What your music taste reveals about your social status
06.06.2015 14:14
With its roots in the impoverished streets of Jamaica, it might not seem like the music of choice for the upper classes, but research has found enjoying reggae is a sign you're in the social elite.
Researchers have discovered our position on the social pecking order can be betrayed by the music we listen to, as well as the music we hate.
While they found some genres like opera and classical music - which have long been the preserve of the elite - were most enjoyed by the upper classes, they also found rock, reggae and pop were also more their taste.
By comparison, those in the lower classes seem to actively dislike most of these 'highbrow' forms of entertainment, preferring country, disco, rap, heavy metal, easy listening and golden oldies.
Professor Gerry Veenstra, a sociologist who studies class divides at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, said there were clearly exceptions, but in general music could be divided by social class.
He said: 'Breadth of taste is not linked to class, but class filters into specific likes and dislikes.
'What upper class people like is disliked by the lower class, and vice versa.
'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.'
Professor Veenstra conducted 1,595 telephone interviews with people from a range of backgrounds living in Toronto and Vancouver for the study, which is published in the journal Canadian Review of Sociology.
He asked those taking part about their likes and dislikes of 21 musical genres.
The study found that less-educated people from lowest classes tended to prefer rap, hip hop, disco, country music, gospel and heavy metal.
Golden oldies and easy listening were also preferred by the lower classes but also found fans with some of the middle classes.
Professor Veenstra said the upper classes preferred highbrow genres like the fine art of classical music and opera, but pop, folk, reggae and rock seem to have been elevated into highbrow entertainment in recent years.
Indeed, in some areas like California, for example, reggae has taken on a yuppie-like status among the white middle class and upper classes.
Similar trends can be seen occurring in other places such as London.
Britain's social elite are also known to enjoy reggae, with the like of Lady Gabriella Windsor, the sister of Lord Freddy Windsor, even performing reggae numbers at charity events.
The hipster movement has also seen folk music and rock move into a more elite sphere.
However, Professor Veenstra said that the music disliked by people could also reveal much about the class they were in.
Those in the higher classes tended to have a dislike of country, easy listening, and golden oldies concurrently.
Rap music tended to be disliked by older members of the middle classes while some of the poorest claimed to dislike pop music.
Those with the least education were eight times more likely to dislike classical music than the more educated ones. Indeed those with university degrees were most likely to say they liked classical music and opera.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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