random street music

So I'm sure most of you have seen the washington post article/video about their experiment with violinist extraordinaire Joshua Bell (I know Call-eeen did, if you haven't, read/watch it here). I just stumbled across this post on pitchfork, with 2 videos of the Shins in Paris, up to similar shenanigans. Why do they get a bigger response? Is it 'cause there's more of them? Pop vs. Classical? Paris vs. Washington? All of the above?