The hero of the movie ‘Once’, which is famous for its beautiful soundtrack, sings songs while playing the guitar in the street every day. Sometimes, passersby put money into a guitar case in front of him. Performing in the street to get money from passersby is called ‘busking’.
  People commonly think that busking means only singing and playing songs in the street. In fact, however, almost all performances on the street, such as dancing, magic shows, acrobatics and so on, belong to busking. In foreign countries, busking is commonly seen in most main streets because it has become a street culture there. It has flourished especially in London, England, Paris, France, Dublin, Ireland and so on.
  Since busking has become known to Korea, we have often been able to see it on streets of big cities. Becoming very famous through media, talented Korean buskers(the one who busks is called a ‘busker’) only known by word of mouth began to spread the culture of busking on Korean streets. Typical examples of those are ‘Busker Busker’, winners of the second prize in the audition program ‘Superstar K season 2’, and ‘10cm’, who are also buskers who perform in Hong-dae.
  Actually, busking of foreign popular tourist cities is very different from Korea’s. Most Korean buskers busk to show their talents, while foreign buskers do it usually for a living. A developed tipping culture, which Korea doesn’t have, is the main cause of this difference. Also, they should be issued a busking permit to do busking. When they are caught trying busking without permission, they will face legal punishment, which varies from country to country. At this point, we can see how popular busking is abroad.
  Unlike performances on stage, busking has a free attraction because it enables direct communication between performers and spectators and performing in front of people without any special conditions. If you see a busking performance while passing by, why not stop walking and enjoy it freely?

By Choi Da-yeong

dy35@cbnu.ac.kr