Busking: Good or Bad?

By Daisy Hughes
  I’d like this cacophony of ear-splitting screams stop right now. It’s unbearable and bad for business. Irritated by the noise, potential customers just cup the pedestrian zone along Sai Yeung Choi Street South, The Star Ferry Pier has now become a free-for -all for wannabe singers. Enterprising individuals even use this public area to rent equipment and space to tone-deaf vocalists. The performers turn up the amplifiers to make up for their lack of talent. Busking is just a gravy train for these profiteers. There isn’t anything artistic about the way belt out deafening ballads at the top of their lungs. In fact, the police can’t do much because as soon as one inadequate performer is removed, another rage amateur will step in. As a place to showcase Hong Kong’s culture to tourists, it’s absolutely an embarrassment. —— from Ming Chow, 66, souvenir shops owner, Hong Kong
  Five years ago, I played my guitar on the streets for the first time. I earned 20 euros and learnt that I wouldn’t go hungry and I could make people smile while doing what I loved. Since then, I’ve busked all across Europe. I’m a street musician and I use amplification, because if I don’t, my music noise would immediately be drowned out by the noise from traffic. I do agree that buskers have an obligation to practice their art without becoming a nuisance to the public. Street performers are entrepreneurial and we don’t want a hostile audience. If I receive complaints, it turn down the volume or move elsewhere, like most of my fellow buskers. However, a more effective approach is to regulate busking through issuing official stripped of their permits and their right to perform in public areas. —— from Tim Ryan, w3, busker and graduate student, France
  Many people tend to forget that busking has social and economic benefits for society. It provides an additional income stream for artists in underpaid professions and free (or very cheap) entertainment for the public. If we ban street performances, many of these artists may have to join the breadline and become a burden to taxpayers. Some think that these buskers should pay their taxes like everybody else, but most of them earn far less than the tax-free allowance and are entitled to be exempted. In my opinion, it’s the billionaires that the government should go after for tax evasion, not struggling artists. That said, buskers aren’t beggars with a gimmick. Adding vibrancy an and festivity to our streets, they’re part of the city’s culture and deserve to be heard and appreciated. Personally, I like to shop by and watch these amateur artists’ performances. After all, weren’t Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber once buskers, too? —— from Elizabeth McDonald, 71, retired engineer, Edinburgh
  The public isn’t foolish. They’re perfectly capable of distinguish between real, talent and fakers disguised as artists. Gifted amateur vocalists and instrumentalists are never a nuisance. What people oppose are all sorts of disturbances caused by second-rate buskers day in day out. The issue needs to be addressed, and I believe monitoring the quality of street entertainment may be a solution that appeals to everyone. A judging panel should be formed and all street performers should go through a mandatory audition. Only quality buskers should be granted permission to perform in the streets. What the public is asking for are some standards in street performance not a complete ban on the live art. ——from Jenny Lams, 36, IT consultant, Washington D.C.