Class Position and Musical Tastes: A Sing-Off between the

Cultural Omnivorism and Bourdieusian Homology

Frameworks
GERRY VEENSTRA
University of British Columbia

The longstanding debate between the homology and omnivorism

approaches to the class bases of cultural tastes and practices rages on in
cultural sociology. The homology thesis claims that class positions
throughout the class hierarchy are accompanied by specified cultural
tastes and specialized modes of appreciating them while the cultural
omnivorism thesis contends that elites are (increasingly) characterized
by a breadth of cultural tastes of any and all kinds. This study tests the
applicability of these theses to musical tastes in Canada through the
application of multiple correspondence analysis, latent class analysis,
and logistic regression modeling to original telephone survey data (n =
1,595) from Toronto and Vancouver. I find that musical omnivorism, an
appreciation for diverse musical styles, is not dispersed along class lines.
Instead I find a homology between class position and musical tastes that
designates blues, choral, classical, jazz, musical theater, opera, pop,
reggae, rock, and world/international as relatively highbrow and
country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal, and rap as
relatively lowbrow. Of the highbrow tastes, all but jazz are disliked by
lower class people, and of the lowbrow tastes, country, easy listening,
and golden oldies are concurrently disliked by higher class people.
Consistent with the homology thesis, it appears that class position is
aligned with specific musical likes and dislikes.
Le vieux debat entre les approches de lhomologie et de lomnivorisme
et des pratiques culturels fait rage dans
aux bases des classes des gouts
la sociologie culturelle. La th`ese de lhomologie pretend que les positions
des classes a` travers la hierarchie des classes sont accompagnees par des
culturels specifies et des modes specialises permettant leur
gouts
appreciation. La th`ese de lomnivorisme culturel, en revanche, soutient

que les e lites sont (de plus en plus) caracterisees par un e ventail de gouts
Gerry Veenstra, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6303 N. W. Marine Drive,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1. E-mail: gerry.veenstra@ubc.ca


C 2015 Canadian Sociological Association/La Soci
ete canadienne de sociologie

Class Position and Musical Tastes

135

culturels de toutes sortes. Cette e tude experimente lapplicabilite de ces

musicaux au Canada a` travers lapplication de lanalyse
th`eses aux gouts
des correspondances multiples, de lanalyse des classes latentes et du
mod`ele de regression logistique aux donnees dorigine de letude
collectees par telephone (n = 1,595) de Toronto et de Vancouver. Je me
rends compte que lomnivorisme musical, une appreciation de styles
musicaux divers, nest pas disperse le long des classes sociales. Bien au
contraire, je trouve quil existe une homologie entre la position des
musicaux qui designe les blues, la chorale, la musique
classes et les gouts

classique, le jazz, le theatre

musical, lopera, la pop, le reggae, le rock et
la musique du monde/internationale comme des styles des classes au
niveau intellectuel relativement e leve. Cette homologie designe la
country, la disco, la musique dambiance, les anciens succ`es, le heavy
metal et le rap comme des styles des classes au niveau intellectuel
des classes au niveau intellectuel e leve, tous
relativement bas. Des gouts
les styles a` lexception du jazz ne sont pas apprecies de la basse classe.
des classes au niveau intellectuel bas, le country, la
De meme, des gouts
musique dambiance et les anciens succ`es ne sont pas apprecies de la
haute classe. Selon la th`ese de lhomologie, il apparat que la position des
classes est fonction des preferences et des aversions musicales
specifiques.

THE HOMOLOGY AND CULTURAL omnivorism frameworks have been

at loggerheads for more than 20 years (e.g., Atkinson 2011; Bennett
et al. 2009; Coulangeon and Lemel 2007; Gebesmair 1998; Goldberg 2011;
Lizardo and Skiles 2012; Peterson and Kern 1996; Peterson and Simkus
1992; Rimmer 2012; Warde, Wright, and Gayo-Cal 2007). The homology
thesis claims that class positions throughout the class hierarchy are accompanied by specified cultural tastes and specialized modes of appreciating them while the cultural omnivorism thesis contends that elites are
(increasingly) characterized by a breadth of cultural tastes of any and
all kinds. This study provides new evidence on the relationship between
class position and cultural tastes by analyzing data from a novel telephone
survey on music and class conducted in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.
Specifically, it seeks to establish whether elites and lower class people in
urban English-speaking Canada are characterized by distinct sets of musical tastes or distinguished from another primarily by the degree to which
they manifest omnivorous musical tastes.

THE BOURDIEUSIAN HOMOLOGY FRAMEWORK

The homology framework, belonging to a long line of cultural inquiry that
includes Thorstein Veblens The Theory of the Leisure Class ([1899] 1994)
and Herbert Gans Popular Culture and High Culture (1974), finds its
fullest expression in Pierre Bourdieus magnum opus, Distinction: A Social
Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Bourdieu [1979] 1984). There the
French sociologist maintained that a multitude of diverse cultural tastes

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CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

and practices in 1960s France were fundamentally manifestations of class

habitus. For Bourdieu, class positions are distinguished by their differing
amounts of economic capital, essentially monetary wealth, and cultural
capital, valued cultural resources that include educational credentials,
which locate them in different parts of a multidimensional social space (a
society-wide field). Specifically, the sum total of the two forms of capital
positions agents on the primary axis of social space, that which distinguishes the upper, middle, and lower classes, while relative composition of
the capitals situates agents along the secondary axis of social space which
distinguishes dominating and dominated sections of the classes.
The cultural tastes of the wealthy and highly educated members of
the upper class, comprising highbrow culture, represent the legitimate,
sophisticated, and cultured tastes and practices of society. Members
of this class have the power to delimit highbrow tastes and appropriate
modes of appreciating them and can use their familiarity and facility with
these cultural forms to maintain and reinforce boundaries between themselves and others. Many highbrow tastes are especially enshrined in the
better educated but less-wealthy segment of the upper class, the home of
the intelligentsia, the dominated portion of upper-class space. Lowbrow
or popular tastes and practices, embraced by the less-wealthy and lesseducated members of society, are the antithesis of highbrow culture; they
serve as a negative reference for the tastes of the dominant class (Swartz
1997). Finally, middlebrow culture reflects the (imperfect) attempts of the
members of the middle class, the petit bourgeoisie, to embrace highbrow
culture and to distinguish themselves from the lower class. For Bourdieu,
then, there is a homology, a kind of isomorphic relation or one-to-one correspondence, between the multidimensional space of positions and the
multidimensional space of cultural tastes.
A key principle underlying the homology of class positions and cultural
tastes, according to Bourdieu, is the opposition between the tastes of luxury (or freedom) and the tastes of necessity (Bourdieu [1979] 1984:198).
The tastes of luxury are the tastes of people born into a habitus which
is defined by distance from necessity; these people possess freedoms of
thought and action that are facilitated by possession of capital. In particular, freedom from necessity facilitates development of the aesthetic
gaze, a mode of consumption which stresses appreciation for the form of a
cultural object rather than its function and tends to pass aesthetic rather
than ethical judgments on it. Accordingly, order, etiquette, and restraint
are virtues in upper-class space.
The denial of lower, coarse, vulgar, venal, servilein a word, natural
enjoyment, which constitutes the sacred sphere of culture, implies an affirmation of the superiority of those who can be satisfied with the sublimated,
refined, disinterested, gratuitous, distinguished pleasures forever closed to
the profane. (Bourdieu [1979] 1984:7)

Class Position and Musical Tastes

137

The middle class, striving for distinction but lacking the capital and
habitus needed to fully appropriate upper-class lifestyles, in turn valorizes
asceticism, rigor, legalism (Bourdieu [1979] 1984:331). In contrast with
the bourgeois habitus which conveys an ethos of ease, a confident relation
to the world and the self, the petit bourgeois habitus presents an ethos
of restriction through pretension (Bourdieu [1979] 1984:339). The tastes
of necessity, finally, most common in the lower class, derive from the need
to produce labor at the lowest cost; people with low levels of (especially
economic) capital tend to valorize tastes of necessity out of material necessity. Enjoyment and fun, impropriety, and fulfilling material needs are
virtues in lower class space because the functions rather than the forms of
cultural objects are of central importance here.
Bourdieu asserted that nothing more clearly affirms ones class,
nothing more infallibly classifies, than tastes in music (Bourdieu [1979]
1984:18). Upper-class people, free from the strictures of necessity, tend to
have a taste for difficult, abstract music, especially difficult classical music. For example, appreciation for Bachs The Well-Tempered Clavier was
prevalent among the most highly educated members of Bourdieus survey sample from the 1960s. As legitimate culture, classical music gathers
around it the highest values of aesthetic formalism associated with Kantian distinterestedness (Prior 2013:183). The French upper class also
rejected with disgust the most popular and most vulgar singers, such
as Les Compagnons de la Chanson, Mireille Mathieu, Adamo or Sheila
(Bourdieu [1979] 1984:60). Middle-class space in turn tends to foster appreciation for popularized forms of legitimate music (Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue was especially popular among engineers and technicians in
Bourdieus data) whereas the members of the lower class tend to consume
music with simple, repetitive structures (such as the popular waltzes of
Strauss) which are typically imposed on them by experts and artists in the
field of musical production (Atkinson 2011). From the standpoint of Bourdieus homology framework, then, musical tastes and distastes, seemingly
personally idiosyncratic in nature, are in fact reflections of class-based
habitus.
This represents what I think of as the strong form of the homology
thesis. It describes a multidimensional space of positions prescribed by a
specified complex configuration of capitals, namely, the sum total of economic capital and cultural capital on the primary axis and the relative
composition of these forms of capital on the secondary axis. It is a relational visioning of entwined spaces of positions and cultural tastes that
requires relational statistical techniques, such as multiple correspondence
analysis (MCA) or latent class analysis (LCA), to illuminate the character of the spaces in quantitative data. In the weak form of the homology
thesis, the space of positions and the spaces to which it is homologous
are not configured in as complicated a manner. For instance, while evidence suggests that the sum total of economic capital and cultural capital

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structures the primary dimension of the social spaces of contemporary

France (Coulangeon and Lemel 2007), Canada (Veenstra 2010), Finland
(Kahma and Toikka 2012), and the United Kingdom (Gayo-Cal et al. 2006;
Le Roux et al. 2008) as well as France of the 1960s (Bourdieu [1979] 1984),
the relative composition of these capitals does not appear to contribute
to structuring the social spaces of contemporary France (Coulangeon and
Lemel 2007), Finland (Kahma and Toikka 2012), and the United Kingdom
(Gayo-Cal et al. 2006; Le Roux et al. 2008). If one capital or the sum of
several capitals effectively delineates class positions then the weak form
of the homology thesis is evident and nonrelational techniques such as regression analysis are presumably up to the task of uncovering a homology
between positions and tastes. Precisely which capitals delineate class positions and the manner in which they do so in a given context is an empirical
question.

CULTURAL OMNIVORISM
Most incarnations of the cultural omnivorism perspective in the sociology
of culture similarly identify social class as a fundamental basis of cultural
tastes and practices. They depart from the homology framework, however,
by claiming that breadth of cultural tastes has supplanted possession of
specified highbrow/lowbrow tastes as the notable cultural delimiter of class
boundaries. It is argued that, while the Bourdieusian homology storyline
may have held in past eras, elites in contemporary societies are now better
characterized as cultural omnivores than as highbrow aficionados. These
omnivores consume and practice culture speaks of many different kinds,
from hip hop to heavy metal to classical music, from grungy, muddy team
sports such as rugby to ascetic, individual pursuits of body and mind such
as yoga and tai chi, and so forth (Veenstra 2010). They seek variety and
eclecticism and are intrinsically inclusive and tolerant in their tastes, in
contrast with univores, who, displaying taste for a narrow range of activities or objects, are intrinsically exclusivist and intolerant. Members of the
upper class are therefore distinguished from members of other classes by
the breadth of their cultural repertoires rather than their possession of
any specified highbrow cultural tastes or practices. Members of the lower
class are in turn distinguished from others by the relatively narrow focus
of their cultural repertoires, by their propensities to be univores, not by
their allegiances to any specified lowbrow cultural tastes or practices. It is
the desire and ability to consume a multitude of diverse cultural forms, including diverse musical styles, that now distinguishes higher class people
from lower class people in contemporary societies.
If the highbrow snob has been replaced by the cultural omnivore and
the lowbrow slob has been replaced by the univore then the principles,
processes, and mechanisms underlying the stratification of cultural tastes
have likely changed as well. In particular, the distinction between tastes

Class Position and Musical Tastes

139

of freedom and necessity may no longer be preeminent. Erickson (1996)

proposes that cultural inequality is not so much a hierarchy of tastes
(from soap opera to classical opera) as it is a hierarchy of knowledge (from
those who know little about soap opera or opera to those who can take
part in conversation about both) (p. 219). Emmison (2003) argues that
cultural mobility entails the display of cultural competence in a plurality
of domains with concomitant social rewards accruing to those demonstrating these capacities (p. 213). Omnivores can move easily among cultural
realms (Emmison 2003) and in business might use whatever form of cultural knowledge is necessary to make a good impression in job interviews
(Garnett, Guppy, and Veenstra 2008) or build social networks to get a better job (Erickson 1996). In short, that which is now the most useful for getting ahead, namely, a breadth of cultural knowledge and familiarity with
multiple cultural forms, is what is now classed. This is presumably because
breadth of knowledge/familiarity is more readily achieved by upper-class
people but also because people who have it are relatively likely to achieve
upper-class standing.
Various explanations for the historical change in the fundamental nature of the class bases of culture from homology to omnivorism have been
proposed. For example, the increasingly specialized nature of occupations
and greater mobility between occupations may have affected peoples cultural repertoires, since occupations tend to foster their own cultures and
people who are required to communicate across occupations or move into a
new occupation need to be conversant with a wide range of cultural forms
(Erickson 2008). Growing income inequality may have contributed to a
growing inequality in the ability of people to participate in culture while
educational inflation may have produced relatively more highly educated
people in upper-end occupations who are conversant with a wider range of
cultural forms garnered through their experiences with educational systems (Erickson 2008). Increasing amounts of social mobility, especially
from lower to higher strata, may contribute to increasing sociocultural
heterogeneity (van Eijck 2001). Peterson (2005) suggests that snobbish exclusion was an effective marker of status in a relatively homogenous and
circumscribed WASP class [but that] omnivorous inclusion seems better
adapted to an increasingly global world culture managed by those who
make their way, in part, by showing respect for the cultural expressions
of others (p. 273). Increasingly globalized media industries, social and
geographic mobility, and varied networks may also be at the root of the
open and varied cosmopolitan habitus seemingly prevalent among elites
(Atkinson 2011).
There are several useful ways of distinguishing strong and weak forms
of the omnivorism thesis. As with the homology thesis, relational (strong)
and nonrelational (weak) renderings of the omnivorism thesis can be envisioned. For instance, one can imagine a social space delimited by sum
total and relative composition of capitals where the upper-class section is

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bursting with diverse musical tastes and the lower class section is bereft
of them, a multidimensional space of positions homologous to a top-heavy
space of (omnivorous) tastes. Alternatively, breadth of tastes might simply
be associated with one or both of economic capital and cultural capital in
linear-causal regression models.
The distinction between omnivorism by volume and omnivorism by
composition (Warde et al. 2007) can also designate strong and weak forms
of the omnivorism thesis. In regard to the former, omnivorism is defined
by indiscriminate liking of any and all cultural forms, a strong statement
of the omnivorism thesis. In regard to the latter, however, some distinctive status orientation is entailed in the patterns of cultural preferences
involved (Warde et al. 2007:145). For example, the definition of musical omnivore employed by Peterson and Simkus (1992) required that they
like traditionally highbrow classical musical and opera. Achterberg and
Houtman (2005) operationalized musical omnivorousness as the status
distance between the most highbrow music and the most lowbrow music
chosen by a person. Explicitly incorporating dislikes into her operationalization, Bryson (1996) depicted musical omnivores as people who consumed
many different musical genres while simultaneously rejecting the music
genres with the least educated fans, these being country, heavy metal, and
rap music. In these formulations, musical omnivorism is prescribed in the
breadth of its manifestation.
Finally, strong and weak forms of the omnivorism thesis can be distinguished by the degree to which breadth of taste has supplanted specified highbrow tastes among elites. Some scholars suggest that highbrow
tastes are a thing of the past and the omnivore now reigns supreme in a
post-Bourdieu era of cultural sociology (Vander Stichele and Laermans
2006). Others contend that the omnivorism framework represents an evolution rather than a repudiation of the homology framework where the
former has not (yet) overthrown the latter (e.g., Emmison 2003; Garca
Alvarez,
Katz-Gerro, and Lopez-Sintas 2007; Lopez-Sintas and Zerva 2005;
Peterson 2005; Peterson and Kern 1996). They suggest that elites can
in fact be split into two groups: exclusive highbrows with a univorous
and exclusive highbrow taste; and inclusive highbrows with an omnivorous taste inclusive of middlebrow and lowbrow tastes (Emmison 2003;

Garca-Alvarez
et al. 2007; Peterson 2005).1 Lowbrow taste, a popular taste
that nearly everyone likes, is no longer associated with any specific class

(Garca-Alvarez
et al. 2007). In short, the strong form of the omnivorism
thesis does away with highbrow snobs entirely while the weak form accommodates the existence of highbrow snobs and omnivorous elites, with

1.

Research in this vein suggests that exclusive highbrows tend to be older and inclusive highbrows tend
to be younger (Ollivier 2008). This age- or cohort-related factor speaks to the notion that aggregate
changes in elite tastes from highbrow to omnivore are generationally prescribed, with younger omnivore
elites replacing aging highbrow exclusivist elites.

Class Position and Musical Tastes

141

their relative weights in numbers and influence a matter of contextual and

historical specificity.
Multiple formulations of cultural omnivorism and various underlying
principles and reasons for historical changes in the class bases of cultural
tastes notwithstanding, the body of empirical research purportedly verifying the existence of class-delimited cultural omnivores in various international contexts is now voluminous (Peterson 2005). Cultural omnivorism
has become de rigueur in some circles. Other scholars uphold the contemporary viability of the homology perspective, questioning the evidence
for and utility in the notion of a class-delimited musical omnivore (e.g.,
Atkinson 2011; Rimmer 2012; Savage 2006; Warde et al. 2007). This study
contributes to the ongoing tussle between the Bourdieusian homology and
cultural omnivorism perspectives by investigating relationships between
musical likes and dislikes and indicators of class position in original survey
data from two large Canadian cities (Toronto and Vancouver).

ANALYTICAL PLAN
The analysis proceeds in four stages. First, I investigate whether diverse
musical tastes are widely dispersed, as the homology approach might predict, or tightly clustered, as might be consistent with musical omnivorism.
To accomplish this, I apply MCA and LCA to a set of 21 musical likes
and dislikes, illuminating contours of a musical field that distinguishes
between people who like most musical genres, people who dislike most
musical genres, and people who are ambivalent about most musical genres. Second, I investigate the degree to which and how this patterning
of musical tastes is structured by various markers of inequality, namely,
city of residence, age, gender, racial identity, immigrant status, economic
capital, and cultural capital. In particular, I seek to determine whether
this Canadian musical field is structured by the sum total of economic
capital and cultural capital and the relative composition of economic and
cultural capitals as the field of cultural tastes was structured in France
of the 1960s. I find that the patterning of musical tastes previously identified is partly reflective of age, racial identity, and immigrant status but
mostly unreflective of possession of economic capital and cultural capital. Third, I determine whether a measure of breadth of musical likes
is predicted by one or more of the markers of inequality in an Ordinary
Least Squares (OLS) regression model. I find that women, middle-aged
people, and native-born Canadians are relatively likely to be musical omnivores but wealthy and/or highly educated elites are not. Finally, I investigate whether individual musical likes and dislikes are associated with
the markers of inequality in binary logistic regression models. Consistent with the weak form of Bourdieus homology thesis, I find that elites

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CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

and lower class people are linked with distinct sets of musical likes and
dislikes.

METHODS
Survey Sample
Between January and June of 2009, the Survey Research Centre (SRC) at
the University of Victoria in British Columbia conducted telephone interviews with 732 adults living in the city of Toronto and 863 adults living in
the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area. The SRC used random-digit dialing techniques to obtain residential telephone numbers, a next-birthday
strategy to select one resident per household aged 19 or older to interview,
and a computer-aided telephone interviewing system to conduct the interviews. The introductory script from the callers informed prospective interviewees that all adults aged 19 and older were eligible for this study, that
there were potential risks of an emotional kind from questions pertaining
to racial and ethnic identity, experiences of discrimination in everyday life
and sexual orientation, and that the ultimate goal of the study was to help
to improve the health of Canadians. No incentives, monetary or otherwise,
were provided for participation. In total, callers spoke with 17,060 people
and successfully recruited 1,595 interviewees, representing a cooperation
rate of 9.3 percent.
Demographic characteristics of the survey samples and the cities from
which they were obtained are described in Table 1. Comparison of the city
samples to the 2006 Census by gender, age, racial identity, immigrant
status, and educational attainment indicates that both city samples are
biased toward women, older people, Whites, native-born Canadians, and
people with a university degree. Comparison of cases with complete data (n
= 1,503) with those with missing data (n = 92) indicates that the missing
cases are relatively likely to be non-White immigrants.
Musical Tastes
Unlike most research of its kind (but see Bennett et al. 2009; Bryson 1996,
1997; Carrabine and Longhurst 1999; Savage 2006; Sonnett 2004; Tampubolon 2008b), this study focuses on musical likes and dislikes. The cultural omnivore is identified by her liking of diverse cultural forms. From
the homology perspective, however, the tastes of elites and lower class
people are as or more likely to be manifested as distastes than as tastes
(Bourdieu [1979] 1984). My respondents were asked about their likes and
dislikes in regard to 21 musical genres. For each of the following types
of music, please tell me whether you like or dislike or perhaps feel neutrally about each type: classical music, hip hop, choral music, folk music,
rap, opera, country music, pop, jazz, easy listening, reggae, rock, heavy

Class Position and Musical Tastes

143
Table 1

Characteristics of the City Survey Samples and Their Populations

Toronto

Variable

Categories

Gender

Male
Female
Aged 1934
Aged 3544
Aged 4554
Aged 5564
Aged 65 and older
Asian
Black
South Asian
White
Other
Born in Canada
Immigrated to
Canada
Less than high
school
High school
Community college
or technical
school diploma
Bachelors degree
or higher
Less than $40,000
$40,00059,999
$60,00079,999
$80,00099,999
$100,000149,999
$150,000 or more
Missing

Age

Racial identity

Immigrant
status
Educational
attainment

Household
income

Survey
sample
N = 732
%

Vancouver

Census
2006
%

Survey
sample
N = 863
%

Census
2006
%

35.4
64.6
20.4
18.5
23.6
19.6
17.8
3.0
6.4
4.1
79.3
7.1
65.3
34.7

47.3
52.7
29.7
21.0
18.3
13.0
17.9
13.3
8.4
12.1
53.0
13.2
47.8
52.2

32.8
67.2
12.5
16.4
23.7
26.9
20.5
6.1
0.2
5.1
82.7
5.9
72.3
27.7

48.2
51.8
28.6
21.2
20.3
14.1
15.8
23.5
1.0
10.9
54.7
9.9
56.5
43.5

5.2

20.4

5.2

17.5

24.7
15.3

24.3
25.8

35.4
18.6

26.9
30.5

54.8

29.5

40.7

25.0

15.4
12.3
14.3
10.1
14.3
16.9
16.5

15.4
11.5
11.6
10.4
18.0
14.3
18.9

metal, musical theater, gospel, blues, new age, big band, golden oldies,
world/international, disco. Respondents were also asked Youve mentioned that you like <list of likes>. Which one of these is your absolute
favourite? and Youve mentioned that you dislike <list of dislikes>.
Which one of these do you dislike the most? Distributions of these musical tastes variables for the 1,543 respondents who provided information
for them are described in Table 2.

Classical
Rock
Pop
Blues
Golden oldies
Jazz
Easy listening
Musical theater
Folk music
Big band
World/international
Reggae
Gospel
Country music
Choral music
Disco
Opera
New age
Hip hop
Rap
Heavy metal

74.3
67.6
65.1
63.4
62.1
61.7
59.1
57.1
55.5
52.6
52.0
46.5
44.6
43.6
42.5
41.0
39.8
30.7
27.1
16.6
15.0

Like (%)

8.0
16.1
13.1
15.8
15.1
17.0
17.3
19.4
19.2
22.0
13.5
28.4
27.9
27.4
25.8
33.0
30.5
35.2
44.6
60.7
66.3

Dislike (%)

17.7
16.4
21.8
20.8
22.7
21.2
23.6
23.5
25.3
25.4
34.5
25.2
27.6
29.0
31.8
26.1
29.7
34.1
28.3
22.7
18.7

Neutral (%)

Rock
Classical
Pop
Jazz
Golden oldies
Country
Easy listening
Blues
Folk music
Hip hop
Opera
Gospel
World/international
Musical theater
Reggae
Big band
Disco
Choral music
Heavy metal
New age
Rap

Most liked

20.1
15.2
8.1
7.8
6.4
5.8
5.5
4.7
4.1
3.0
3.0
2.9
2.5
2.1
1.8
1.7
1.7
1.2
1.1
0.8
0.5

Heavy metal
Rap
Country
Hip hop
Opera
Gospel
Disco
New age
Easy listening
Reggae
Musical theater
Choral music
Jazz
Rock
Folk music
Classical
Golden oldies
Pop
Big band
World/international
Blues

Most disliked

Musical Likes and Dislikes of Toronto and Vancouver Respondents

Table 2

33.7
26.5
7.0
6.0
5.0
2.8
2.5
2.3
2.0
1.7
1.6
1.5
1.2
1.2
1.0
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.4
0.3

144
CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

Class Position and Musical Tastes

145

RESULTS
Musical Field
In a relational musical field, musical tastes attain their meaning primarily in relation to one another. Table 3 describes bivariate relationships
between the 21 musical likes/dislikes variables. Although most of the associations are positive, some of the stronger positive associations, such as
those between rap and hip hop, choral and gospel, choral and folk, opera
and classical, reggae and rock, and jazz and blues, may reflect blurred
or overlapping boundaries between genres. Negative associations between
musical tastes are few and far between, the strongest of which are between
hip hop and choral, hip hop and folk, heavy metal and choral, heavy metal
and easy listening, and heavy metal and golden oldies.
Bourdieu ([1979] 1984) used correspondence analysis to craft his depictions of the fields of capitals, lifestyles, and habitus in France. To create
a visual rendering of a relational musical field in this study, I applied
the Burt method approach to MCA to the 21 musical likes/dislikes variables and plotted the primary dimensions derived from it in a multidimensional space. The first two dimensions extracted by the MCA explained
78.3 percent of the total variability, with 53.2 percent of the variability attributable to Dimension 1 and 25.2 percent of the variability attributable
to Dimension 2. The variable categories are plotted visually in Figure 1,
with Dimension 1 forming the vertical axis and Dimension 2 forming the
horizontal axis. The predominant pattern of musical tastes in Figure 1 is
the presence of distinct clusters of categories that illuminate three collectives of people: the members of Quadrant 1 who like most, if not all, musical
genres (inclusive musical omnivores); people located in the lower half of
the field who dislike most genres; and the members of Quadrant 4 who are
ambivalent about or unfamiliar with many of the genres.
Next, I applied LCA to the set of 21 musical tastes. The loadings of the
variable categories for the three classes produced by the LCA are presented
in Table 4. Class 1 closely resembles Quadrant 1 of Figure 1, with high loadings for liking all genres excepting hip hop, rap, and heavy metal (nearly
inclusive musical omnivores). Class 2 strongly overlaps with Quadrant
3 of Figure 1, with high loadings for disliking all genres excepting classical and easy listening but also for liking classical, easy listening, golden
oldies, pop, and rock. Class 3 strongly overlaps with Quadrant 4, with high
loadings for ambivalent attitudes toward all but classical and rock and
for liking classical, pop, jazz, rock, and blues. The LCA therefore illuminates characteristics of the clustering of musical tastes that are perhaps
not readily apparent in the MCA, namely, that liking classical, liking pop,
liking rock, disliking rap, and disliking heavy metal effectively traverse
all three classes and that liking hip hop, liking rap, liking heavy metal,
disliking classical, and disliking easy listening do not meaningfully fit in

0.106
0.108
0.233

hip hop

classical

0.203
0.131
0.073
0.266
0.167
0.163
0.100
0.107
0.144
0.158

0.164
0.149
0.485

0.062
0.208
0.109
0.172
0.136
0.192
0.142
0.238
0.169

0.073

0.086
0.253
0.203
0.076
0.319
0.058
0.068
0.204

choral

0.172
0.098
0.150
0.112
0.155
0.272
0.324
0.184
0.168
0.244
0.191
0.208
0.128

0.303
0.110
0.295
0.163

folk

0.215
0.234
0.236
0.139
0.237
0.254
0.226
0.123

0.106
0.166
0.225
0.109
0.185
0.109
0.130
0.078

rap

0.101
0.068
0.139
0.090
0.074
0.246
0.172
0.242
0.080
0.093
0.105
0.136
0.132
0.113
0.099
0.168
opera

0.143
0.104
0.169
0.080
0.116
0.080
0.091
0.224
0.182
0.165
0.122
0.185
0.141
0.218
0.135
country

0.198
0.109
0.218
0.123
0.199
0.094
0.190
0.219
0.121
0.087
0.176
0.243
0.091
0.146
pop

0.171
0.220
0.184
0.333
0.096
0.174
0.130
0.192
0.188
0.145
0.172
0.110
0.260
jazz

0.116
0.200
0.137
0.091
0.192
0.188
0.427
0.153
0.266
0.149
0.179
0.122
easy
listening

0.094
0.113
0.131
0.236
0.129
0.089
0.176
0.171
0.277
0.112
0.196
reggae

0.313
0.219
0.130
0.202
0.255
0.237
0.188
0.152
0.221
0.234
rock

0.268
0.107
0.091
0.218
0.187
0.154
0.143
0.118
0.224
heavy
metal

0.102
0.110
0.123
0.167
0.120
0.125
0.112
0.116
musical
theater

0.290
0.182
0.184
0.299
0.281
0.201
0.224

gospel

0.235
0.163
0.246
0.222
0.217
0.161

Bivariate Associations between Musical Likes/Dislikes

blues

0.220
0.271
0.184
0.211
0.184

new
age

0.208
0.150
0.247
0.231

big
band

0.402
0.231
0.217

golden
oldies

0.201
0.213

Notes: Each cell contains a Cramers V value. Cramers V ranges from a low of zero, representing no relationship, to a high of one, representing a perfect relationship.
Values in bold are positive relationships wherein people who liked the one genre tended to like the other and/or people who disliked the one genre tended to dislike the other.
Values in italics are negative relationships wherein people who liked the one genre were relatively unlikely to like the other and/or people who disliked the one genre were relatively unlikely to dislike the other.
Values in neither bold or italics are not so straightforwardly described and empty cells in the table indicate relationships that were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).

hip hop
choral
folk
rap
opera
country
pop
jazz
easy listening
reggae
rock
heavy metal
musical theater
gospel
blues
new age
big band
golden oldies
world/international
disco

Table 3

0.210
world/
int.

146
CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

Class Position and Musical Tastes

147
Figure 1

Two-dimensional mapping derived from a multiple

correspondence analysis of musical likes and dislikes
Quadrant 1

Quadrant 4

neutral rap
neutral heavy metal
neutral hip hop
like new age most
neutral reggae
neutral disco
neutral golden oldies neutral gospel neutral choralneutral opera
neutral new age
neutral big band
dislike new age most
neutral country
neutral folk
neutral musical theater
neutral rock
like new age
like musical theater most
like jazz most
neutral easy listening like world/international most
like folk most
like blues most like big band
neutral blues
pop
dislike blues most neutral
like musical theater
dislike world/international most like reggae
like big band most
neutral world/international
like disco
like
jazz
like
blues
neutral jazz
gospel
dislike easy listening most
like world/international likelike
like pop most
like pop like
like rock
neutral classical
classical like folk like opera
choral
like rock most
dislike heavy
dislike musical theater most
like most
heavy metal like golden oldies
like easy listening
most metal
dislike jazz most
like hip hoplike easy listening like country
dislike choral most
like golden oldies most
Dimension 2
dislike folk most
dislike golden oldies most
like rap
dislike gospel most
like opera most
dislike rap most
like disco most
dislike big band most
dislike heavy metal like classical most
dislike country most
dislike hip hop most like gospel most
dislike rap
dislike disco most
dislike reggae most
like country most
like choral most
dislike hip hop
like reggae most
dislike opera most
dislike country
dislike easy listening
dislike disco
dislike opera
dislike new age
like hip hop most
like heavy metal most

dislike gospel
dislike choral
dislike folk

dislike pop most

dislike reggae
dislike rock

dislike jazz
dislike musical theater
dislike big band
like rap most
dislike golden oldies

dislike pop

dislike world/international
dislike blues
dislike classical

dislike rock most

Legend
musical like/dislike (active)
most liked genre (supplementary)

dislike classical most

Quadrant 3

most disliked genre (supplementary)

Dimension 1

Quadrant 2

any of them. That is, the predominant pattern evident in the MCA of musical tastes, that distinguishing between liking musical genres in general,
disliking musical genres in general or feeling ambivalent about musical
genres in general, is not monolithic in its manifestation.
To further investigate this point, the most liked and most disliked
musical genres were overlaid on the MCA plot as supplementary variables
(Figure 1). When pushed to declare their strongest musical allegiances, the
inclusive musical omnivores of Quadrant 1 are relatively likely to favor big
band, blues, folk, jazz, musical theater, and new age over all others and to
dislike easy listening, heavy metal, new age, and world/international most
of all. The denizens of Quadrant 3 are relatively likely to favor heavy metal,
hip hop, reggae, and rap over all others and to dislike classical, opera, and
rock most of all whereas the inhabitants of Quadrant 4 are relatively likely
to favor pop, rock, and world/international and to dislike blues and musical
theater most of all. Again, tastes in music are not perfectly captured by
the predominant pattern evident in Figure 1.

Class 2
0.615
0.232
0.320
0.444

0.309
0.420
0.531
0.420
0.592
0.301
0.523

0.378
0.295
0.402
0.203
0.322
0.514
0.394
0.284

Class 1
0.899
0.279
0.667
0.827

0.580
0.633
0.812
0.864
0.770
0.605
0.766

0.855
0.742
0.890
0.464
0.857
0.900
0.731
0.622

0.430
0.262
0.569
0.243
0.361
0.426
0.412
0.296

0.282
0.258
0.592
0.536
0.418
0.456
0.704

Class 3
0.688
0.288
0.257
0.373
classical - dislike
hip hop - dilike
choral - dislike
folk - dislike
rap - dislike
opera - dislike
country - dislike
pop - dislike
jazz - dislike
easy listening - dislike
reggae - dislike
rock - dislike
heavy metal - dislike
musical theater - dislike
gospel - dislike
blues - dislike
new age - dislike
big band - dislike
golden oldies - dislike
world/international - dislike
disco - dislike
0.262

0.700

0.573

0.402

Class 1

Class 2
0.210
0.680
0.528
0.410
0.786
0.550
0.424
0.335
0.411
0.280
0.621
0.374
0.814
0.487
0.574
0.453
0.652
0.551
0.382
0.376
0.615
0.251

0.204

0.232

0.517

0.515
0.278
0.298

0.313
0.208

Class 3

Notes: To facilitate interpretation of the classes, values greater than 0.500 are in bold and values less than 0.200 have been deleted
.

classical - like
hip hop - like
choral - like
folk - like
rap - like
opera - like
country - like
pop - like
jazz - like
easy listening - like
reggae - like
rock - like
heavy metal - like
musical theater - like
gospel - like
blues - like
new age - like
big band - like
golden oldies - like
world/international - like
disco - like

classical - neutral
hip hop - neutral
choral - neutral
folk - neutral
rap - neutral
opera - neutral
country - neutral
pop - neutral
jazz - neutral
easy listening - neutral
reggae - neutral
rock - neutral
heavy metal - neutral
musical theater - neutral
gospel - neutral
blues - neutral
new age - neutral
big band - neutral
golden oldies - neutral
world/international - neutral
disco - neutral

0.231

0.274

0.219

0.230
0.266
0.237

0.319
0.228

Class 1

0.230

Class 2

Loadings on Three Classes from the Latent Class Analysis of Musical Likes/Dislikes

Table 4

Class 3
0.273
0.399
0.534
0.456
0.346
0.440
0.444
0.358
0.365
0.422
0.409
0.217
0.333
0.454
0.505
0.368
0.553
0.513
0.469
0.536
0.453

148
CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

Class Position and Musical Tastes

149
Figure 2

Sociodemographic variable categories overlaid on Figure 1

Quadrant 1

Quadrant 4

$150 or more

Black

Asian

19 - 34

45 - 54
$60 - 79,999
55 - 64
postgraduate born in Canada
university
female
35 - 44
high school White
$100 - 149,999
immigrated > 20 years $80 - 99,999
< $40,000
male
$40 - 59,999 community college or technical school
65 and older
other racial identity

Dimension 2

less than high school

immigrated <= 20 years

South Asian

Quadrant 3

Dimension 1

Quadrant 2

Is there a space of positions to which this musical field is homologous?

To address this question, education and household income, along with city
of residence, gender, age, racial identity, and immigrant status were overlaid on the MCA plot as supplementary variables (depicted separately in
Figure 2). Figure 2 indicates that the inclusive omnivores of Quadrant 1
are relatively likely to be middle aged and the inhabitants of Quadrant 3
are relatively likely to be young, South Asian immigrants. However, only
the least educated and wealthiest categories are not located at the center
of the plot, indicating that economic capital and cultural capital play little
role in delineating the musical tastes dispersed throughout Figure 1. The
introduction of the same set of covariates to the LCA produces complementary insights, namely, that age, gender, racial identity, immigrant status,
and education are statistically significant predictors of class membership
but city of residence and income are not. Specifically, women load positively
on Class 1, South Asians load positively on Class 2, recent immigrants load
positively on Class 2, and highly educated people load negatively on Class
2 and positively on Class 3. In other words, women tend to report nearly

150

CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

inclusive omnivorous musical likes, recent immigrants and South Asians

typically register many musical dislikes and highly educated people tend
to report few musical dislikes and many neutral or ambivalent musical
tastes. Again, economic capital and cultural capital play surprisingly little role in delineating tastes in this musical field. The strong form of the
homology thesis is not supported by these data.
Regression Modeling of Musical Omnivorism by Volume
Consistent with the notion of omnivorism by volume, many scholars simply define omnivorism as breadth of tastes of any and every kind (Ollivier
2008; Peterson 2005). The inhabitants of Quadrant 1 in the MCA appear
to be this kind of musical omnivore, the results reported earlier suggesting
that this manifestation of musical omnivorism is not meaningfully shaped
by economic capital and cultural capital. To further test this last insight,
I created a summary measure of musical omnivorism from the 21 musical
likes/dislikes variables and applied OLS regression to it. A simple count
of the number of musical likes professed by each respondent produces a
normally distributed summative measure that ranges from 0 to 21 and
has a mean of 10.2 and standard deviation of 4.1. Regressing omnivorism
on the markers of inequality indicates that women, middle-aged people,
and native-born Canadians display significantly more musical omnivorism
than men, older and younger people, and immigrants to Canada, respectively (Table 5). However, neither education nor income makes a meaningful contribution to explaining this measure of musical omnivorousness,
indicating that this data set does not contain elites characterized by a wide
range of diverse musical tastes.
Regression Modeling of Individual Musical Likes and Dislikes
Toward further examining the viability of the weak form of the homology
framework in these data, Table 6 summarizes the results of a series of
21 binary logistic regression models executed on recoded versions of the
musical likes/dislikes variables that combine the dislike and neutral categories. City of residence, age, gender, racial identity, immigrant status,
education, and income are all associated with musical likes and dislikes.
For example, Table 6 indicates that heavy metal is most likely to be liked by
older, White lower class men who live in Toronto, musical theater is most
likely to be liked by older, Asian or White, wealthy native-born women, and
so forth. In regard to the capitals in particular, highly educated respondents are relatively likely to like choral, classical, folk, jazz, opera, and
world/international and less-educated respondents are relatively likely to
like big band, country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal,
and rap. In addition, wealthier respondents are relatively likely to like big
band, blues, classical, jazz, musical theater, opera, pop, reggae, and rock
and poorer respondents are relatively likely to like country, folk, and heavy

Class Position and Musical Tastes

151
Table 5

OLS Regression on Musical Omnivorism

b

City of residence
Vancouver
Toronto (reference)
Gender
Female
Male (reference)
Age
Age in years
Age age
Racial identity
Asian
Black
South Asian
Other
White (reference)
Immigrant status
Immigrated >20 years ago
Immigrated 20 years ago
Born in Canada (reference)
Education
Less than high school
High school
Community college or technical school
University
Postgraduate degree (reference)
Household income
<$40,000
$40,00059,999
$60,00079,999
$80,00099,999
$100,000149,999
$150,000 or more (reference)
N
F(p)
R2

Beta

0.234
....

0.027
....

0.559
....

0.056
....

***

0.249
0.002

***

0.629
0.374
1.009
0.215
....

0.032
0.016
0.052
0.013
....

1.006
0.591
....

0.099
0.042
....

0.316
0.514
0.242
0.183
....

0.017
0.058
0.022
0.020
....

0.354
0.769
0.472
0.629
0.571
....
1,503
4.95 (<0.001)
.063

0.031
0.061
0.039
0.047
0.052
....

***

Notes: Musical omnivorism is coded as the number of musical likes (maximum 21) professed by each
respondent.
*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

metal. That is, the vast majority of the 21 musical likes are classed, often
strongly so, with positive and negative relationships both well represented.
Table 6 also summarizes results from binary logistic regression models applied to recoded versions of the musical tastes variables that combine the like and neutral categories. They indicate that highly educated

White, postgraduate

Born in Canada

Female older, Black, recent immigrant,

postgraduate
White, born in Canada, postgraduate, poorest
Torontian, male, Asian or South Asian, born in
Canada
Torontonian, female, non-South Asian,
postgraduate
Nonlong-time immigrant, less than high school,
poorest
Female older, born in Canada, community
college, richest

Classical

Hip hop

Choral

Torontonian, male, older, White, less than high

school, poorest
Female older, not South Asian or Black, born in
Canada, wealthy
Female, older, Black, born in Canada, poorest

Heavy metal

Gospel

Musical theater

Reggae
Rock

Male, older, White

Female older, South Asian, nonlong-time
immigrant, less than high school
Male, older, Black, born in Canada
Male, older, White, born in Canada

Jazz
Easy listening

Pop

Country

Opera

Folk
Rap

Predictors of liking musical style

Musical style

Male, younger, South Asian

(Continued)

Torontonian, South Asian, nonlong-time

immigrant, less than high school
Male, older, White, recent immigrant, less than
high school, middle income
Male, South Asian, born in Canada, less than
high school
South Asian, less than high school
Vancouverite, older, White, recent immigrant,
less than high school, middle income
Male, older, South Asian, less than university,
poorest
Male, younger, long-time immigrant, university
educated, wealthiest
Torontonian, male, younger, South Asian,
long-time immigrant, less than high school,
poorest
Female, younger, South Asian
Torontonian, male, younger, White, long-time
immigrant, postgraduate
Non-Black, less than high school, middle income
Torontonian, younger, non-White, immigrant,
less than high school
Female younger, South Asian or Black, recent
immigrant
Male, younger, South Asian

Predictors of disliking musical style

Multivariate Logistic Regression Predictors of Musical Likes/Dislikes

Table 6
152
CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

Older, White, born in Canada, noncommunity

college
Female, older, high school diploma
White, born in Canada, nonpostgraduate,
wealthiest
Female, older, born in Canada, less than high
school
Female, older, non-Black, immigrant,
postgraduate
Female, older, South Asian, nonuniversity

Blues

Disco

World/international

Golden oldies

New age
Big band

Predictors of liking musical style

Musical style

Continued

Table 6

Vancouverite, male, younger, recent immigrant,

postgraduate
Male, Black, born in Canada, less than high
school
Male, younger

Younger, Asian or South Asian, recent

immigrant, community college
Male, younger, Black or South Asian
Younger, South Asian, recent immigrant

Predictors of disliking musical style

Class Position and Musical Tastes

153

154

CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

respondents are relatively likely to dislike country, easy listening, and

golden oldies. In addition, less-educated respondents are relatively likely
to dislike choral, classical, folk, jazz, rap, opera, pop, reggae, rock, and
world/international and poorer respondents are relatively likely to dislike big band, classical, hip hop, musical theater, opera, pop, rap, reggae,
rock, and world/international. In short, the majority of musical dislikes
are also classed, with lower class respondents registering multiple dislikes and higher class respondents registering dislikes for genres that are
themselves liked by less-educated people.
In summary, these logistic regression models reveal a homology between class position and musical tastes of the weaker form that designates
blues, choral, classical, jazz, musical theater, opera, pop, reggae, rock, and
world/international as relatively highbrow and country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal, and rap as relatively lowbrow. Of the
higher brow tastes, blues, choral, classical, jazz, musical theater, opera,
pop, reggae, rock, and world/international are concurrently disliked by
lower class people, and of the lower brow tastes, country, easy listening,
and golden oldies are concurrently disliked by higher class people. In other
words, there is a remarkable symmetry between the likes of one group and
the dislikes of the other.

DISCUSSION
This study is situated in mostly virgin territory in regard to investigating class position and musical tastes, namely, urban English-speaking
Canada. Previous research indicates that attending classical music performances, choral concerts, and operas and playing musical instruments are
highbrow activities in English-speaking Canadian society (Veenstra 2010)
and that classical music, opera, jazz, soul, rhythm and blues, country music, and pop are popular tastes among upper-class high school students in
Toronto (Tanner, Asbridge, and Wortley 2008). Among adults in Englishspeaking Canada, however, the class bases of musical tastes have not yet
been investigated. An MCA applied to 21 musical tastes in my sample
of adults from Toronto and Vancouver revealed a cluster of musical likes
and dislikes wherein people who liked one form of music tended to like
many others as well. Upon further examination, however, the coherence
and salience of this musical omnivore fell away. For one, when pushed
to choose a favorite musical genre, the musical omnivores were relatively
likely to favor some musical stylesbig band, blues, folk, jazz, musical theater, and new ageover all others, indicating that not all musical tastes
were equal in their eyes. More to point, the number of musical genres liked
by the survey respondents was not associated with class position.
These results call to mind insights emerging from Will Atkinsons (2011) interviews in Bristol, England regarding specious
omnivorousness. Atkinson found that, when the topic of musical tastes

Class Position and Musical Tastes

155

was first broached in his interviews, the opening response of many interviewees, from all kinds of different class positions, was to explicitly
present their predilections as varied [..], diverse [..] and almost comically
eclectic [..]. They listened to all sorts [..], they said, a fair range [..], a
mish-mash [..]in short they listened to pretty much anything [..] and
a scoop of everything (p. 174). That is to say, they claimed to be musical
omnivores. Delving further into interviewees musical preferences, when
pushed to elaborate on their musical tastes the upper-class omnivores
tended to speak more often and in more depth about classical and opera
than did the other omnivores. These people, many steeped in classical music as children (perhaps by learning to play a noble instrument such as
the piano or violin), demonstrated quite sophisticated understandings of
these highbrow musical forms. In short, Atkinson found that the musical
omnivorism apparent in his interview sample was in fact specious; beneath
peoples claims for cosmopolitanism sensibilities reposed tastes that were
perfectly in line with the highbrow/lowbrow distinction foundational to
the Bourdieusian homology framework. In my study, having almost equal
numbers of relatively highbrow and lowbrow musical tastes in my survey
questionnaire was a happenstance that allowed the epiphenomenal qualities of the musical omnivorism to emerge in the statistical analyses. It
may be that musical omnivorism is as specious in Toronto and Vancouver
as it is in Bristol.
Peterson (2005) questions whether music remains an adequate index
of status in any conceptualization, arguing that the
status-giving value of all kinds of musical tastes has been deflated by musics
increasingly widespread use in commercial advertisements, movie soundtracks, and as ambient sound to control mood in public spaces. The appreciation of classical music, rock, techno, and country can hardly be expected
to retain their status-making value if they are increasingly commodified and
easy to acquire. (P. 266)

Notwithstanding the sense of this statement, musical tastes are still

classed, in interesting and complex ways, in urban English-speaking
Canada. In regard to highbrow tastes, appreciation for classical, choral,
jazz, opera, and world/international music was especially common among
people possessing higher educational credentials. For example, the odds
of postgraduates claiming to like classical music in my sample was more
than three times as high as the odds of people with less than a high school
diploma claiming the same. All of these genres excepting jazz were simultaneously distastes of lower class people. Indeed, the odds of disliking
classical music was more than eight times as high for the least educated
respondents as for the best educated ones. These findings indicate that attitudes toward blues, classical, choral, opera, pop, and world/international
music in particular may be implicated in social processes that function to

156

CRS/RCS, 52.2 2015

delimit class boundaries in this Canadian context. Interestingly, the lower

class respondents in this study demonstrated a predilection to dislike all
sorts of musical genres, consistent with Tampubolon (2008a) who found
that the aesthetic of the dominated class in Britain was similarly predominantly negative. Nevertheless, appreciation for country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal, and rap was relatively common among
the lower class people in my sample. In addition, several of the relatively
lowbrow genres, namely, country, easy listening, and golden oldies, were
simultaneously distastes of higher class people, indicating that these musical genres may also be implicated in class boundary-making processes in
urban English-speaking Canada.
These results represent a strong endorsement of the weak form of
the Bourdieusian homology framework. Peterson (2005) notes that Bourdieus representation of highbrow and lowbrow cultures in 1960s France
is consistent with the longstanding distinction in the United States between highbrow snobs who patronize the fine arts, such as classical music
and opera, and lowbrow slobs who consume debased or brutish popular
entertainment, such as pop, folk, country/western, and bluegrass music.
Although pop and folk may have gained in status, their spots potentially
taken by easy listening and golden oldies, perhaps less has changed in
regard to relationships between class position and musical tastes in this
North American context than the cultural omnivorism perspective would
have us believe.
Some of the key limitations of this study also serve as directions for
further research. Perhaps most importantly, a low cooperation rate suggests that the survey sample may be biased, and the results, to the degree
that they can be trusted, pertain only to the residents of Toronto and
Vancouver. Nationally representative survey data on musical likes and
dislikesperhaps in a Statistics Canada General Social Surveywould
be welcome in this area of inquiry. Atkinson (2011) describes several other
salient methodological critiques which have been leveled against the survey research-based homology and musical omnivorism literatures more
generally. One is that categories such as pop, rock, or classical are too
broad to capture relevant distinctions within categories, such as those between difficult and light classical music or underground versus pop
rap music. Future survey research that accommodates more differentiation
within the broadly based genres utilized in this study could make a useful
contribution to understanding the class bases of musical tastes in Canada.
Even so, quantitative survey research cannot referee all rounds of the debate between the homology and omnivorism perspectives. For instance, in
research of this kind it is difficult to examine the modes by which the musical forms are consumed by survey respondents, who among them has deep
versus passing familiarity with which genres, where and how the musical
forms are consumed, where and how familiarity with them is displayed,
how tastes for them are displayed in everyday life, and how boundaries are

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157

delineated or maintained by them in social interactions. Follow-up qualitative inquiry into modes of musical appreciation and consumption and their
class underpinnings is required in order to fully understand the nature of
the stratification of musical tastes in urban English-speaking Canada.
Finally, the degree to which musical tastes in Canada are prescribed by necessity remains opaque. Tony Bennett (2011) claims that
Bourdieus account of the working-class choice of the necessary deprives
working-class culture of any possible positive content except for purely defensive practices (p. 532). It is true that, for Bourdieu, neither highbrow
nor lowbrow culture is equated with the best that has been thought and
known in the world as it was for Matthew Arnold in 1889. Highbrow culture in particular does not necessarily reside in the realms of philosophy,
literature, or the arts nor does it possess universal or timeless qualities
simply by definition. Highbrow tastes are not necessarily intrinsically sophisticated or common but rather adopt these qualities by virtue of their
locations in relationally defined social spaces of capitals within which social classes are potentially made manifest. And there is movement in and
out of the brow categories over time as well: members of the middle class
seek to adopt aspects of upper-class culture, members of the upper class
try to outflank the middle class by appropriating lowbrow culture, and
so forth. A depiction of a homology between class position and taste that
relies upon freedom from necessity to explain what constitutes highbrow
or lowbrow tastes does something of an injustice to lower class people. Future research that uncovers the joyous complexity inherent to the ways in
which country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal, and rap
music (and others) are revealed in the lives of lower class Canadians would
also be welcome.

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