STREET MUSIC



In general terms, the place of a musician in contemporary society is becoming, more and more, a place that moves and a place which is unatainable, one that obliges musicians to infiltrate themselves in places that society throws at them and that are not always what they planned on. This is why the street musician is always leading the “way of the warrior”. For them, there can be no straight way only windy routes allow these musicians to have a life in which their passion for music take precedence over everything else, because amongst all the these difficulties, it is playing music that brings them happiness.


Coming from different horizons, the musicians and their music testify of the cultural diversity that characterize an urban society. Whether it be Folk Music groups from the Andes Mountains, Percussionists from Africa, gypsies… all are part of the social group that form the entirety of street musicians. Certainly, they are looking to make a living in this society, but they are also looking to fit into this society while affirming their cultural heritage, and identity. This way, they are creating themselves a social identity. Certainly, all cultural fact is “ a common language to express our differences and to enrich ourselves mutually.”  Street music becomes a universal vehicle for communication between musicians of different cultural origins and listeners.


Street music could become only but noise in the background of a functionalized world , empty of meaning. Maybe it is an element of re-enchantment of this world…within modes that we still need to discover but which the street musican starts to open us a door too. In fact, that which assures us the success of street music is also the musical context of today’s contemporary society. The homogeneization  of consumer goods and more particularly of music has transformed the relationship between the consumer potential and record labels; it has become very impersonal. This rapport has made it that the record industry sometimes do not know the tastes and aspirations of their consumers. This is why live music, even though it might lack some of the attributes of perfection, attracts the city walker. Street musicians are seen as artists before being considered before a professional in the field of music.