Busking in Musical Thought: Value, Affect, and Becoming

Abstract

The idea of musical value has no doubt played a role in the small amount of literature on busking coming out of the discipline of musicology. The prescriptive and descriptive approaches to value in musicological thought, and the static image of the musical Work both models imply, are problematized when considered within the concept of the “reactive” as articulated in Deleuze’s reading of Nietzsche. An alternative concept of value based on principles of affect and becoming enfolds the fragmentary as well as the monumental and is necessary to grasp the value of busking.