As interesting as I think the Joshua Bell stunt was, I don’t know that it proves much. For the vast majority of people who walk through a subway station is there really a significant difference between one of the finest violinists in the world and someone who has played classical music for 25 years but has never made it to the pinnacle? I think not.

A more interesting angle on the socially constructed appreciation of art phenomenon, and something that is a lot more rigorous from a research standpoint, would be the Music Genome Project and Pandora. Tim Westergren and his colleagues would posit that they can determine what you should like based on your honest feedback to a series of songs.

They suggest that the influence of your social peers in stated music preference is massive. You like Jack White because your friends do and you hate Celine Dion because they do. Take away all outside influences and just listen to the music alone and your preferences will be different.

Here’s a good read on Pandora.

As an aside: they’ve since determined that there’s nothing special in the varnish that Stradivari used. Just oil and resin.