Page 103 - Cultural Change and Ordinary Life

94 Cultural change and ordinary life

liked country and western music, which in Peterson’s view is ‘the music with
the lowest prestige of all’ (1992: 248).
Moreover, the consideration of the occupational groups showed signifi-
cant variation from what might have been expected, as some of the musical
forms that should have been most popular with the lower groups turned out to
be most liked by the higher groups:
Indeed, the occupational groups at the top are much more likely to be
high on liking these non-elite forms while the occupational groups at
the bottom are likely to be low on the rate of liking them. Only one
category of music, country and western, fits the predicted patterns, while
three groups, mood music, big band and barber shop music, show just
the opposite of the predicted ranking, and the other types of music show
patterns that are quite mixed.
(Peterson 1992: 249)
Peterson and Simkus were surprised at these results. They investigated
further by exploring other ‘non-elite leisure activities of the occupational
groups’ (Peterson 1992: 249). Again they found that the higher status groups
had high levels of participation in what were defined as non-elite forms of
activity. Thus, in their view the received elite-to-mass view did not capture the
complexities of the situation that they were finding. They thought that the
patterns of greater higher class participation in many of the activities con-
sidered could not be explained either by the fact that those at the top had more
time (they did not as they worked longer hours) or by the fact that they were
better off (as many of the activities were not dependent on significant invest-
ments of money). They do recognize that the data that they used for the study
might not have captured some the cultural activities of the lower status groups
– such as ‘professional wrestling or betting on the numbers’ (p. 252).
Peterson argues that these data provide evidence for two significant
shifts that are occurring in cultural taste as related to occupational status
groups. First, at the top, there is the move from the snob (the exclusive elitist)
to the omnivore. Groups at the top liked what were considered to be ‘low’
forms of culture as well as the more elite forms. Further, and as will be seen
later, this is an important point, ‘status is gained by knowing about, and
participating in (that is to say consuming) many if not all forms’ (p. 252). Thus,
knowing about a wide range of cultural forms actually is argued to enhance the
position of the groups at the top end of the status hierarchy. In addition,
groups at the top had sometimes communicated that they had found it dif-
ficult to choose one type of music that they liked best as they liked a range of
music. Those at the top are moving from being elitist to be omnivores.
The second process concerns those at the lower end of the occupational
spectrum. Peterson suggests that these groups cannot be seen as expressing a
form of mass taste, as for example they do not spend more time watching
television – the quintessential form of mass culture/taste. Indeed, Peterson,
like other theorists before him, sees the term mass as a form of prejudice rather
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than an accurate description. While the survey that they used could be used
to characterize those at the lower end of the scale as culturally inactive, Peterson
argues that the survey rather ‘asked few questions about traditional working