Scale and Periodicities of Recorded Music Consumption: Reconciling Bourdieu's Theory of Taste with Facts

Abstract

Recent data show that middle class consumers have an omnivorous pattern of consumption or tastes, contrary to Bourdieu's predictions of a snob pattern of consumption. To explore the implications of Bourdieu's framework for omnivorousness further, we make use of the anthropological view of consumption to analyse Spaniards’ musical tastes and consumption. Results showed a variety of omnivorous patterns of musical consumption associated with upscale consumers: a higher position on the social ladder was linked to more omnivorous tastes and greater use of technologies that free the consumer from fixed periodicities in music consumption. We found that different types (economic, social and cultural) and levels of capital do configure subjects’ structural constraints and hence, their tastes in musical genres and the technological media used to consume them. Consequently, the combination of all three types of capital helps to explain the omnivorous consumption (elitist but inclusive as well) of upscale consumers.