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RFS 465 0123
Philippe Coulangeon
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Philippe COULANGEON
ABSTRACT
In sociological study of artistic tastes, the behavior of the upper classes is usually char-
acterized by a penchant for “highbrow” arts and simultaneous rejection of popular arts and
the products of mass culture. However, the trends brought to light by analysis of cultural
practices survey data do not entirely confirm this representation. What distinguishes upper
class behavior is in fact not so much familiarity with “legitimate” culture, as is often
claimed, but diversity of stated preferences, in contrast to members of lower-status classes,
whose preferences appear more exclusive. A contrast can therefore be established between
the traditional model of cultural legitimacy and a model in terms of eclecticism. This article
seeks to assess the import of the latter model on the basis of data on preferences in music
from a 1997 survey of French cultural practices. First, French practices in this area unequiv-
ocally confirm the relevance of the eclecticism model, though that model appears more an
extension of the cultural legitimacy model than a refutation of it. Second, the preference
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typology constructed through analysis of the data, and distribution of individuals by social
factors among five music-listener profiles defined on the basis of that typology, forefront
the importance of generation differences and uneven distribution of cultural capital and
musical competence.
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rejecting popular arts and culture. This conception was shaken in the early
1990s, however, by a series of empirical studies bringing to light increased
eclecticism in upper class tastes, particularly in the area of music (Peterson
and Simkus, 1992; Peterson and Kern, 1996; Van Eijck, 2001).
(2) The present text is a reworked version for making the 1997 data available to me, and
of a paper given in Brisbane at the Fifteenth Ionela Roharik for her ongoing technical assis-
Congress of the International Sociological tance and helpful suggestions. All imperfec-
Association. Special thanks to Louis-André tions are, of course, the sole responsibility of
Vallet for his valuable advice and remarks; also the author.
to Olivier Donnat and Irène Fournier Mearelli
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Philippe Coulangeon
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The “omnivore/univore” hypothesis: blurring the boundary between
highbrow and lowbrow
125
Revue française de sociologie
Peterson and Kern, 1996), which in turn works to break down the barrier
between highbrow and lowbrow art, while in music the same effect was being
produced by the fact that the scope of art-subsidizing had been broadened to
include jazz.
This transformation of upper-class cultural attitudes, interpreted generally
as a pulling back of the boundaries between social groups drawn by differenti-
ation in esthetic preferences and cultural practices, has offered a foothold to
“postmodernity” theses holding that industrial production of symbolic
commodities and the arrival of the leisure society was gradually undermining
the cultural elites’ monopoly over esthetic norm production and value scales,
to the benefit of coexistence of plural judgment scales, i.e., a “democratic
invasion” of the art world (Michaud, 1997) that calls into question the
unifying model of cultural legitimacy at the core of Bourdieu’s notion of
symbolic domination (Featherstone, 1995). But it is not certain that this blur-
ring of the boundaries between learned and popular arts is enough to invali-
date the cultural legitimacy model.
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als’ behavior. The changes observed at the level of aggregated data primarily
reveal fragmentation of a once uniform upper-class lifestyle, which in turn
reflects the enlarged social base from which these classes are recruited,
forefronting the new recruits, who adopt some of the behaviors characteristic
of the group they now belong to while maintaining the trace of their original
cultural environment (Van Eijck, 1997). The rise in taste eclecticism should
therefore be interpreted primarily as a secondary effect of the structural
component of social mobility.
But to this morphological factor must be added the fact that diversified
stated preferences do not necessarily imply indifference to distinctions and
esthetic hierarchies, as is shown by empirical studies of both American and
Dutch data done to assess Peterson and Simkus’s hypotheses (Peterson and
Kern, 1996; Bryson, 1996, 1997; Van Eijck, 2001). Peterson and Kern agree
that distinction strategies do not pertain solely to objects consumed but also
how they are consumed (Bourdieu, 1979). Music offers many examples of
how social differences are expressed through various modes of appropriating
works and styles. There is of course the case of jazz and the entire
African-American musical tradition: since the 1920s African-American
music, originally used by lower-status classes for entertainment and dance,
has been the focus of estheticized listening in intellectual circles (Leonard,
1962). Clearly there is no surer way for upper-status class members to affirm
their symbolic domination than borrowing forms of expression from outside
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Philippe Coulangeon
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The dimensions of social stratification of preferences: eclecticism, generation,
cultural legitimacy
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not allow for multiple responses and therefore cannot be used to test the
“omnivore/univore” hypothesis. It is by no means obvious how to estimate
taste with responses on practice, however, when practice is subjected to
constraints independent of taste, namely related to age or geographic location
(Hugues and Peterson, 1983). While this argument, cited by Peterson and
Simkus (1992) to explain their choice of an approach in terms of taste rather
than practice, makes sense with regard to genres of concerts attended, it is less
persuasive for listening to recorded music, where constraints of this sort may
reasonably be assumed to be much less strong. Furthermore, the matter of
grasping “latent” tastes, i.e., independent of actual practices, seems compli-
cated by sensitivity to legitimation effects induced by the survey question-
naire –Hugues and Peterson’s argument can be turned back on itself. Unless
we hypothesize a nomenclature of tastes in music that is perfectly neutral
socially and culturally, it is likely that what is measured in measuring genres
of music most often listened to is much closer to individuals’ real preferences
than what is measured in questioning respondents abstractly on their tastes;
the risk in the second case is especially high since individuals are likely to
“valorize” their responses in accordance with the implicit hierarchy of
musical genres proposed by the questionnaire. The understanding here, then,
is that despite the reservations just evoked, genres of recorded music most
often listened to is a satisfactory means of estimating music preferences.
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The music genres nomenclature used from here on corresponds strictly to
the one used in the Culture Ministry questionnaire. Table I reproduces the list
of genres and gives for each the percentage of survey population citing it
among most listened-to genres of music. Immediately observable is the fact
that nearly half of respondents cite the item corresponding to “pop music,
songs,” undoubtedly the most heterogeneous and polysemic of all proposed
genres, and that only four other genres are cited by at least 10% of the
sample. (6)
Table II shows distribution of number of genres most listened to by occupa-
tional status. Regardless of this category, citing only one genre is the modal
situation, but extremes (“none” or “more than two genres”) have a significant
category-separating effect, as indicated by the χ2 independence test, which
brings outs three distinct groups: farmers and retirees, over-represented for the
“none” response; manual workers and clerical, more than half of whom cite one
genre only; and managers, mid-level occupations, and students, the only cate-
gories for which a majority of respondents cited more than one genre.
(6) The category “songs, pop,” which and/or a political message], is not fully satis-
offers respondents citing it the possibility of fying because it combines and confuses “genre”
specifying whether they listen above all to and “period” sorts of logic, moving respondent
songs dating from before WWII, from the to position himself in generational terms. The
1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s or 1990s, or same procedure, with the same limitation, was
“chansons à texte” [lyrics with poetic ambitions used for “rock.”
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Philippe Coulangeon
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Other genres 1.5
Source: Enquête sur les pratiques culturelles des Français, 1997, Ministère de la Culture,
Département des Études et de la Prospective (DEP).
Reading: 47% of respondents cite pop music and songs among genres of music listened to most often.
As this question allows for multiple responses, the citation rate total for all genres is over 100.
TABLE II. – Number of genres cited as music genres most often listened to by occupational status
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shows that this first factor is more explicative of dispersion in observations
than is the distribution of preferences among the various music genres
produced by the other factors. Moreover, the arrangement of positions for
income and educational attainment variables for this first factor (Figure I)
suggest a link between extent of declared preferences regardless of content
and volume of individuals’ monetary and cultural resources that is not clearly
(7) The architecture of the questionnaire people, these are important means of listening
uses two successive questions to filter the to music. Still, respondents may reasonably be
question pertaining to music genres most often assumed to have implicitly included
listened to. The first of these concerns whether radio-listening practices in their response. In
recorded music is possessed in respondent’s any case, questions pertaining to radio listening
household; the second asks for a list of genres elsewhere in the questionnaire do not allow for
of music owned. Respondent is then invited to satisfactorily approaching distribution of
designate genres she listens to most frequently preferences since they do not use the same
on the basis of her response to the second genres nomenclature as the one for listening to
question. This question thus seems to narrow disks and cassettes. Moreover, there is no
the field of stated preferences to disks or reason to hypothesize a massive presence of
cassettes available within the household, exclusive radio listeners within the sample. In
excluding radio listening, for example, and fact, number of CD players owned and
practices external to the household, though frequency of radio listening seem very closely
among certain sub-populations, namely young correlated.
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Philippe Coulangeon
FIGURE I. – Space of musical tastes (I). Map of first two MCA factors
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FIGURE III. – Space of musical tastes (III). Map of factors 2 and 4
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Philippe Coulangeon
The other factors are also structured by the opposition between different
combinations of musical genres. The third factor fairly sharply distinguishes
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between songs, well ahead of all other genres cited, and less frequently cited
genres with sharper esthetic profiles (namely hard rock and rap). The map of
factors 1 and 3 (Figure II) brings out “average taste” characteristics more
sharply; these may be defined not only by preferences oriented toward pop
but also measured eclecticism (one or two genres cited, i.e., the two most
frequent modalities [see Table II]).
Cultural legitimacy is more relevant for interpreting factor 4 (Figure III),
which explains 7.15% of total variance. This factor is clearly constructed on
an opposition between classical music, jazz, or opera listeners on the one
hand; listeners of such music genres as background music, film music, or rap
on the other. Moreover, the ambiguity in the genres nomenclature, namely
that it combines esthetically defined components with functionally defined
ones such as background or film music, points to social differentiation of
music uses, though this question is at the margins of taste stratification strictly
speaking. Music that is appreciated for itself stands in contrast here to accom-
paniment music (film, dance, and background music) but also to genres of
music in which discourse has priority over the musical component itself (as in
rap). It is of interest in this connection that jazz’s incorporation into the pole
of cultural legitimacy, as shown in preference positioning for this factor,
occurred only after jazz music was defunctionalized; its dance music dimen-
sion has virtually disappeared today. In other words, cultural legitimacy is
defined not only in relation to segmentation into music genres, but also use
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The case of rock is particularly interesting in this connection. Whereas
attraction to classical music, opera, and jazz is sharply constitutive of the
second factor, attraction to rock music contributes little to this factor.
However, in a reading of the factor map, a taste for rock is decidedly closer to
the highbrow-genres pole than rap, international pop, etc., genres much more
closely associated with current youth culture, though a taste for rock does
share with these genres a proximity to the salaried working classes (manual
workers and clerical). This position recalls the folk/pop/fine arts schema
evoked by Peterson (1972), (9) and suggests that rock could be at the threshold
of a cultural ennoblement movement comparable to what began happening to
jazz in the late 1970s (Leonard, 1962). (10)
(8) Though music probably lends itself the 1920s and 30s by the mass culture indus-
more readily to use differentiation than the tries (pop phase), before gradually being
other arts given the diversity of means by rehabilitated and integrated after World War II
which it is diffused, certain analyses of taste into the world of highbrow music (fine arts
expression in the plastic arts mention the same phase). According to Peterson, this has been a
type of differentiation. See, among others, general, long-term process.
David Halle (1992) on the primacy of (10) It is interesting in this connection to
“decorative” motifs among abstract art lovers. relate the rock cultures’ role in elitizing
(9) African-American music, whose major counter-culture movements in the 1990s to
function initially was to affirm community jazz’s role in the 1960s. Since the late 1990s
identity (folk phase), was gradually taken up in Les Inrockuptibles [French rock magazine; title
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Philippe Coulangeon
This interpretation of the first four MCA factors decidedly points to eclec-
ticism as an additional dimension in the social stratification of taste, rather
than a cultural attitude in itself that could be independent of music genres
preferred –a conclusion very similar to Van Eijck’s in a study of data from a
1987 Dutch survey on participation in cultural activities: differences among
social groups are only significant if combinations of musical genres are taken
into account rather than overall preference eclecticism (Van Eijck, 2001). It is
by simultaneously taking into account this dimension, along with generation
and cultural legitimacy effects, that we can construct a typology of attitudes
toward recorded music.
The first profile, accounting for 20% of the sample, is organized around the
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three genres of highbrow music in the broad sense, i.e., including jazz. The
first refers to the image of enlightened eclecticism, encountered primarily
among members of the upper classes, persons over 40, persons of high educa-
tional attainment, and persons with high income.
Considering the music genres most closely associated with it, the second
profile is situated at the opposite pole from highbrow music and is character-
ized by diversity of functional uses (background or mood, dance, folk, film)
and light opera. This profile is more difficult to interpret than the first in
terms of income, socio-occupational status, and educational level. However,
in terms of age it is characterized by sharp relevance for the over-60 group
and represents a relatively low proportion of the sample population (13%).
The third profile is sharply distinguished from the previous two in terms of
age. Here the under-25 dominate, and examination of the music genres it
comprises (rap, rock, hard rock, world music, international pop) confirms the
generational dimension, though the profile is hard to characterize in terms of
plays on the word incorruptible, translation of cultural press which is fairly comparable to
the English “untouchable” as in the title of the Jazz Magazine’s at the end of the 1960s.
cult police-detective TV series set during (11) Appendix A provides a detailed
Prohibition] has occupied a position in the characterization of the different attitude groups.
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The distinctive properties of enlightened eclecticism
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Philippe Coulangeon
These two profiles are defined more than the others not only by genres
cited but by genres not cited. The omnivore/univore hypothesis therefore does
not seem to invalidate “by default” definition of esthetic orientations (Bryson,
1996), a kind of definition also central to the theoretical schema of distinc-
tion: a group’s taste is also its distaste for the tastes of other groups
(Bourdieu, 1979). (12) Secondly, these two profiles are more sharply character-
ized than the other three in terms of members’ occupational status, as indi-
cated by distribution of socio-occupational categories among groups
(Table III). Group IV is the most frequent situation for all categories with the
exception of managers, more than half of whom are in group I, and with the
less marked exception of retirees, most likely to be found in group V. Clerical
and manual workers are the only categories more than half present in
group IV (≥ 60%). Above and beyond eclecticism of stated tastes, preferring
highbrow music broadly defined therefore seems an upper-class attribute, just
as preferring pop music seems strongly to characterize the esthetic orientation
of lower-status classes.
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Managers 54 9 10 25 2 100
Mid-level occupations 27 12 11 48 3 100
Clerical 15 10 9 60 7 100
Manual workers 8 10 11 62 9 100
Students 12 6 34 45 3 100
Retirees 25 20 1 23 32 100
Other unoccupied 15 12 6 49 18 100
All 20 13 8 44 14 100
χ = 1,101
2
df = 32
p <.0001
Source : Enquête sur les pratiques culturelles des Français, 1997, Ministère de la Culture, DEP
(12) Analyzing judgments expressed in rejection of those music genres most closely
response to a question on the 1993 General associated with the esthetic world of the most
Social Survey regarding a list of 18 music culturally impoverished fractions of the lower
genres covering all styles available on the classes; heavy metal is the emblematic illus-
music market, Bryson shows that elite esthetic tration.
tolerance goes together with pronounced
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There are nine socio-occupational positions, i.e., eight categories of occu-
pied persons (farmers; tradespeople, shopkeepers and business owners;
managers and upper intellectual professions; mid-level occupations; clerical;
manual workers) and three varieties of unoccupied persons (students, (14)
retirees, and other unoccupied). Age is a continuous variable.
In addition to the factor analysis variables, a social origin variable was
introduced distinguishing between lower-status class and upper-status class
origins (upper: father manager or head of business), as well as a musical
competence indicator with three positions: no musical training, trained in
(13) The multinomial logit model extends bility of each of the j positions of the dependent
logistic regression to include dependent variable y is contrasted to a reference position
variables that encompass more than two attributed the value of 1. This may be written
non-ordered positions. In the dichotomous logit Pr( y = j ) J K
model, probability of a dependent variable y as
Log = ∑ ∑ b jk x k
Pr( y = 1) j = 1 k = 0
a function of k independent variables x is
where bjk coefficients designate the parameters
written thus:
Pr( y = 1 ) Pr( y = 1 ) K estimated by the model. As indicated by the
Log
1 − Pr( = 1 ) = Log Pr( y = 0 ) = ∑ b k x k indexation, and in contrast to the dichotomous
y k =0 model, these parameters vary by position of the
where bk coefficients designate the parameters dependent variable y. For a detailed presen-
associated with each variable as estimated by tation, see Powers and Xie (2000, pp. 223-252).
the model, with x0 = 1 and b0x0 = constant. (14) As indicated, high school students
In the multinomial logit model, the proba- were excluded from the sample.
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Philippe Coulangeon
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validated by “all else kept equal” analysis, which also underscores the
primacy of the age variable effect for the effect of the other socio-demo-
graphic variables, i.e., the ones generally emphasized in sociology of tastes
literature.
Second, removing educational attainment and, to a lesser degree, income,
induces a greater decrease in goodness of fit than the one resulting from
removal of the social origin variable. The order of variables suggested by
testing how well each model fits with the data thus weakens the habitus
theory. Distribution of taste appears significantly linked to social origin, but
effect of individual’s cultural resources, and secondarily, economic ones
seems to prevail over the effect of primary socialization. Preference orienta-
tion seems in this sense first and foremost a constructed attitude rather than
any direct reflection of a passively assimilated heritage.
Lastly, the order of parameters deduced from goodness of fit tests shows
that of all the variables, occupational status is the one whose omission least
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The importance of the overall effect of age brought to light by the fit test
needs to be specified. To this end, we now look successively at two models.
The first corresponds to the saturated fit test model; the second adds two
interaction terms to that model: ageXeducational attainment and
ageXoccupational status (Tables IVa and IVb). The first suggests that the
overall effect of age does not operate univocally. Advancement in the life
cycle produces distance from the reference situation, manifested alternatively
by attraction to highbrow music genres (Group I) and attraction to more clas-
sically functional uses of music (Group II) and even complete withdrawal
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from the world of music consumption (Group V). Inversely, the minus sign
for the parameter associated with age effect for Group III suggests that the
“counter-cultural” eclecticism attaching to this profile is itself an attribute of
youth, because the probability of belonging to this group decreases with age
(Table IVa).
Adding interaction terms in the second model makes it possible to specify
the effect of educational attainment and occupational status in a way that
sheds light on the relevance of the omnivore/univore model for analysis of
distribution of music preferences (Table IVb). The parameters estimated by
this second model suggest generational differentiation of the effects of
cultural legitimacy, a result which underscores the historical contingency of
the two theoretical models here discussed.
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TABLE IVa. – Estimation of multinomial logit model parameters – probability of belonging to Groups I, II, III, and V (model without interaction effects)
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effect effect effect effect
Reference position Active position
Constant -1.535 17.7% -2.774 +5.9% -1.510 18.1% -1.663 15.9%
Sex M 0.181 n.s. 0.502 <.001 +3.5% -0.032 n.s. -0.179 n.s.
F
Age 0.093 <.001 +1.4% -0.034 <.001 -0.2% 0.053 <.001 0.8% 0.053 <.001 +0.7%
Educational ⱖ bac -0.032 n.s. 0.060 n.s. -0.058 n.s. 0.790 <.001 +13.5%
attainment
< bac
Socio-occupational farmer 0.541 n.s. -0.628 n.s. 0.374 n.s. -0.235 n.s.
category
clerical tradesperson, shopkeeper, 0.364 n.s. 0.418 n.s. 0.044 n.s. 0.188 n.s.
business owner
manager -0.386 n.s. 0.665 <.05 +5.0% 0.470 n.s. 1.150 <.001 +21.5%
mid-level occupation -0.733 <.05 -8.3% 0.274 n.s. 0.243 n.s. 0.194 n.s.
manual worker 0.204 n.s. -0.066 n.s. 0.037 n.s. -0.406 n.s.
student 0.978 n.s. 0.792 <.01 +6.2% 0.536 n.s. -0.136 n.s.
retiree -0.195 n.s. -0.735 n.s. 0.104 n.s. 0.090 n.s.
other unoccupied 0.233 n.s. -0.107 n.s. 0.090 n.s. 0.003 n.s.
Income > 1,500 € -0.518 <.001 -6.4% 0.057 n.s. 0.205 <.1 +3.2% 0.609 <.001 +9.9%
Philippe Coulangeon
< 1,500 € nsp 0.056 n.s. 0.459 <.02 +3.1% 0.253 n.s. 0.395 <.01 +6.0%
Social origin upper class 0.080 n.s. 0.295 <.05 +1.9% -0.113 n.s. 0.573 <.001 +9.2%
lower-status
Musical competence trained in music -0.120 n.s. 0.401 n.s. 0.421 <.05 +7.1% 0.669 <.001 +11.1%
no training self-trained -0.113 n.s. 0.630 <.001 +4.6% 0.302 n.s. 0.573 <.001 +9.2%
- 2 Log L :
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Reference position Active position
Group IV Group V Group III Group II Group I
Reference position Active position Coefficient p Marginal Coefficient p Marginal Coefficient p Marginal Coefficient p Marginal
effect effect effect effect
Constant -1.459 18.9% -2.614 6.8% -1.423 19.4% -1.443 19.1%
Sex M 0.183 n.s. 0.485 <.001 +3.8% -0.066 n.s. -0.224 <.05 -3.2%
F
Age (*) 0.100 <.001 +1.6% -0.025 n.s. 0.065 <.001 +1.0% 0.072 <.001 +1.1%
Educational attainment ⱖ bac 0.167 n.s. 0.353 n.s. 0.116 n.s. 0.883 <.001 +17.3%
< bac
AgeXeducational bac 0.005 n.s. 0.023 n.s. 0.000 n.s. 0.027 <.01 +0.4%
attainment
< bac
Socio-occupational farmer 0.466 n.s. -1.676 n.s. 0.279 n.s. -0.452 n.s.
category
clerical tradesperson, shopkeeper, 0.333 n.s. 0.473 n.s. -0.126 n.s. -0.013 n.s.
business owner
manager -0.552 n.s. 0.729 n.s. 0.400 n.s. 1.031 <.001 +20.7%
mid-level occupation -0.880 <.05 -10.1% 0.318 n.s. 0.260 n.s. 0.194 n.s.
manual worker 0.027 n.s. -0.729 n.s. 0.053 n.s. -0.378 n.s.
student -3.578 n.s. 0.479 n.s. 2.584 n.s. 0.784 n.s. ,
retiree -0.174 n.s. 0.008 n.s. 0.825 <.05 +16.1% 0.729 <.05 +13.8%
other unoccupied 0.060 n.s. -0.360 n.s. -0.028 n.s. -0.205 n.s.
TABLE IVb. (suite)
AgeXsocio-occupa- farmer 0.041 n.s. -0.085 n.s. 0.050 n.s. 0.050 n.s.
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tional category.
clerical tradesperson, shopkeeper, -0.033 n.s. 0.015 n.s. -0.045 n.s. -0.018 n.s.
business owner
manager 0.045 n.s. 0.018 n.s. 0.054 n.s. -0.028 n.s.
mid-level occupation -0.046 n.s. 0.008 n.s. 0.015 n.s. -0.006 n.s.
manual worker -0.037 n.s. -0.044 <.05 -0.3% 0.004 n.s. 0.014 n.s.
student -0.190 n.s. -0.027 n.s. 0.089 n.s. 0.006 n.s.
retiree -0.015 n.s. -0.060 n.s. -0.049 <.01 -0.8% -0.061 <.01 -0.9%
other unoccupied -0.011 n.s. -0.020 n.s. -0.025 n.s. -0.042 <.01 -0.6%
Income > 1,500 € -0.526 <.001 -6.8% 0.018 n.s. 0.184 n.s. 0.561 <.001 +10.2%
< 1,500 € nsp 0.045 n.s. 0.443 <.02 +3.4% 0.247 n.s. 0.403 <.01 +7.0%
Social origin upper class 0.069 n.s. 0.293 n.s. -0.081 n.s. 0.587 <.001 +10.7%
lower-status
Musical competence trained in music -0.169 n.s. 0.434 <.05 +3.3% 0.455 <.05 +8.1% 0.740 <.001 +14.0%
no training self-trained -0.140 n.s. 0.635 <.001 +5.3% 0.306 n.s. 0.594 <.001 +10.8%
- 2 Log L :
Model without interactions: 9,757 (df: 64)
Model with interactions: 9,664 (df: 100)
diff. df: 36
P<0.001
Philippe Coulangeon
* Age used was centered beforehand to express overall effect regardless of presence of an interaction term.
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duced into the model presented in Table IVb suggests that effect of educa-
tional attainment changes over time. The significance of the parameter
associated with this interaction term for Group I indicates that the positive
influence of the variable becomes stronger with age, which also means,
conversely, that the specific effect of cultural capital on “highbrow” musical
preference orientation is attenuated for members of the young generations,
without there being reason to incriminate any kind of decline in the function
of the scholastic institution since in this area it has always been largely defi-
cient. It is likely, however, that mass education, by breaking with the social
and cultural homogeneity of secondary school enrolment, contributed to the
gradual weakening of the status assignation mechanism cited by Bourdieu,
though the effect of educational attainment cannot be reduced to this because
with age controlled for, it subsists above and beyond transformation of the
public school social structure.
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Philippe Coulangeon
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over the generations, as suggested by the list of music genres characteristic of
Group I (classical music, opera, jazz), but the legitimist orientation of musical
taste among members of the upper classes remains.
The model presented in Table IVa nonetheless also suggests the existence
within the upper classes of another profile, much less consistent with that of
cultural legitimacy. The fact of belonging to the category of managers and
intellectual professions substantially increases probability of belonging to
Group III, whose characteristics regarding stated tastes in music are situated
sharply outside the sphere of highbrow music, and this probability also
increases with social origin. The upper classes may therefore be characterized
alternatively by a penchant for cultural legitimacy and a penchant for esthetic
tolerance and counter-culture movements (Inglehart, 1990), and this finding is
consistent with the omnivore figure theorized by Peterson. The penchant for
esthetic tolerance can be related to diversity of social milieus with which
members of the upper classes come in contact, namely through their occupa-
tional activities (Peterson, 1992; Bryson, 1996). The nature of the effect of
occupational status thus limits the power of the habitus model. Preference
orientation is not only correlated with cultural capital and social origin, it is
also partially constructed in adulthood and reflects among other things the
characteristics of individuals’ social and occupational environments. In
contrast to the profile associated with Group I, however, these effects are
neutralized by introducing the ageXoccupational status interaction term into
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the second model (Table IVb). In other words, there is every indication that
the preference profile associated with this group involves first and foremost a
generational component. Secondarily, it can be observed that there is a prefer-
ence orientation opposition between the male component of the profile associ-
ated with Group III and the female component of the profile associated with
Group I (Table IVb).
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dance-hall bands) which played an essential role in the past in culturally and
musically instructing lower-status classes (Gumplowicz, 1987). For Group III,
this variable has an effect in the absence of any significant effect of cultural
capital, social origin, or socio-occupational status. Self-teaching is ahead of
academic instruction, as is shown by the comparison of marginal effects asso-
ciated with these two modes of acquiring musical competence (Table IVb),
and this tends to reinforce the counter-culture dimension of this profile, as is
usually forefronted by literature on how rock musicians learned music
(Bennett, 1980; Mignon and Hennion, 1991). More generally, the influence of
playing music in the present or past is to be related to the overall influence on
cultural habits orientation of being exposed to art through practice, particu-
larly in childhood (Abbé-Decarroux, 1993).
*
**
146
Philippe Coulangeon
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and distinction model but rather adds an extra dimension to it. The symbolic
boundaries that music preferences trace among social groups are becoming
more complex without really growing fainter. The perimeter of highbrow
music is being redesigned rather than diluted in the mass culture industry.
Overall, upper class “highbrow culture” tends to be sharply distinguished
from “average taste,” characterized by listening exclusively to pop music, and
many more individual members of the upper classes adhere to a type of
enlightened eclecticism that combines a taste for classical music and opera
with an attraction to music genres situated at the periphery of the highbrow
music domain –jazz in particular. On the whole, such enlightened eclecticism
brings to bear the same social and cultural resources as those described in La
Distinction. With respect to the 1997 cultural practices survey data for French
tastes in music, it is therefore impossible to conclude that the cultural legiti-
macy model represents a period that is over and done with. The necessary
reevaluation of Bourdieu’s theoretical model for sociology of tastes in fact
pertains to another level, and this is the third remark elicited by examination
of the social factors of differentiation of musical preferences in the survey of
French people’s cultural practices.
While analysis of the French data confirms the robustness of the link
between social characteristics and individuals’ musical preference orienta-
tions, this appears much less substantive than the habitus theory suggests.
Expression of musical tastes, which also seems specifically linked to actors’
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Philippe COULANGEON
Observatoire Sociologique de Changement
Sciences Po – CNRS
54, boulevard Raspail – 75006 Paris – France
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148
APPENDIX A. – Characterization of the five groups
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Genres cited classical 41.7 background 34.3 rap 21.2 songs 23.8
music
jazz 18.5 folk music 26.8 world music 19.1 international 14.1
pop music
opera 16.9 film 13.2 rock 17.6
light opera 7.8 light opera 10.9 hard-rock 14.6
international 12.0
pop music
jazz 10.6
film 7.8
Number of genres cited Two 14.7 > Two 11.7 > Two 27.6 One 34.6 None 55.3
> Two 2.6 Two 5.1
Genres not cited international pop 11.0 international pop 6.5 light opera 3.3 classical 31.8 songs 28.7
background 9.8 rock 6.1 background 2.8 jazz 18.9 international 16.6
music pop
songs 7.1 world music 5.8 background 18.9 classical 16.0
music
rap 5.8 jazz 4.9 folk music 15.3 world music 11.5
world music 5.1 hard-rock 4.7 opera 13.3 rock 11.4
rock 5.0 rap 4.3 film 12.8 jazz 9.5
hard-rock 4.9 light opera 12.7 background 9.5
Philippe Coulangeon
music
film 2.7 rap 9.8 folk music 7.6
hard-rock 7.9 opera 6.6
film 6.3
light opera 6.3
rap 4.7
149
others 3.8
150
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military music 2.8
illustrative variables
Occupational status Managers 12.8 Retirees 7.1 Students 9.3 Manual 10.0 Retirees 17,0
workers
Retirees 4.0 Manual 3.0 Clerical 8.7 Other 2.4
workers unoccupied
Mid-level occup 3.5 Mid-level 2.3
occup
Income >=4,500 € 8.7 1,500 to 2,000 € 4.6 < 1,000 € 10.0
3,000 to 4,500 € 8.1 1,250 to 1,500 € 2.7 1,000 to 1,250 € 3.0
2,000 to 3,000 € 3.6 Nd. 3.2
Educational attaintment bac 12.3 < bac 4.9 bac 6.1 < bac 3.2 < bac 11.5
Age 40-60 7.0 < 60 5.9 20-25 8.5 25-40 15.7 > 60 ans 22.7
> 60 3.0 40-60 5.6 < 20 7.6 20-25 7.2
25-40 5.5
Sex M 5.2
N= 819 518 333 1813 591
% 20 % 13 % 8% 45 % 15 %
Note: Test values are values which, when estimated, indicate to what degree a given group is characterized by a given variable. They express degree to which the average or observed fre-
quency of a variable within a given group may be attributed to chance. In this case, test value measures the gap between a variable’s relative frequency for a given group and its relative ove-
rall frequency calculated for the entire set of individuals. Variables for which the absolute value of test values is over 2 (meaning the gap between the two frequencies is significant at the
usual 5% level) are termed significant for characterization of that group. The higher the absolute value of the test value, the more representative of the group’s salient traits is the variable as-
sociated with it. Test values above 10 are in bold in the table. On the notion of test value see Alain Morineau, “Note sur la caractérisation statistique d’une classe et les valeurs-tests,” in Bulle-
tin technique du Centre de statistique et d’informatique appliquées 2, 1-2 (1984, pp. 20-27).
Philippe Coulangeon
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PJ
Model 0: Log = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj2 AGE + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT + bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP + bj5 INCOME
P1
+ bj6 ORIGIN + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
PJ
Model 1 (without SEX): Log = bj0 + bj2 AGE + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT + bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP + bj5 INCOME
P1
+ bj6 ORIGIN + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
PJ
Model 2 (without AGE): Log = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT + bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP + bj5 INCOME
P1
+ bj6 ORIGIN + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
Model 3 (without EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT):
P
Log J = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj2 AGE + bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP + bj5 INCOME + bj6 ORIGIN + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
P1
PJ
Model 4 (without SOCIO-OCCUP): Log = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj2 AGE + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT + bj5 INCOME
P1
+ bj6 ORIGIN + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
PJ
Model 5 (without INCOME): Log = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj2 AGE + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT + bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP
P1
+ bj6 ORIGIN + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
PJ
Model 6 (without ORIGIN): Log = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj2 AGE + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT + bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP
P1
+ bj5 INCOME + bj7 MUSICALCOMP.
PJ
Model 7 (without MUSICAL COMP. – musical competence): Log = bj0 + bj1 SEX + bj2 AGE + bj3 EDU.ATTAINMENT
P1
+ bj4 SOCIO-OCCUP + bj5 INCOME + bj6 ORIGIN.
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