Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
With a little help from my friends:
music consumption and networks
Paul Widdop
Leeds Beckett University
Adrian Leguina
University of Manchester
Abstract
It is widely accepted that a shift has occurred in the cultural consumption patterns of
those higher in the social strata. Where tastes were based around rules of exclusion,
they are now based on openness to a variety of cultures, both esoteric and popular.
What is less understood is how an individual’s social networks affect their cultural
tastes. Using social survey data on cultural participation, we find that musical
consumption is mediated and construed through networks, and these networks play a
much more significant role in cultural behaviour than current theoretical frameworks
suggest.
Keywords: omnivore; cultural consumption; networks.
Resumo
Com uma pequena ajuda dos meus amigos: consumo de música e redes
É amplamente reconhecida a ocorrência de uma mudança nos padrões de consumo
cultural, nos estratos sociais mais elevados. Onde os gostos e preferências eram
baseados em regras rígidas de exclusão, agora são baseados na abertura a uma
variedade de culturas, das esotéricas às populares. O que fica por explicar é o modo
como a posição dos indivíduos dentro de redes sociais, afeta os seus gostos culturais.
Através do recurso a amplos dados de pesquisa social, concluímos que o consumo
musical é mediado e interpretado através de redes sociais e que estas redes
desempenham um papel muito mais significativo no comportamento cultural do que
os quadros teóricos atuais sugerem.
Palavras-chave: omnívoro; consumo cultural; redes.
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
Résumé
Avec un peu d'aide de mes amis: la consommation de musique et des réseaux
Il est largement reconnu que la modification de la consommation culturelle a eu lieu
dans les couches sociales les plus élevés. Où goûts et préférences ont été basés autour
des règles rigides d'exclusion, ils sont maintenant basés sur l'ouverture à une variété
de cultures à travers les deux genres, ésotériques et populaires. Ce qui est moins bien
compris est de savoir comment les positions individuelles au sein des réseaux affect
leurs goûts culturels. En utilisant les données de l'enquête sociale à grande échelle,
nous constatons que la consommation musicale est médiatisée et interprété à travers
les réseaux, et ces réseaux jouent un rôle beaucoup plus important dans le
comportement culturel que les cadres théoriques actuels suggèrent.
Mots-clés: omnivore; consommation culturelle; réseaux.
Resumen
Con una pequeña ayuda de mis amigos: el consumo de música y redes
Es ampliamente reconocida la ocurrencia de un cambio en los patrones de consumo
cultural en las clases sociales más altas. Donde los gustos y preferencias eran basados
en reglas rígidas de exclusión, que se basan ahora en la apertura de una variedad de
culturas a través de ambos géneros, esotéricas y populares. Lo que es menos entendido
es cómo las posiciones individuales dentro de las redes sociales afectam sus gustos
culturales. A través del recurso de amplios datos de investigación social acerca de la
participación cultural, concluimos que el consumo musical es mediado e interpretado
a través de las redes sociales, y estas redes tienen un papel mucho más significativo en
el comportamiento cultural de lo que los marcos teóricos actuales sugieren.
Palabras clave: omnívoro; consumo culturales; redes.
Introduction
How contemporary societies are symbolically stratified by cultural consumption
continues to attract our attention. The processes and mechanisms of this apparent duality
have been theorised from several different perspectives. Veblen (1934) and Weber (1963)
were among the first social scientists who argued that cultural and leisure activities are
heterogeneously distributed among individuals. During the late twentieth century, a large
international body of research has reported results on this duality, principally inspired by
Pierre Bourdieu’s homology thesis (Bourdieu, 1984) and by Richard A. Peterson’s
cultural omnivourism (Peterson and Simkus, 1992). The literature has addressed a wide
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
plethora of cultural domains (or what Bourdieu called fields), empirically analysing data
containing various types of cultural indicators under several operationalizations and
statistical methods.
Bourdieu’s homology thesis shows how 1960s’ French social classes were
hierarchically distinguished in terms of their cultural consumption, where members of the
higher classes tended to prefer more sophisticated, ‘difficult’ cultural forms – highbrow
– and rejected popular and folk forms – lowbrow – while the middle classes aspired to
and imitated the tastes of dominant groups, while simultaneously struggling to
differentiate themselves from the dominated lower classes, which tended passively to
prefer simplistic forms (Bourdieu, 1984). Despite Bourdieu’s immense influence,
researchers have observed over time a trend in cultural engagement that differs somewhat
from previous views of culture in society (Wilensky, 1964; Peterson and DiMaggio, 1975;
Hughes and Peterson, 1983; Lamont, 1992; Erickson, 1996). In the early 1990s, the
influential work of Richard Peterson and colleagues offered evidence of an alternative
trend in which cultural engagement works as a social marker in the USA. The cultural
omnivore hypothesis can be broadly defined as the opposition between high social
position groups who engage in several highbrow and lowbrow cultural activities
(omnivores), and lower social positions who are involved in fewer, mainly lowbrow,
cultural activities (univores) (Peterson and Simkus, 1992; Peterson and Kern, 1996).
Among the conclusions, the authors acknowledge that fine arts, represented by classical
music, are still elements of social distinction; however, cultural hierarchy seems not so
clear at intermediate and lower levels. Moreover, elites include in their repertoire not only
highbrow culture, but appreciation for each cultural form available. As a result, it is
possible to observe class privileges in the double cultural access of cultural omnivores
due to “passing knowledge of a wide range of musical forms” (Peterson and Simkus,
1992: 170). After Peterson’s seminal works it is possible to detect an increased interest
in empirical research in this area of study. Not exempt from criticism, cultural
omnivourism became one of the most important contestations to Bourdieu’s homology
and found strong empirical support across the world (Peterson, 2005; Chan, 2010; KatzGerro, 2011). At this stage, research critically revisited mass-to-elite theories, empirically
detected patterns of cultural omnivourism around the world, proposed different
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
conceptualisations and operationalisations, and extended the discussion to different
cultural indicators and fields.
Before continuing developing our argument, we need to clarify our position
regarding to the conceptualization of musical omnivourism. In this article we follow the
perspective of Lizardo and Skiles (2015). This argues that empirical research which
positions homology and omnivourism as contradictory views misunderstands Bourdieu’s
conceptualisation. According to these authors, the key element of distinction is not one
of exclusive highbrow preferences but the command which individuals have over their
aesthetic disposition. That is, the ability to appreciate form in partial separation from
function/content and the capacity to constitute common objects or experiences in an
aesthetic way. Acquired through exposure to advantaged conditions in households and
formal education, these allow the aesthetic valuation of a wider variety of objects. We
therefore question if networks constitute one condition that precludes omnivourism.
Although there are striking evidence of the impact of parental transmission (Yaish
and Katz-Gerro, 2012), the relationship between consumption patterns and social
networks in the rise of Omnivorism has not been fully developed, especially in the field
of music. This is ironic given that a major weakness in Bourdieu’s concept was a study
of subjective and objective relations over actual relations (Crossley, 2011; Becker, 1982).
Scholars of the omnivore theory, which can be traced back to the sixties (Jaeger and KatzGerro, 2010), have yet to conceptualise whether the shift in behaviour of the middle
classes is a consequence of changes in their micro and macro social networks. As some
argue, networks and culture should be analysed simultaneously (Bottero and Crossley,
2011). Indeed, Crossley (2011) notes, perhaps the most appropriate analytic tool for the
scientific study of social life, which includes music, is the network of social relations and
interactions between actors, both human and corporate.
The studies that have linked actual networks to cultural consumption offer
interesting insights. Indeed, Erickson (1996) noted that the most widely useful cultural
resource is cultural variety, and social network variety is a better source of cultural variety
than social class. For Erickson, variety is the key. Knowing many kinds of people in many
social contexts improves one’s chances of getting a good job, developing a range of
cultural interests, feeling in control of one’s life and being healthy. Kane (2004) noted
that omnivorous behaviours and diverse networks may indicate an underlying desire for
cosmopolitanism. Mark (1998) examining musical consumption patterns showed that
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
preferences are transmitted through homophilous network ties; that is, similar people
interact with each other and develop similar musical tastes. Furthermore, Lizardo (2011)
showed how omnivorousness was associated with structural holes in a network where an
individual is so sited as to have access to different social worlds and generates power
through a position of brokerage.
Resources embedded within these social networks are a source of social capital,
and there is a substantial literature on the positive and negative impacts of social capital
(see Castiglione, Van Deth and Wolleb, 2008). Indeed, in all traditions of social capital
literature all main arguments agree, the fundamental concept of social capital are
resources embedded in networks. Generally, social capital has been conceptualised and
operationalised in several ways, most famously by Robert Putnam, Pierre Bourdieu and
James Coleman (Lin, 2001). In the Putnam tradition, social capital is conceptualised
through interpersonal trust, norms of reciprocity and mutual aid and social involvement
(Verhaeghe and Tampubolon, 2012). For Putnam it is these elements that foster social
cohesion and cooperation, which result in benefits to individuals and communities
through social capital. In contrast, Bourdieu’s approach to social capital was
conceptualised as the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual
or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalised
relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition (Bourdieu, in Bourdieu and
Wacquant, 1992: 119). In short, a network resources approach (Verhaeghe and
Tampubolon, 2012). That is, resources embedded in social networks are the crucial
element of social capital. Coming from a similar position to that of Bourdieu, American
scholar Nan Lin formulated a standardised measurement of social capital using a class
based position generator measure of networks. In the Nan Lin tradition emphasis is placed
on an individual’s position in the social structure, diversity and homophily of an
individual’s network and strength of ties in the said network.
Studies on the subject of music and social capital tend to operationalise this capital
in the Putnam tradition, concerned with social cohesion, civic engagement, trust, and
membership in voluntary organisations, measured against consumption patterns (Warde
and Tampubolon, 2008). In this paper we are interested in a network perspective,
following the framework proposed by Nan Lin (2001). To that end, this paper central aim
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
is to determine if social networks impact upon participation in music, and if does this
offer an explanation to understanding cultural consumption behaviour.
The position taken in this article is premised upon testing certain propositions in
relation to music participation 1 and networks. First, an exploration of theories of
consumption enables us to suggest that omnivores and univores can be found in the music
field in England. Second, we explain how networks are important in this theory of
consumption and how this allows us to explain music participation. This approach
considers a dichotomy between network structure and its diversity. Firstly, whether
networks structure impacts on music participation more generally, and secondly if these
networks are diverse in terms of social class structure are they more likely to result in
omnivorous behaviours.
1.! Cultural differentiation and musical taste
Pierre Bourdieu’s seminal work La Distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) is an ambitious
attempt to not only theoretically, but also empirically, describe how strong the association
is between culture and social stratification. Briefly it stands on two key concepts:
structural homology and habitus. Homology establishes that the relationship between
social class structure and aesthetic preferences is an isomorphism mediated by the latter
(Bourdieu, 1984). The latter, could be understood as “…both, the generative principle of
objectively classifiable judgments and the system of classification (…) of these practices.
It is in the relationship between the two capacities which define the habitus, the capacity
to produce classifiable practices and works, and the capacity to differentiate and
appreciate these practices and products (taste), that represented social world…”
(Bourdieu, 1984: 170). An important assumption derived from habitus, is the unity of
tastes which implies distinction among classes in terms of their sets of cultural activities.
This occurs within fields, where individuals are socially positioned and where struggles
– symbolic violence – take place (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). In addition to habitus,
people during their life accumulate capitals which are species of power allowing certain
profits to be obtained (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). These capitals exist in four basic
forms: economic, cultural, social and symbolic (Bourdieu, 1986). Consequently, the
1
In this paper we refer to music participation as attending a live performance.
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
homology hypothesis states a high association between social stratification axes and
lifestyles, where specifically, higher social positions tend to prefer (reject) what is
traditionally accepted as highbrow (lowbrow) music, while lower social positions prefer
(reject) lowbrow (highbrow) (Bourdieu, 1984; Tampubolon, 2008; Bennett et al., 2009;
Coulangeon and Lemel, 2010).
Despite Bourdieu’s immense influence, researchers have observed over time a
trend in cultural engagement that differs somewhat from previous views of culture in
society (Wilensky, 1964; Peterson and DiMaggio, 1975; Hughes and Peterson, 1983;
Lamont, 1992; Erickson, 1996). In particular, the influential work of Richard A. Peterson
and colleagues offered evidence of a trend in which high cultural engagement in a
plethora of activities irrespective of their perceived legitimacy, works as a status marker
in the USA. This was aptly named cultural omnivourism, which might be defined as the
opposition between individuals from higher social positions whom simultaneously
preferred several highbrow and lowbrow musical genres (omnivores), and individuals
from lower positions preferring more popularized genres (univores) (Peterson, 1992;
Peterson and Simkus, 1992). However it was not until Peterson and Kern (1996) tested
the trend of omnivourism, that the first empirical definition was constructed. They
measured the tendency to be a cultural omnivore as the amount of low- and middlebrow
musical genres that respondents consumed, dividing the sample between highbrows
(people who choose both classical music and opera and strongly like one of these) and
others (people who do not select highbrow musical genres). Bryson (1996) expands on
this by building in an exclusiveness scale, which counts the amount of genres that people
‘dislike’ and ‘dislike very much’. Bryson’s study proclaimed that cultural omnivores
preferred everything but heavy metal. This opened the door to a vast body of research
focusing on testing the positive correlation between amount of preferences and social
advantages (for instance Warde, Wright and Gayo-Cal, 2008; Warde and Gayo-Cal, 2009;
Purhonen, Gronow and Rahkonen, 2010) or the negative correlation between the amount
of dislikes and higher social advantages (Bryson, 1996).
Not exempt from criticism, cultural omnivourism became one of the most
important contestations to Bourdieu’s homology and found strong empirical support
across the world (Peterson, 2005; Chan, 2010; Katz-Gerro, 2011). Subsequently, refined
conceptualisations have been developed. Van Rees, Vermunt and Verboord (1999) and
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
van Eijck (2001) noted that the term omnivore should not only relate to the number of
cultural forms that people choose, but also the combinatorial logic of them. For instance,
Erickson (1996) and Savage and Gayo (2011) distinguish between cultural taste and
knowledge. Furthermore, some influential studies proposed that research should capture
real behaviour (van Rees, Vermunt and Verboord, 1999; Sullivan and Katz-Gerro, 2007),
and authors also proposed differentiating between the medium and the act of attending
live concert (Chan and Goldthorpe, 2007; Tampubolon, 2008; Roose and Stichele, 2010).
In an alternative setting, Bryson (1996) infers effects of sociodemographic variables on
how likely it is to dislike a collection of musical genres. A similar procedure but based
on the analysis of the liking of musical works is performed by Savage (2006).
However, authors do not conceptualise omnivores or univores in any consensual
specification. Warde, Wright and Gayo-Cal (2007) argue that cultural omnivore as an
explanation of contemporary cultural engagement is not straightforward endeavour, and
as a summary of previous insights propose to differentiate between two types of
omnivores, by volume and composition. The former may be defined as a cumulative scale
of genres that people like (Peterson and Kern, 1996; Warde, Wright and Gayo-Cal, 2008;
Warde and Gayo-Cal, 2009; Purhonen, Gronow and Rahkonen, 2010), while the latter is
a matter of crossing symbolic boundaries and may be defined as a comparison of
typologies of consumers that measure the breadth of their preferences (van Rees, Vermunt
and Verboord, 1999; Chan and Goldthorpe, 2007; Warde and Gayo-Cal, 2009; Purhonen,
Gronow and Rahkonen, 2010; Tampubolon, 2008, 2010; Widdop and Cutts, 2012).
Others classify musical indicators on a legitimacy scale based on educational levels of
individuals that select them (Warde and Gayo-Cal, 2009). Based on this assumption,
omnivourism by composition could be detected if the higher the respondents’ social
position, the more likely they are to display a taste pattern that combines musical genres
which cross low to highbrow cultural boundaries (Savage, 2006; Warde and Gayo-Cal,
2009; Purhonen, Gronow and Rahkonen, 2010).
There are empirical claims that see homology and omnivourism as mutually
exclusive (for instance Chan, 2010). However, a variety of evidence questions
omnivourism as a sole explanation of contemporary cultural engagement (Bennett et al.,
2009; Atkinson, 2011). Although its true meaning remains unclear, it is broadly accepted
that both approaches are compatible. In this regard, Lizardo and Skiles (2012) provide a
theoretical foundation from which to understand it in a Bourdieusian sense, omnivourism
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Número temático – Práticas de consumo: valores e orientações, 2015, pág. 41-66
as an aesthetic disposition. From an empirical perspective, Tampubolon (2008) refined
modelling strategy allows to detect broad cultural engagement as a special case of cultural
distinction.
2.! Cultural consumption and social relations
Debates about the growing omnivorousness nature of consumption patterns of
certain sections of society, such as those highlighted above, have tended to limit attention
of interaction and relational aspects. However, although limited, there have been studies
that have shown that omnivores benefit from a broader and more diverse social network,
where they can display knowledge gained from interaction with individuals in different
social circles and reinforces social approval within these circles (Lizardo, 2006; Kane,
2004; Warde and Tampubolon, 2008; Relish, 1997; Erickson, 1996). These studies all
observe that network structure and an individual’s position within that said structure,
impacts upon resources available to them for consumption. That is to say, a mediating
factor in their construction and socialisation of cultural preferences and consumption
patterns. If social capital is conceptualised as resources embedded in networks, how that
network is structured in terms of diversity and types of relationships will impact upon
access to this form of capital and will impact upon music consumption. This paper seeks
to place networks into the understanding of omnivorousness through examining diversity
of networks and types of interaction.
2.1.!Network Diversity
Network homophily and heterogeneity are important concepts in network
structure. Homophily works on the premise that people like people who are similar to
themselves, birds of a feather flock together (Borgatti, Everett and Johnson, 2013).
Therefore a homophilous network consists of individuals who are similar in
characteristics, such as social class, age, etc. In contrast, network heterogeneity is
indicative of a socially diverse mix of individuals in a network. Naturally these two
network concepts impact upon music consumption, but both concepts have been used to
explain behaviour. For Mark (1998), musical preferences are transmitted through
homophilous network ties, similar people interact with each other and develop similar
musical tastes. However, in Erickson’s (1996) study of cultural preferences in the
workplace, is noted that people with varied connections (heterogeneity) know more about
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
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different types of culture and develop omnivorous tastes that allow them to respond in
different social settings. For Erickson (1996) the most widely useful cultural resource was
cultural variety, an aspect closely linked to network variety. The greater the diversity of
the network, the greater the exposure is to different forms of culture, for which the
individual must respond stimulating omnivorous behaviour.
For Erickson (1996) personal networks are a major source of cultural resources,
even more powerful source than class itself. High status people will certainly have a
greater level of cultural capital, but this is not because of their class as such, but being
embedded in diverse class based networks. Furthermore, Kane (2004) notes that
omnivorous behaviours and diverse networks may indicate an underlying desire for
cosmopolitanism. This is compounded by the fact that, in all studies of this nature, high
levels of cultural consumption and diverse networks are associated with high status. To
that end, one would expect to find that analogous to omnivorous behaviour, other low
status group would be characterised with low participation rates and restricted networks.
2.2.!Types of interaction
Whilst diverse networks might be the key to unlocking the growing omnivorous
patterns found in different cultural fields across Western Europe and America, who is in
this network, might also be crucial. In this article music consumption is seen as a social
act, people may listen to music on their own but inevitably they interact, communicate
and consume physical forms of music with family, friends and acquaintances (Crossley,
McAndrew and Widdop, 2014; Bottero and Crossley, 2011). Therefore, as well as diverse
networks, who you share music with socially will be important; the types of ties in your
social networks will mediate consumption behaviours. For example, sharing time with a
diverse friendship network might be very different to having a diverse family network;
this brings to the fore arguments relating to Mark Granovetter’s strength of weak ties
theory.
In Granovetter’s (1973) seminal study in framing his strength of weak ties theory,
he noted that new information into a network was more likely to occur in more
heterogeneous networks, where weak ties are more preferable to strong binding ties.
Whist he was looking at the employment market the same rationale can be applied to
music consumption. The network structure of weak ties allows individuals to tap into a
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
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greater variety of music genres, and act as conduits for these music sources otherwise
removed from the individual (Kane, 2004; Granvoetter, 1973).
3.! Research questions
Under this framework, individuals with omnivorous behaviour are more likely to
have looser less dense networks made up of more bridging types of contacts where new
information about music is more readily available. Therefore, we would expect that
omnivorous groups would be more reliant on diverse friendship and acquaintances
networks, measured against less musically active groups who have more bonding ties
characteristic of family ties. In this regard, the research questions set in this paper are:
RQ1: Do social networks impact upon participation in music?
RQ2: Do omnivores have socially diverse networks?
4.! Methods
4.1.!Data
Our analysis of music consumption in England used data drawn from Wave 3 of
the Taking Part Survey (TPS). The TPS surveyed adults via face to face interviews, about
their participation in music and other cultural activities, between July 2007 and June 2008.
Households were drawn from the United Kingdom national postcode address file, and
interviews were conducted with a randomly selected member of each household aged 16
or over. As part of the questionnaire design, questions on social capital and participation
are only asked to a randomly taken sample of respondents. This sample consists of 12,991
respondents.
4.2.!Music consumption
To assess music consumption patterns, respondents were asked a series of
questions relating to their music activities in the last 12 months (1 = Yes, 0 = No). The
omnivore thesis rests on the assumption of consuming a variety of music that cross cuts
the perceived link of culture and social stratification. A total of nine musical genres from
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Sociologia, Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
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the data were used to represent six music consumption indicators: classical music
performance; opera performance; rock or pop concert; urban (an event that covers three
genres soul music rhythm and bass, and hip hop or rap); folk and country (music event
on folk music, and country and western); and finally Jazz performance (see Table 1).
Table 1
Participation in Music
Percent
Classical Music
7.3
Opera
3.7
Rock and Pop
17.2
Urban
4.7
Folk and Country
4.4
Jazz
4.7
4.3.!Individual characteristics
In the TPS, education is coded to the six official National Vocational
Qualifications levels (England), ranging from degree level to no qualifications. It follows
a near linear distribution so we treat it as a continuous variable. Following the National
Statistics Socio-economic Classification, we distinguished between the salariat class
(managerial and professional occupations), intermediate class (intermediate, lower
supervisory and technical occupations, and small employers and own account workers),
and working class ((semi-)routine occupations, long-term unemployed, and people who
have never worked). Along with social class and educational attainment, other variables
include gender (female dummy variable), age (continuous) and age squared to mediate
the curved relationship (of age).
4.4.!Social Capital/Networks
Social participation was measured by asking how often respondents meet up with
friends (1), and with relatives outside the household (2). Response categories were
‘never’, ‘less often than once a month’, ‘once or twice a month’, ‘once or twice a week’,
and ‘most days’. These two variables were dichotomized into low participation (Never or
less often than once a month) and high participation (once or twice a month or more).
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Social network resources were measured using the position generator (Lin, 2001;
Van der Gaag, 2005; Verhaeghe and Tampubolon, 2012). This instrument asks people
about their network members’ occupational positions and considers these positions as
good indicators of the network resources (Verhaeghe and Tampubolon, 2012). In this
study, respondents were asked whether they know friends, relatives or acquaintances who
have any of the jobs from a list of 11 occupations. All 11 occupations are salient in British
society and range from factory worker to university/college lecturer (Verhaeghe and
Tampubolon, 2012). In this paper our approach to the position generator is to calculate
the volume of network resources by counting the number of different occupations
accessed by respondents. This measure is related to the network size (Van der Gaag, 2005;
Verhaeghe and Tampubolon, 2012). Furthermore, this is split into three variables: volume
of network resources that are friends; volume of network resources that are family;
volume of network resources that are acquaintances. We split this variable into three as
there may be different processes happening where by individuals invest in different types
of network ties.
4.5.!Analytic strategy
Consumption of one particular type of music genre does not happen in a social
vacuum, it is part of the wider cultural makeup of an individual. Rather than examine
musical items as discrete components, individuals should be grouped on observed
patterns of consumption (Peterson and Kern, 1996; Chan and Goldthorpe, 2005; Sintas
and Alvárez, 2004; Van Eijck, 1999). Here we assume that there are relatively well
defined types of music consumers who can be placed into lifestyle typologies based on
their engagement in different music genres. We model this through a Multiple Indicator
Multiple Cause (MIMIC) method.
A MIMIC model allows investigation into the relationship between latent class
groups and a set of explanatory variables. In its simplest form, a MIMIC model is a
simultaneous method of latent class analysis and multinomial logistic regression. This
model has been known and applied in cultural consumption modelling for many years
(Sobel, 1983), but has only been recently revived by other scholars (Sintas and Alvárez,
2002; Tampubolon, 2008; Widdop and Cutts, 2013; Widdop, Cutts and Jarvie; 2014). A
MIMIC model has two parts. The right-hand side of model can be seen as the
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measurement part of the MIMIC model, and the extended part of the model can be thought
of as the structural section of the model. Therefore, within a MIMIC model, both run
simultaneously. The measurement model in algebraic form is illustrated in Equation 1(a):
1(a)
The term
identifies the response of individual i on cultural indicator u, and the
total number of indicators is defined as U. As the indicators are binary (1 = Yes, 0 = No),
a level of the cultural indicator u is identified by
and its number of categories by
The variable of interest, the latent class variable is identified by
.
. As the latent class
variable can consist of several levels (different typologies, i.e. omnivore, univore, snob,
etc.), the latent class level is represented by t, and the number of latent classes by T.
Notation Yi is used to refer to the full vector of responses of case i, and s to refer to a
possible answer pattern (Vermunt, 2003).
The probability of observing a particular response pattern
weighted average of class specific probabilities
, is the
. The weight
is the probability that individual i belong to latent class t. Local independence between
cultural indicators given membership of a latent class
is identified on the second line.
Put simply, this means that if judgment of musical genres is related among them, these
associations have to be fully explained for the latent classes (Skrondal and Rabe-Hesketh,
2004). The term
indicator
is the probability of observing
on the cultural
given that the person concerned belongs to latent class t (Vermunt, 2003).
The second part of the model (structural) extends to include covariates, say
occupational class (X1) and educational attainment (X2). In a MIMIC model, this takes
the form of a multinomial logistic regression of latent classes on covariates. Equations
2(a) and 3(a) illustrate this MIMIC model with added covariates (X1 and X2).
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2(a)
3(b)
Here the individual level covariates (i.e. education, social class) are added to the
LC model; in essence this model is now a multinomial logistic regression with the added
nuance of an unobserved latent variable (C) with T classes.
To evaluate goodness of fit in a MIMIC latent class model, the standard chi
squared measurement (L2) can be unreliable because of the number of sparse cells in the
model. We therefore use an alternative measure to determine the goodness of fit, the most
widely used and statistically robust is the Bayes Information Criterion (BIC), where a
model with a lower BIC value is preferred over a model with a higher BIC value
(Asparouhov and Muthen, 2006; Widdop and Cutts, 2013).
5.! Results
5.1.!Profile of Music Clusters
In this study a three class solution returned the lowest BIC (results available on
request) and was therefore deemed the best model to use. That is, three cultural
consumption groups were identified with each having different types of participation
behaviours. In Table 2 the three latent class clusters are presented, along with their
estimated size and the estimated conditional probability of consuming each of the six
music forms, given membership in a latent lifestyle cluster.
Cluster 1 was populated by 11% of respondents and was distinguishable from its
counterparts through their consumption of a wide range of musical forms, but extensively
consumption of high art forms. Derived from the conditional probabilities, this group
participated in Classical music, Opera, and Jazz, the typically perceived high art forms
(Savage, 2006), at a greater volume and range than any other latent class group. This
cluster also had preferences that cross-cut the perceived hierarchy between more
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exclusive (“highbrow”) and popular music, as they have a high probability of consuming
Rock and pop and Folk and Country and Western Music (when measured against averages
in Table 1). We have labelled this group “omnivores” because individual members had a
breadth of music consumption, which closely matches that identified in other scholarly
work (Van Eijck and Lievens, 2008; Peterson, 2005; Peterson and Kern, 1996). However,
they are somewhat highbrow omnivores as they do distance themselves from Urban
music, and much more likely to be high consumers of high class musical forms than the
more popularised forms.
Table 2
Latent Class Probabilities
Latent Class 1
Latent Class 2
Latent Class 3
11%
19%
70%
Omnivores
Univores
Inactives
Classical Music
0.52
0.04
0.01
Opera
0.28
0.02
0.00
Rock and Pop
0.32
0.74
0.00
Urban
0.03
0.20
0.00
Folk and Country
0.11
0.13
0.00
Jazz
0.22
0.06
0.01
Relative Size
Cluster 2, to which 19% of the population were classified, are consumers of
popular forms of music. They are the group most likely to be engaged in: Rock and Pop;
Urban; and Folk and Country and Western music. We labelled this group ‘univores’ as
popular forms of music is a key classifier of this group. They match Peterson and Kern
(1996) definition of a univore, when measured against a high consumer group. Members
of this cluster did not readily consume exclusive musical forms that are perhaps indicators
of privileged lifestyles.
It is evident that there is tension between omnivores and univores in relation to
highbrow musical forms. There is a suggestion here that omnivores, whilst embracing
popular forms of music associated with the working classes, don’t consume everything
indiscriminately; there is still apparent symbolic boundaries drawn. This posits the
question as to whether omnivores, as measured here, use distinction through music to
mark themselves from different social class groups. The evidence shows appear to
confirm that omnivores try to differentiate themselves from other groups by displaying
broader engagement using similar mechanisms as highbrow groups, reinforcing social
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and economic boundaries through rejection of various cultural items, a stance which
concurs with Bourdieu (1984).
Whilst Cluster 1 and 2 show, the classic framework of Peterson’s omnivoreunivore framework they only account for 30% of the population. Cluster 3 consumers are
our exemplars of a non-active group, who consume very little in the music field. They
account for 70% of the population and we label this group the ‘inactives’. The size of this
group and the fact they are non-consumers indicates that, in reality, the music field in
terms of consumption outside of the home is relatively small.
5.2.! Characteristics of Clusters
To determine the constitution of the groups the different clusters were
simultaneously regressed against each other and the key findings are reported in Table 3.
The findings provide an initial insight into the socio-economic make-up of each music
cluster, showing that a variety of stratification variables play a significant role in
determining the latent clusters beyond just class and education.
5.2.1.! Socio-demographic characteristics
The next step is to determine who constitutes membership of the Latent Classes.
Table 3 presents the regression coefficients of membership for each music cluster by
education, class, age, gender, size of networks, and social participation. The findings
provide an insight into the socio-economic make-up of each music cluster, and also
illustrate that networks play a significant role in determining the latent class membership
beyond just class and education. We start by looking at the socio-demographics.
When measured against the ‘univores’ and ‘inactives’, the ‘omnivores’ have a
greater likelihood of being from the highly educated section of society, and with a greater
propensity to be from the salariat classes. Clearly education and class play a significant
role in differentiating these music classes. However, it is evident that gender and age are
also salient measures, with females much more prevalent in the ‘omnivores’, as are
younger age cohorts.
Class and education are significant between ’univores’ and the ‘inactives’, with
the former having a greater propensity to be well educated and from higher social classes.
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Age and gender are both drivers between these two groups, with ‘univores’ being most
associated with young age cohorts and males.
5.2.2.! The role of networks
Table 3 shows that personal networks matter for individual’s consumption
patterns, after controlling for socio-economic factors. People who socialise with friends
or relatives are more likely to consume music. The findings with respect to the network
resources show that having a diverse network is associated with being active in the music
field. Being active in music is much more complex than simply basing theoretical
assumptions on class and education; it is fundamentally a social act, to what level you
engage in music and to what genres you attach too, is somewhat dependent upon the
networks you are embedded in and your position in the social structure.
When compared against the ‘inactives’, both ‘omnivores’ and ‘univores’ were
significantly more likely to socialise with friends. Furthermore, omnivores and univores
were both twice as likely to report socialising with friends than ‘inactives’. However,
there are some interesting subplots in the results that indicate that specific types of
networks, and how people socialise, impacts upon membership of latent classes. Those
who are classified ‘inactive’ are more likely to meet up and socialise with family to a far
greater extent than ‘omnivores’, so too are ‘univores’. Whilst we can’t test the theory
here, this is suggestive of bonding social capital, with family networks clearly important
for the two less active groups.
Table 3
Results of latent class multinomial regression (Ref category in brackets)
Uni vs. (Omni)
Ina vs. (Omni)
Ina vs. (Uni)
b
Odds
B
odds
b
odds
Education
-0.686
0.50
-1.051
0.35
-0.340
0.71
lower middle
-0.373
0.69
-0.532
0.59
-0.144
0.87
Salariat Class
-0.710
0.49
-1.000
0.37
-0.311
0.73
Age
-0.166
0.85
-0.221
0.80
-0.059
0.94
Age Sq.
0.000
1.00
0.001
1.00
0.001
1.00
Female
-0.871
0.42
-0.670
0.51
0.189
1.20
Volume of family networks
0.120
1.13
-0.003
0.99
-0.101
0.90
Volume of friends network
-0.100
0.90
-0.176
0.84
-0.175
0.84
Volume of Acquaintances
0.020
1.02
-0.091
0.91
-0.111
0.90
Socialise with Relatives
0.456
1.58
0.382
1.47
-0.091
0.91
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Socialise with Friends
-0.241
0.78
-0.923
0.40
-0.709
0.49
Bold is significant to 95%
This leads us on to exploring network resources amongst the three groups.
Network diversity clearly shares an association with membership of latent groups and
their musical patterns. Diverse friendship networks is significant for ‘omnivores’, they
are much more likely to have a larger diverse group of friends than ‘univores’ and
‘inactives’. Whereas it is a diverse family network that is characteristic of ‘univores’. This
is an important distinction, the type of networks individuals are embedded in impacts
upon their leisure and cultural habits. A strong family network indicates ties that bind, in
other words strong bonding capital; it is this type of capital that might constrain cultural
lifestyles. Alternatively, a large diverse friendship network actually mediates omnivorous
behaviours.
Discussion and Conclusion
In this article we explored the relationship between musical participation and
social networks in the English musical domain. Understanding that cultural omnivorism
is a contemporary form of social distinction (Tampubolon, 2008; Lizardo and Skiles,
2012, 2015), we have analysed data that allow us to quantify diversity in the network and
types of ties, characterised musical engagement through live attendance as a social
experience (Becker, 1982; Crossley, 2011). The analytical strategy implemented
combines elements (measurement and structure of methods) from previous research (see
Chan and Goldthrope, 2005; Erickson, 1996; Crossley, McAndrew and Widdop, 2014;
Widdop and Cutts, 2013), and consisted of detecting patterns of engagement, quantifying
the impact of sociodemographic and social capital variables on the construction of these
groups (MIMIC model) (Tampubolon, 2008; Widdop, Cutts and Jarvie, 2014).
We identify two sets of lifestyle groups comparable to that of the omnivore and
univores. The omnivore group participate in a range of types of music, but are much more
marked with participating in highbrow musical forms. In contrast, the univore group
consume the genres most associated with the popularised forms; they are quite consistent
with the theoretical framework. There is clearly tension between these two groups in
terms of highbrow musical forms. Several authors recognise that omnivourism is a
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reflection of openness to various forms of cultural expression, and that this coincides with
calls to be adaptable and tolerant, values accepted by some as socially desirable (Ollivier,
2008). However, cultural omnivourism as commonly defined by Peterson, and research
directly influenced by his oeuvre, feature individuals from higher social positions; this
implies highbrow taste and also assumes that lower classes are passive to culture
(Peterson, 2005; Lahire, 2008). In this regard, Lahire’s (2008) cultural dissonance
provides an interesting turn in the way individual cultural engagement is conceptualized.
The author argues that individual preferences and cultural practices may be consonant
(consistent with a reference social group) or dissonant (atypical compared to the reference
group). This approach, focused on intra-individual cultural engagement, is a relevant
dimension of engagement to be considered for further research.
As found in other studies (Widdop and Cutts, 2013; Alderson, Junisbai and
Heacock, 2007; Torche, 2007; Tampubolon, 2008; Stichele and Laermans, 2006), we
show evidence of a large proportion of the population who abstain from music
participation. The defining feature of this group is not primarily strong preference for a
limited number of items, but rather, strong disengagement of physical forms of music
(Tampubolon, 2008). The dichotomy between omnivore and univore might now need to
be addressed to encompass this phenomenon found here and elsewhere across different
fields. However, we must treat this finding with caution, here we are only examining
participation at locations outside of the home, this may not be true in relation to taste or
knowledge of music, or consumption in the home. Furthermore, our findings suggest that
the socio-economic make-up of the music clusters were largely analogous to those found
in other cultural fields. The omnivore group was small in size and dominated by those
from the higher social strata. It also included many individuals that were highly educated,
from a younger age cohort, and female. The univores contained respondents who were
male, mainly from the middle to lower social strata, and tended to have average levels of
education. Finally, the inactives were characterised by low educational levels and more
likely to drawn from the working classes.
Having established an omnivorous consumption pattern in the live music field, we
now turn to the central research questions of the paper. Firstly, we were concerned with
how social networks impacted upon participation in music? (RQ1). We sought to do this
by examining the extent to which consumption of music is mediated and constrained
through networks. Our evidence suggests that consuming physical forms of music are
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very much a social act; those who are embedded in diverse heterogeneous networks
consume music to a much greater degree than those who are not. The more people you
know in different locations of a network the more you consume, if people’s attitudes,
beliefs and expectations are socially constructed they will inevitably be tied up with others
who occupy the same social world (Galster, 2001), music is socially learned and
stimulated.
Secondly, to measure class diversity in networks, identifying if omnivores have
more diversity in their network structure (RQ2); this study examined the structure of these
ties and there influence on consumption. Our evidence supports results found by Erickson
(1996), that network variety is related to cultural variety. We hypothesised that omnivores
being the most active group would have a larger diverse friendship network than other
groups, irrespective of class and education. The results supported this hypothesis;
individuals with omnivorous behaviour were more likely to have diverse friendship
networks. Conversely the univores were more reliant on family networks as opposed to
friendship networks. This finding suggests that both are reliant on networks but
alternative mechanisms of social capital are in place. The univores are reliant on their
social network of their family and socialising with them. The omnivores portray a socially
mobile group with reliance on less dense and looser networks (less socialising with
family), made up of friends in different locations of the social structure. The inactives
have a much more restricted network, which reflects their latent music consumption.
Whilst education and class remain important aspects of the omnivore-univore
thesis, clearly consumption is mediated and constrained thorough networks. This
evidence, along with that found by Erickson (1996), Kane (2004) and Lizardo (2006),
show that social networks play a much more significant role in cultural behaviour than
the theoretical frameworks suggest. Future research should seek to determine if types of
ties in a network are more powerful explanations for the omnivore-univore hypothesis
than other sociodemographics (such as class, gender, education). Although is
questionable if omnivourism involves a new cultural aesthetic (Lahire, 2008; Lizardo and
Skilles, 2015), our results showed that it reflects the increased availability of and access
to different cultural forms provided by networks and social capital. Consumption
practices are complex processes which cannot be explained by a single resource or theory.
Not only does possession of the right cultural resources facilitate access to certain genres
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and works, but aspects such as disposable time, money and place of residence can also
restrict or encourage individual decisions to engage in cultural activities. Furthermore, a
logical next step is to assess to what degree networks and social capital influence cultural
consumption in other cultural domains, such as the arts, literature and sport, and assess
differences across national social structures.
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Widdop, Paul; Leguina, Adrian – With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks
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Paul Widdop (corresponding author). Research Fellow. Carnegie Department, Leeds Beckett
University (Leeds, United Kingdom). Corresponding address: Leeds Beckett University City
Campus Leeds, United Kingdom LS1 3HE. E-mail: p.widdop@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.
Adrian Leguina. Research Associate. Department of Sociology, The University of Manchester
(Manchester, United Kingdom). E-mail: adrian.leguinaruzzi@manchester.ac.uk.
Artigo recebido a 10 de dezembro de 2014. Publicação aprovada a 31 de julho de 2015.
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