MED 620 – Research & Writing Hartt School of Music Hartford, Connecticut Johannes Weis
[email protected] Musicians’ musical taste 1 Development of Musical Taste of Musicians Compared to Non-Musicians Musical Taste in Sociology “There is no accounting for taste,” as the saying goes. Considering the fleeting nature of sound, this can apply particularly to music. However, sociologists have been trying to account for musical taste since the rise of the Frankfurt School of philosophers and sociologists in the 1920s. Theodor Adorno and others hypothesized, as part of a theory about the social meaning of cultural products, that the “culture industry” creates “mass culture” (Adorno & Horkheimer, as cited in Martin, 1997, pp. 91-92) and influences people’s musical taste when trying to sell it. Succeeding generations of sociologists successfully identified “elements of the structure and operation of the music industry itself” (Peterson, 1997c, p. 54) as influencing factors (Denisoff, 1975; Denisoff & Schurk, 1986; Peterson & Berger, 1971, 1975; Peterson & DiMaggio, 1975). Sociologists of the same generation criticized Adorno’s theory for being biased, subjective, and unempirical (Peterson, 1997c; Mueller, 2002). In an attempt to expand Marx’s theory of capital and class, Pierre Bourdieu (1984) developed an elaborate theoretical framework for a sociology of taste, which proved to be applicable and was substantiated by a large-scale analysis of 1970s French society. According to Bourdieu, people with high socioeconomic status actively choose members of their social networks (“social exclusion”), with taste as one criterion (Bryson, 1996, p. 885). Thus, taste functions on a level of “symbolic exclusion” (Bourdieu & Passeron, as cited in Bryson, 1996, pp. 885-886) and establishes and reinforces “symbolic boundaries between [one group of ! musical exclusiveness decreases with education. cultural products are arranged in cultural fields congruent with consumers in social fields (Bourdieu 1984. 1992. People of different social status might enjoy the same tune (social fields might overlap). more educated Americans are less likely to enjoy country music (Zill & Robinson. High educational level and occupational status (DiMaggio & Mohr. 227). Bourdieu (1984.” Other researchers observed the same and named the phenomenon highbrow omnivorousness (Peterson & Kern. 1997) are highly correlated with participating in highbrow arts. However. 2001) and affluence in family background (De Graaf & De Graaf. p. underlining the importance of an interdisciplinary ! . 884). and cultural capital is inequally distributed among social status groups. van Eijck. Drawing on Marx. Specifically. 900. Holt redeems taste as a status marker. knowledge and appreciation of highbrow culture—as a key resource for interaction between individuals of high status.Musicians’ musical taste consumers] and categories of people they dislike” (Bryson. 1996. p. but have different reasons related to their presuppositional knowledge. 1994).” In doing so. social and cultural fields appear to change shape. 1985. Motivation and presuppositional knowledge are factors strongly related to psychology. On a more abstract 2 level. 2006). financial independence. He defined cultural capital—spare time. 884) showed that “contrary to Bourdieu’s (1984) prediction. 2001) interprets Bourdieu’s theory as a calling to “study how people consume rather than what they consume. 11-96) proposed that economic. and groups with high social status are more likely to appreciate Jazz and Classical music (Savage. Contemporary sociologists confirm Bourdieu’s findings. symbolic. p. Holt (as cited in Eakin. p. 169). Peterson & Simkus. pp. 1988. p. 1996. social networks. social. Bryson (1996. van Eijck. esteeming. While models of preferential processes are as similarly complex as those for attitude.Musicians’ musical taste approach to scrutinize musical taste. cognition. or beliefs are rarely innate—people base attitudes on prior experiences. or giving advantage to one thing over another. they are indeed distinct terms. For the purpose of this study. Musical Taste in Psychology 3 Cutietta (1992. Therefore. Literature Review Sociology Schuessler (1948) analyzed a sample of 1. 154) defined preference as “an act of choosing. First—since feelings. “taste”) and “attitude” as interchangeable. interacting with [the] response modes […] affect. “attitudes cannot be directly observed” (Cutietta. in the form of verbal or behavioral statements (Price. 1992.e. preference implies a personal hierarchy of at least two items. values. 1992. This model creates difficulties for researchers. and musical training as independent variables. 296) and will not be the focus of this study. p. p. 1992). Price (1986. which are too manifold to examine. using socio-economic status. p. 1986). Rosenberg and Hovland defined attitude as a construct of “feelings.g. statements about preference will serve as representations for taste. second.077 respondents for patterns in musical taste. the actual process constituting an attitude is largely internal. age.” Thus. and beliefs. 299) pointed out that even though authors of music education literature often treat “preference” (i. 296). e. values. p. gender. He ! . and behavior” (as cited in Cutietta. preferences are easy to examine (Cutietta. Hanford. However. 333). 2006. Savage (2006) analyzed data from the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion Survey (Thomson. He confirmed Peterson and Kern’s (1996) omnivore hypothesis. while also observing “two distinctive musical taste communities. & Triplett. one linking […] rock. the study did not account for musical skill in particular as an independent variable. he did not control for socio-economic status when analyzing musical training as a dependent variable. 2004). Keegan. and are open minded towards many musical genres (hence reluctant to pick a favorite).Musicians’ musical taste found musical training and socio-economic status to be strongly correlated with musical taste. nor did he consider socio-economic status as a cause for change in musical taste. electronic. calling for an updated analysis. 159). both of them skewing musical preferences towards classical music and away from jazz or hillbilly music. they found that among 19 pre-defined occupational groups. Apart from support for their omnivore hypothesis. He conjectured that people with high socio-economic status “are more likely to receive training in music. Peterson and Simkus (1992) analyzed data from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (Robinson. and the other linking classical music and jazz” (Savage. working artists (including musicians) were very likely to appreciate classical music and least likely to pick a favorite genre. p. Based on those findings. urban. 1985). p. one might assume that people with rich artistic (and therefore partly musical) backgrounds are inclined to prefer classical music. Savage also observed higher levels of education significantly correlated to preferring ! . However. Schuessler did not 4 analyze the sample to substantiate his assumption. world and heavy metal music. 1948. Society has undergone profound changes since 1948.” and naturally assumed that “music training […] has a pronounced influence on musical taste” (Schuessler. he did not substantiate education’s causal effect on musical taste. Psychology Geiger (1950) conducted an experimental study with the audience of the Danish Broadcasting Service. p. 453). and preference using a sample of music and ! . The results supported Geiger’s hypotheses that (a) “public aversion was directed more against the term ‘classical’” than against the actual music (Geiger. nor assess 5 respondents’ key experiences coining their preferences. As elaborated before. p. assumed a correlation between prior knowledge and musical taste. pp. Duerksen (1968). too. inter alia). 454-455) and (b) “some people are frightened away by technical musical terminologies” (Geiger. the moderator announced it as “popular gramophonic music. A fixed set of classical music was played on two consecutive Saturdays. Thus.Musicians’ musical taste classical music (and jazz) and ascribed this to “classical music in the educational curriculum” (Savage. The first time.” with information about composer. high social status correlates with high levels of education (in music.” with no further information. 173). Therefore. The first airing’s audience ratings were twice as high as the second and the highest decline in ratings was observed in working class areas. he did neither account for musical training. but focused on musical skill and grade level rather than terminology. However. the second time as “classical music. 2006. 1950. people with high social status are more likely to be familiar with the terminology used in classical music and Geiger’s hypotheses might partially explain the correlation between high social status and appreciation of classical music. perception. He examined the relationship between musical experience. opus number. and key signature. 1950. 1978. 8). musical training. nor was the study longitudinal. A person with vast musical experience can likely predict the course of a piece of music. p. which raise more questions than they answer” (Duerksen. and preference for classical music were positively correlated with high recognition scores. implying that there is a point of perfect complexity for each listener (Hargreaves & North. it is rather the result of the listener’s perceptions. The sample was not random. ! . 93). 1968. However.Musicians’ musical taste non-music majors from 9th grade in high school through graduate level in college. p. whereas preferences for rock or pop music were positively correlated with low recognition scores. the study’s purpose and findings were promising. Walker (1980) developed a theory of motivation based on stimulus complexity. calling for additional research with random samples of contemporary society. The 6 researchers measured recognition of and affective response to repeated and altered themes in 14 musical samples of different styles. Additionally. listening experience. thus experiencing it as less complex than a person with no musical background (Davies. thus not insightful regarding individual processes accompanying increasing musical skill. However. Also. Findings included a slight decline in preference for rock and pop music with increasing grade level. Davies (1978) pointed out that even though complexity can be measured objectively (in bits of information per time). Coefficients for correlation between recognition scores and affective response to the samples were significant. This suggests that musical training influences musical taste by affecting perception. they gathered information about respondents’ musical experiences and preferences. “there is no way to ascertain causal relationships from these data. 1997). but of no predictive value. too simple or too complex music will result in low motivation to continue listening. rendering the study useless for broader conclusions. Applied to music. 1996. 1996). any piece teachers want to perform with students “can be the basis for learning about music. Feierabend (2006) developed a curriculum that educates children to be “tuneful. p. Duerksen’s (1968) findings of musical achievement and recognition skill related to preferences for classical music indicate that musical skill influences musical taste.” and according to Labuta (as cited in Mark. through performing with others. and artful are also better able to participate in a community” (Feierabend.” Similarly. 1996. beatful.” The terms imply musical skill as one objective in music education. The synthesis of knowledge and skill in the concept of comprehensive musicianship and Feierabend’s (2006) implementing social interaction in a curriculum’s rationale are in line with findings in both sociology and psychology. Thus. 152) and its findings were essential in coining the term “comprehensive musicianship. as the following outline shows: Geiger’s (1950) observation on mere musical terminology influencing taste calls for a curriculum in music education that includes musical lingo. and indirectly. p. 6). beatful.” According to Mark. ! . and artful. One important study substantiating this educational 7 approach was the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program (as described in Mark. 163). 2006.Musicians’ musical taste Connection to music education Contemporary researchers in music education affirm that teaching music should go beyond teaching mere musical skill. p. but he added that “adults who are tuneful. The study was designed “to develop a sequential music learning program for the primary grades through high school” (Mark. one of music education’s many purposes is to allow social interaction—directly. “musicianship […] is knowledge and skill applied to practical music making. through knowledge enabling conversation about music. and eclectic musical taste. but also learn about music history and be able to evaluate performances. curricula designed to achieve comprehensive musicianship equip students with key elements of cultural capital. musical taste has only been a marginal argument for that ongoing paradigm shift. Researchers have conducted many cross-sectional studies about musical preferences of status groups. family background. sophisticated. the researcher tried to combine findings and methods from several ! . compositions. and educational level—calls for an interdisciplinary longitudinal study. Rationale Concepts such as comprehensive musicianship or Feierabend’s educational approach implement the requirements elaborated above. while controlling for independent variables such as socioeconomic status. Holt’s (1997) redemption of Bourdieu’s concept of taste as a status marker explicitly 8 focuses on reasons for people’s preferences. But the development of musical taste as a research subject—accounting for musical skill. However. the more likely it is they have a more complex. Thus. Holt’s reading of Bourdieu requires people to base their preferences on deliberate choices and informed decisions for their preferences to be valid status markers. Thus. recordings. etc. But one might also infer a quantitative element: The more musically educated people are by the above-mentioned definitions. but also background knowledge. Those transfers imply ideal qualities of music education. musical skill. In the present study. students must not only acquire musical skills.Musicians’ musical taste Bourdieu’s (1984) definition of cultural capital includes not only preferences for highbrow culture. and musicianship in general. cultural or ethnic background. economic.Musicians’ musical taste disciplines to form a unified theory of musical taste. Moreover. Finally. play(ed) an instrument or sing/sang in ensembles. The three research problems of this study are: 1) Do musicians with varied experience (received training in playing an instrument or singing. Purpose & Problems The purpose of this study is to examine how people who play an instrument or sing develop musical taste compared to non-musicians. outcomes assess effects of current music lessons on children’s musical taste. any positive effect of musical achievement on the development of musical taste—and thus on a key resource for interaction in high social status groups—would mandate politicians to provide equal musical training to every child. Sociology as a highly observing. regardless of social. or learn(ed) to play an instrument or to sing on their own) have more diverse musical taste than nonmusicians (no musical training of any kind)? 2) Do trained musicians choose the music they listen to more consciously? 3) How does being a trained musician affect one’s attitude towards mainstream popular music? ! . 9 psychology as an observing and experimenting. and music education as a highly experimenting discipline provide different approaches to a topic that is far from being completely understood. and listeners’ preferences. In R. The Wall Street Journal . "Anything but Heavy Metal": Symbolic exclusion and musical dislikes. Distinction. Bryson.). Defines elemental terms in contemporary sociological research. 224(59). (1994). N. Revises. Cambridge. Provides definitions of “attitude” and “preference” for means of evaluation. New York: Stanford University Press. questions. A. postmaterialism and life style. ! . 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