Busking

Modern-day busking—the art of performing in public for donations—has its roots in the wandering minstrels of the 12th and 13th centuries. These medieval entertainers would roam from town to town, offering music, storytelling and even juggling in return for food or coin.

The term busking itself was first used to describe musical street performance in 1776. It derives from the Spanish word buscar, meaning "to seek"—in this case, to seek attention or gratuity.

Violinist in Sutton High Street, Sutton, London By A P Monblat

In England, King Henry VIII, always a fan of regulation (and not much of a fan of fun), ordered that all minstrels and players must be licensed. Those caught busking without the appropriate paperwork risked a public whipping.

Charles Dickens was not a fan. In an age before noise-cancelling headphones, he complained of being “daily interrupted, harassed, worried, wearied, driven nearly mad, by street musicians.” And in 19th-century London, he had good reason — the city boasted over 1,000 organ-grinders, wheezing their way through popular tunes while being chased by angry homeowners.

Technically, busking in London is still outlawed under the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839, which prohibits “playing any musical instrument in the street to the annoyance of the inhabitants or passengers.” This means most buskers are, strictly speaking, outlaws — though generally of the gentler, accordion-playing variety.

Rome had the jump on everyone, however. As far back as 462 BC, laws prohibited singing about or making parodies of the government in public. Satirical busking, it seems, has always had its dangers.

Famous musicians who started as buskers include Ed Sheeran, Janis Joplin, B.B. King, Jewel, Passenger (Mike Rosenberg), Rod Stewart, Sierra Ferrell, Tracy Chapman, and Old Crow Medicine Show

One such milestone came in 2001, when Julian Lloyd Webber—the “doyen of British cellists,” conductor, and principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire—became the first officially licensed busker on the London Underground. Webber, also the younger brother of Phantom of the Opera composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, thus brought cello virtuosity into the Tube’s tiled tunnels, forever raising the bar for anyone strumming a battered guitar on the Northern line.

Here's a list of songs about buskers or street musicians

Source Daily Express