Musical preferences and technologies: Contemporary material and symbolic distinctions criticized

Abstract

Music as a mechanism for social distinction is well established. Yet, perhaps more than any other form of cultural expression, it is music which has been systematically transformed by emerging technologies. From the gramophone, radio, cassette and CD, through to portable devices and shared through social media, music is in constant flux. To separate taste for music from its various acquisitional forms is to undermine its role in society. In this article, our aim is to integrate within taste and cultural consumption analysis a salient dimension, such as technologies to acquire music, conceptualized as modes of musical exchange and formats used to listen to music. We argue that these are components of musical consumption practices which enhance our understanding on how symbolic boundaries are shaped today. Using multiple factor analysis, this study provides a simultaneous analysis of musical tastes and technological engagement in Chile. We find that uses of technologies share a unique relationship to musical taste. Musical taste remains a relevant process of distinction, but modes of exchange prove to be an emerging property. They, however, do not create new symbolic boundaries; rather, they are important in reinforcing those that exist.

Fields of participation and lifestyle in England: revealing the regional dimension from a reanalysis of the Taking Part Survey using Multiple Factor Analysis

“…The full list of activities is shown in Table A1 (see online appendix). Our analytical strategy involves MFA, which is a development of MCA (Leguina et al, 2015;Pagès, 2015). MCA is the method used by Bourdieu in Distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) for creating a multidimensional spatial representation of the relationship between variables -that is, in contrast to their reduction into dependent-independent "causal" hierarchies by conventional multivariate techniques.…”

“…Here the choice of analytical approach is crucial because the way in which the particular set of participation indicators available in a dataset such as the TPS is mobilised will shape the contours of the cultural field it describes. Our solution to this issue is to apply a technique called Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) (Leguina, Arancibia-Carvajal, & Widdop, 2015;Pagès, 2015). MFA builds on Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), which is a form of geometric data analysis designed to explore and represent relationships among many categorical variables that is particularly associated with the school of cultural analysis established by Pierre Bourdieu (Le Roux & Rouanet, 2004).…”

Digital omnivores? How digital media reinforce social inequalities in cultural consumption

“…Hence, theorizing digitization in cultural consumption from the perspective of individual decision-making leads to results that are largely in line with other studies. Also Leguina et al (2017) and Mihelj et al (2019) found that digital media do not attenuate but rather reinforce social inequalities in cultural consumption. Note, however, that these studies are more of exploratory character while the present one is more explanatory.…”

Enter Culture, Exit Arts?

“…The most notable example of this is the 'poprockization' of music throughout the world: the growing influence of American and British pop-rock music and its local adaptations, which is conceptualized as 'expressive isomorphism' standardizing national peculiarities in world culture (Regev, 2013;Varriale, 2016). Finally, technological changes, especially digitalization, may play a role in the increase of cultural heterogeneity, as the proliferation of distributable and portable cultural forms and their easy consumption -distinct from traditionally ceremonial methods of consuming highbrow culture such as visiting concerts or museums -are clearly factors behind the present 'cultural abundance' (Wright, 2011(Wright, , 2015Leguina, Arancibia-Carvajal and Widdop, 2017).…”