ARTIGOS

With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks

Com uma pequena ajuda dos meus amigos: consumo de música e redes

Avec un peu d'aide de mes amis: la consommation de musique et des réseaux

Con una pequeña ayuda de mis amigos: el consumo de música y redes

Paul Widdop², Adrian Leguina³

Leeds Beckett University University of Manchester

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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.

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RESUMO

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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RÉSUMÉ

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.

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RESUMEN

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.

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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 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; Katz- Gerro, 2011). At this stage, research critically revisited mass-to-elite theories, empirically detected patterns of cultural omnivourism around the world, proposed different 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 Katz- Gerro, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 (seeTable 1).

 

 

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).

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 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):

 

 

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 , is the weighted average of class specific probabilities . 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 is the probability of observing on the cultural indicator ^u 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).

 

 

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 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.

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 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 omnivore- univore 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.

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.

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 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 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 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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Artigo recebido a 10 de dezembro de 2014. Publicação aprovada a 31 de julho de 2015.

 

Notas

1 In this paper we refer to music participation as attending a live performance.

2 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.

3Adrian Leguina. Research Associate. Department of Sociology, The University of Manchester (Manchester, United Kingdom). E-mail: adrian.leguinaruzzi@manchester.ac.uk