Unraveling the Brow: What and How of Choice in Musical Preference

Abstract

Mapping the association between social position and cultural disposition—“patterns of cultural choice”—is a long-standing practice in sociological research. These maps, often read in terms of “brow level,” concern primarily the question of what people choose, neglecting that of how they choose. I extend the analytic focus to take into account the co-constitutive roles played by classifying operations. Using the weighted multidimensional scaling (WMDS) method, I examine the musical preference data and show that it is not only what type of music the respondents choose but also how they choose that distinguish them. I find that varying combinations of multiple evaluation-distinction criteria are appropriated by different status groups, coalescing into three distinct clusters of sensibility. The findings and the elaboration of the notion of dual basis of taste help to put some of the theoretical as well as empirical issues in the field in perspective.