McDonald's Music' Versus 'Serious Music

How Production and Consumption Practices Help to Reproduce Class Inequality in the Classical Music Profession

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2965664
AutoresA Bull (0000-0003-2732-3240, University of Portsmouth, autor correspondente), C Scharff (0000-0001-8742-9923, King's College London)
Ano2017
Volume11
Fascículo3
Páginas283-301
Data de publicação2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCultural Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1749-9755 • E-ISSN: 1749-9763
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1749975517711045
OpenAlexW2739150184
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas44

This article draws on two empirical studies on contemporary engagements with classical music in the United Kingdom to shed light on the ways in which class inequalities are reproduced in practices of production and consumption. It discusses three ways in which this occurs. First, classical music was 'naturally' practiced and listened to in middle-class homes but this was misrecognised by musicians who labelled families as 'musical' rather than as 'middle class'. Second, the practices of classical music production and consumption such as the spaces used, the dress, and the modes of listening show similarities with middle-class culture. Third, musicians made judgements of value where classical music was seen as more valuable than other genres. This was particularly visible in studying production. In data on consumption, musicians were careful about making judgements of taste but described urban genres as illegible to them, or assessed them according to the criteria that they used to judge classical music, such as complexity and emotional depth. This hierarchy of value tended to remain unspoken and uncontested. Studying production and consumption together allows these patterns to emerge more clearly

Active listening · Aesthetics · Art · Classical music · Economics · Epistemology · Middle class · Musical · Political science · Popular music · Social science · Sociology · Taste · Visual arts · Communication · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Law · Mathematics · Music History and Culture · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics