pitch man" in other areas) that describes the person with the job to pass the hat, usually by circulating through the audience with the money hat to collect donations. Bottling itself can be an art form, and the difference between a good and a bad bottler can be crucial to the amount of money earned on a pitch. A bottler usually gets a cut of the money made on the pitch, although it's not commonly a full share. 


A solo artist may bottle for themselves during breaks in a performance, but having a dedicated bottler enables them to continue performing for longer periods of time and thereby entertain the audience while the hat is being passed. It is more common for a busking group to have a dedicated bottler. A bottler is crucial in the case of playing for people who are sitting, since this type of audience is less likely to get out of their seat and drop money in the hat as someone standing might be.


The term bottler refers to an early device performers used for collecting money. It was  made from a glass bottle and a shaped leather pouch designed to allow coins in but not allow them to be removed easily without being noticed by the jingling of the coins against the glass. The first use of such contrivances were recorded by the famous Punch and Judy troupe of puppeteers in early Victorian times.http://www.punchandjudy.com/bottle.htm



Locations




Living statues in Jubilee Gardens, London, England.

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Living statues in Jubilee Gardens, London, England.









The place where a busker performs is called their pitch. Popular busking spots tend to be public places with large volumes of pedestrian traffic, high visibility, low background noise and as few elements of interference as possible. Good locations include tourist spots, restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs, theater and entertainment districts, subways and bus stops, outside the entrances to large concerts and sporting events, almost any zócalo in Latin America, as well as plazas, piazzas, and town squares in other regions. Other places include shopping malls, strip malls, and outside of supermarkets, although permission is usually required from management for these three. 


Some places require a license, a permit, or some other form of permission to busk. Some venues that do not license busking may still ask performers to abide by voluntary rules. Some cities reserve certain captive audience areas like subway stations for "approved" buskers and even publish schedules of performances. http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mta/aft/muny.htm Some cities are encouraging buskers because they can be a tonic to the stresses of shopping and commuting, and can be an influence which is favourable for shopkeepers. http://www.uwnews.org/admin/ss/page.asp?pid=247&articleID=10422


In the early 90's PBS affiliated stations aired a program called "Street People". It revealed some very interesting information on studies done at Harvard University. They studied street people of all sorts in and around New York City; buskers, street vendors, panhandlers, beggers and the homeless, cops, cabbies and maintenance workers. The studies showed that crime rates tend to decrease around areas in which buskers routinely perform. The old adage "Music Soothes the Savage Beast" was found to be true. The studies also showed that buskers attract and are supported by a better educated, more intelligent, wealthier class of people. Those Harvard studies were one of the motivating factors in some court decisions to allow buskers to perform in the New York Subway System.[[Citing sources citation needed]]



History




An organ grinder in Vienna, with barrel organ.

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An organ grinder in Vienna, with barrel organ.







There have been performances in public places for gratuities in every major culture in the world, dating back to antiquity. This art form was the most widely used method of employment for entertainers before the advent of recording and personal electronics. Prior to that a living human being had to produce any music or entertainment, save for a few mechanical devices such as the barrel organ, the music box, and the piano roll.


The first recorded instance of laws about busking were in ancient Rome in 462 BCE. The Law of the Twelve Tables made it a crime to sing about or make parodies of the government or its officials in public places, the penalty was death Cohen and Greenwood 1981: 14http://www.pikemarketbuskers.org/busking.html. Louis the Pious "excluded histriones[jesters] and scurrae[clowns], which included all entertainers without noble protection, from the privilege ofjustice".Krickeberg 1983 : 24 In 1530, Henry VIII ordered the licensing of beggars who could not work, as well as pardoners, fortune-tellers, fencers, minstrels, and players; if they did not obey they could be whipped on two consecutive days.ibid.: 62


These performers have not always been called buskers. The term busking was first noted in the English language around the middle 1860's. The word busk comes from the Spanish root word buscar, meaning "to seek"  – buskers are literally seeking fame and fortune.http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=busker http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/wftwarch.pl?072905 Its origin was from the romance languages. The word's Latin root came from buskin which were the ornately laced sandals worn by Roman and Greek performers for special occasions. In obsolete French it evolved to busquer for "seek, prowl" and was generally used to describe prostitutes. In Italian it evolved to buscare which meant "procure, gain" and in Italy buskers are currently called buscarsi.


From the Renaissance to the early 1900s, busking was called minstrelsy in Europe and English-speaking lands. Before that, itinerant musicians were known by the french term  troubadours. In old French the term jongleurs was also used to describe buskers. In northern France they were known as trouveres. In old German buskers were known as minnesingers and spielleute. 


Because of their nomadic nature, busking is a common form of employment among the Roma people, also know as Gypsies. It is believed by many that the Gypsies brought the word busking to England by way of their travels along the Mediterranean coast to Spain and the Atlantic ocean and then up north to England and the rest of Europe. The distinctive sound of Roma music has strongly influenced bolero, flamenco, and jazz in Europe. European-style Gypsy jazz is still widely practised among the original creators (the Roma People). Salsa, rumba, mambo and guajira from Cuba, the tondero and marinera from Peru, mariachi music from Mexico, and even American country music have all been influenced by their plaintive vocals, mournful violins and soulful guitar.


Mariachis are Mexican street bands that play a specific style of music by the same name.http://www.webster.com/dictionary/mariachi Mariachis frequently wear ornate costumes with intricate embroidery and beaded designs, large brimmed sombreros and the short charro jackets. Because of their great popularity many Mariachis are in mainstream entertainment doing professional gigs. Mariachi groups busk when they perform for gratuities as strolling minstrels traveling through streets and plazas, as well as in restaurants and bars. 


In the USA medicine shows prolifertated in the 1800's. They were traveling vendors selling elixir's and potions to improve the health. They would often employ entertainment acts as a way of making the clients feel better. The people would often associate this well being feeling with the products sold. After these performances they would "pass the hat". 


Christmas Caroling is a form of busking. The ancient English practice of celebrating the holidays by going around and singing for alms or Figgy Pudding has deep roots in our culture. 


Folk music has always been a dominant presence in the busking scene. Cafe, restuarant, bar and pub busking is a mainstay of this artform. Two of the more famous folk singers are Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez. The delta bluesmen were itinerant musicians eminanting from the Mississippi Delta region of the USA around the early 1920's and on. They spread the gospel of the blues to many.


The counterculture of the hippies of the 1960s occasionally staged "be-ins", which resemble some present-day busker festivals. Bands and performers would gather at public places and perform for free, passing the hat to make money. The San Francisco Bay Area was at the epicenter of this movement — be-ins were staged at Golden Gate Park and San Jose's Bee Stadium and other venues. Some of the bands that performed in this manner were Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish, Moby Grape, and Jimi Hendrix. The controversial pursuits of the hippies, including hedonism, free love and illegal drugs tainted the image of busking, especially among the religious right.


One of the latest things to enter the busking scene is Cyber Busking. Artists are posting work on the internet for people to download and if people like it they make a donation through PayPal or snail mail.



Pitfalls




A street artist doing a sketch in Paris.

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A street artist doing a sketch in Paris.







Buskers may find themselves targeted by thieves due to the very open and public nature of their craft. Buskers may have their earnings, instruments or props stolen. One particular technique that thieves use against buskers is to pretend to make a donation while actually taking money out instead, a practice known as "dipping" or "skimming". George Burns described his days as a youthful busker with the Peewee Quartet this way:http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,3,00.html



Beggars have been known to congregate around buskers trying to intercept those patrons who want to pay the busker for their services and convert the donation to themselves. Beggars may also try to extort money from buskers by being obnoxious and harassing people until the busker pays them to go away.


Buskers are generally not homeless, panhandlers, or beggers, and these terms are normally derogatory when referring to a busker. It is not unheard of for these groups to be confused. Some people try to stigmatize buskers as such regardless of their social status.


Many buskers have spent years developing and honing their talents in order to provide an entertaining act, repertoire, or shtick. Judgments about who is a legitimate busker may be difficult to make, especially by those who find themselves in competition with others for patrons' attention and renumeration. It is ultimately left to the patrons themselves, as well as governmental regulation in some jurisdictions, to determine who is legitimate. A performer's "take" (gratuities) examined over time may be a good rough measurement of success and legitimacy.


Career buskers may try to maintain a "right of pitch" over those they consider as hobbyist buskers, but it is generally not acceptable to hold a pitch for longer than a few hours if another busker wishes to perform. At times compromises may reached between competing buskers, but conflicts over pitch do happen.



Law




Busking with beer bottles in Sydney, Australia

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Busking with beer bottles in Sydney, Australia







In the United States Constitutional Law and under most European common law, the protection of artistic free speech extends to busking. In the USA and most places the designated places for free speech behavior are the public parks, streets, sidewalks, thoroughfares and civic squares or plazas. Under certain circumstances even private property may be open to buskers, particularly if it is open to the general public and busking does not interfere with its function.http://funandmagic.com/decision.pdf 


While there is no universal code of conduct for buskers, there are common law practices to which many buskers conform, and some venues may require. It is common law knowledge that buskers should not impede pedestrian traffic flow, block or otherwise obstruct entrances or exits, or do things that endanger the public. It is common law that most places require special permits to use electronicly amplified sound and have limits on the volume of amplified sound. It is common law knowledge that "performing blue" (i.e. using adult material that is sexually explicit or any vulgar or obscene remarks or gestures) is generally prohibited unless performing for an adults only environment such as in a bar or pub. In most English speaking countries it is common law that unless invited to do so, busking for a captive audience where people cannot move away is generally not acceptable. However in some locations, like the London and New York subways, space is reserved for approved buskers.  Throughout the rest of world, busking on public transport may be commonplace. 



Legal battles


Some authorities and people have always tried to control or outlaw busking, forcing buskers to go to court to protect thier rights. It is human nature that public displays of intellectual superiority frequently inspires jealousy amoung those who are lesser endowed. 
Some cities have tried to ban busking altogether. There are people with anti-busking sentiments. Some of their complaints are that some buskers are just bad or repetative doing the same thing all the time or ruin their monopoly on cash flow. In the United States most of these laws have been found to be unconstitutional when challenged. Related to this, there have been a number of lawsuits and legal cases with regard to the extent of the rights of buskers to perform in public. In the US, multiple court decisions have ruled that permits and laws regulating artistic free speech must not be judgmental at all or so restrictive, complex, difficult or expensive to obtain that they inhibit free speech. A few of these cases:





Anecdotes


Paul McCartney of the Beatles fame donned a disguise and went busking. He reportedly did very well.  In an interview on Britain's Radio One he revealed: "It was for a film thing ("Give My Regards To Broad Street" - 1984) and it was something I'd always wanted to do, so I scruffed myself up a bit, put on a false beard and shades, and went down to Leicester Square tube station. It was really cool. A couple of people came up and said, 'Is it you?' but I just said, 'Oh, no'. But I got a few shillings and I thought, 'This doesn't feel right,' so I gave it to charity."http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/48632004.htm


It has also been reported that Sting has also donned a disguise and gone out busking. He reportedly made £40. "He pulled a hat down over his eyes, but one woman said: 'It's Sting.' The man behind her said: 'You silly cow. It's not him. He's a multi-millionaire.'"http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2005/05/01/story200567.asp



See also





References

 







External links


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