Does craft services have any salami?

I've always wondered what the string players are thinking about when they play behind popular artists on television.

What does that university-trained violinist think about as she's playing short stabs of notes behind Vampire Weekend on The Jimmy Kimmel Show?

What does that viola player really think of blowing a bunch of long, easy notes for Kanye on Letterman? It's gotta be better than that SNL gig he did with Diddy back in 2003.

Or what about the time the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra did that thing with KISS? What did the cellists think of the score for "Love Gun"?

Is there scorn and contempt for music that will never exceed their skills and training, or is a gig a gig for violinists, just the same as it is for cocktail lounge pianists, foley artists, and death metal drummers?

Or am I being entirely too hard on the popular artists? Maybe hiring a string quartet for Conan's show isn't so much about ego and pretension as it is about just wanting to do something special for a network TV gig...Or maybe they simply need to fill up the stage, and even the sound, cuz on their own, they're just too thin...

(I still like you, Vampire Weekend, I really do)

I dunno...Just something I think about...

Hotcha! Hank