ISSUES
COMMONLY FACED BY OUR BUSKERS
1
BUSKING LOCATIONS ARE
FIRST–COME–FIRST–SERVED
According to NAC guidelines, busking locations cannot be booked beforehand and are available only on a "first-come-first served" basis, where a busker who arrives at the area
first reserves the right to perform there.
As such, buskers very often find themselves travelling all the way down to a location (with all their props and
instruments in tow) only to realise it's already occupied.
This also results in unnecessary territorial disputes and just uncomfortable, awkward situations.
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BUSKER A
“One of the challenges is logistic issues, like where to set up spot. And if the place is taken, what’s my backup plan. This happens very often. I feel that the communication network between buskers is not that strong.”
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BUSKER B
"There was once when we went to Marine parade and someone was there already, but we had no backup plan.
So we just set up a little further away, but we ended up drawing the crowd away from him… so he was a little unhappy. We weren't confronted, but we will try to
avoid these kinds of situations next time.”
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BUSKER C
"Imagine us having to push heavy equipments around, under this hot weather, and going there to see someone already at the spot. You just have to shift locations again. No choice. And there was once where we had to change locations
thrice before we could perform. It's quite bad."
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10/10 EXPERIENCED THIS
2
INVASION OF
PERFORMANCE SPACE
Buskers frequently encounter intrusion into their performance spaces by disruptive audiences, and may experience unwelcome physical contact.
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Uncooperative audience members often try to touch
them whilst they are performing to disturb them
out of fun or simply as a prank.
Buskers are also especially wary about those who
request to share the microphone to perform together,
as many aren't serious about performing and end up making a fool out of themselves, whether intentionally
or not, which disperses the crowd that buskers have worked hard to draw.
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BUSKER A
"I've had bad encounters where passer-bys did not
respect my space – it ranges from mischievous touching, verbal harassment to young punks threatening to
break my guitar strings. I call them trolls.”
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BUSKER B
“Sometimes people will stand super close right next to
me for a picture while I’m performing and I don’t
really know how to react since I’m performing.”
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BUSKER C
“When you invite audiences on stage, they might try to ruin the show. Others would also shout things like
“so easy!” so you just always have to be prepared to handle these things.”
7/10 EXPERIENCED THIS
3
BUSKERS ARE
SEEN AS BEGGARS
Buskers commonly feel that their craft is often seen as a "lower" art form than performances on stage, not a
"real job" and sometimes even as "begging".
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People also go up to them to insult them, leave nasty comments on their social media platforms, and give them dirty looks as they are seen as "competitors" for those in need, such as handicapped and elderly beggars nearby.
This greatly demeans the hard work and passion that
buskers put into practicing and honing their art, only to be labelled as asking for handouts or not being "good enough"
to perform on proper stages, making them feel discouraged and unappreciated.
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BUSKER A
“Even if our music is good, some will assume we’re bumming around and being a musician is not a proper profession. Sometimes people come up to talk to us and ask why we’re doing this.”
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BUSKER B
"I think the older generation still think it’s a cheap form of art, it’s not stable, and also wonder why we would even want to è¡—ä¸Šå”±æŒ (sing on the streets).”
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BUSKER C
"When I said I wanted to do busking, my family was like… why you need to be so hard on yourself? And I had a colleague ask me why I would quit my IT job to do busking. I find that Singaporeans still think busking is for the old, the handicapped and the jobless, but that’s not how it is. And sometimes when we are just setting up our sound system and we haven’t even performed yet, people already start putting money in our box. It’s like they pity us or something. I don’t know how to feel about it.”
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7/10 EXPERIENCED THIS
4
LACK OF OPEN
COMMUNICATION WITH NAC
Buskers all face multiple challenges, yet do not have a a direct, go-to way to voice these issues, largely relying on fellow buskers for hearsay advice.
Currently, buskers' experiences with contacting NAC regarding their issues have been largely top-down and one-way, often receiving "official" replies that do not
take their views into account.
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Furthermore, NAC does not voluntarily engage buskers in any discussions or dialogue sessions to understand their difficulties. As such, buskers with important feedback or good recommendations to improve the Busking Scheme often go unheard.
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BUSKER A
"NAC doesn’t allow you to play with a speaker in MRT stations but it’s really impossible to hear our voices and play the guitar without a speaker."
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BUSKER B
“Busking in the MRT was a lot worse because of NAC’s regulations. They don’t allow mics and speakers. But our voices are too fragile. In the end, my friend was shouting for 45 minutes and I got injuries from trying to play audibly.”
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BUSKER C
“Some busking spots that NAC gives us are just not viable and in super ‘ulu’ places like in the middle of HDB blocks that won’t have crowds. I even went to recce the areas, took videos to show how empty it was despite my passionate singing, and wrote a very long email to them about my research. But all I got was a very mono (“official”) answer.”
6/10 EXPERIENCED THIS
5
DIFFICULT TRANSITION TO
PROFESSIONAL MUSIC CAREERS
Buskers commonly find the journey towards a professional music career challenging as Singaporeans are not generally that open to listening to local music.
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Buskers commonly feel restricted to playing covers of current hit songs and popular all-time favourites that the audience are familiar with in order to draw crowds. As a result, they become hesitant to experiment with performing their own original music as they are afraid people won't stop to listen.
This is further exacerbated by how locals are generally not exposed to or interested in local music, as observed by buskers in the form of poorer audience response and less tipping, hence not giving buskers ample opportunity to
shine as original musical artistes.
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BUSKER A
“We will not get tips if we're doing our originals, and won’t get as much as if we perform famous pop songs. Audience engagement is very important in busking. So busking is not a good platform to expose people to local music. Unless there are busking events that gather people to listen to original music, the general public won’t respond as much.”
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BUSKER B
"Ultimately I want to be known as a singer-songwriter, not just a cover artist who plays popular songs. But after playing covers for so long, it becomes harder for me to break out of that image that everyone recognises already knows me for."
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BUSKER C
"I don't mind being a cover artiste actually, it's not ideal but at least that's something close to being a musician."
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