The social distinction in having domestic versus foreign favorite music artists

Abstract

Music can be used as a group-specific symbol to express social position and mark group boundaries. It is unknown, however, to what extent the divide between domestic and foreign music is used as a marker of social position, despite the relevance of this dimension in the discussion on esthetic cosmopolitanism and cultural globalization. In this contribution, we examine to what extent people have domestic versus foreign music artists as their favorites and to what degree this is stratified by the educational level and social class of the father and of the respondents themselves, while accounting for different genres and the language in which artists perform. Father's education level was (negatively) related to the likelihood to have domestic favorite music artists. Nevertheless this effect was overruled by the respondent's educational level. The higher one's own educational level and social class, the less likely one is to have domestic favorite artists, even when controlling for genre and the language artists use when performing. This provides evidence for the existence of a domestic versus foreign divide in the consumption of music in addition to high-, and lowbrow culture.