Listening to Music differs between Rich and Poor: Research

Poorer, less-educated people like musical genres such as disco, golden oldies, heavy metal and rap while their wealthier and better-educated peers prefer classical, jazz, opera, pop and rock, scientists have found.

Social class continues to inform our cultural attitudes and the way we listen to music, researchers said.
"Breadth of taste is not linked to class. But class filters into specific likes and dislikes," said Gerry Veenstra, study author and professor at University of British Columbia (UBC)'s Department of Sociology.

The study involved nearly 1,600 telephone interviews with adults in Vancouver and Toronto, who were asked about their likes and dislikes of 21 musical genres.

Poorer, less-educated people tended to like country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal and rap.

Their wealthier and better-educated counterparts preferred genres such as classical, blues, jazz, opera, choral, pop, reggae, rock, world and musical theatre, researchers found.

The research touches on a hotly debated topic in cultural sociology: whether one's class is accompanied by specific cultural tastes, or whether "elites" are defined by a broad palette of preferences that sets them apart.

What people do not want to listen to also plays a key role in creating class boundaries, researchers said.

"What upper class people like is disliked by the lower class, and vice versa," said Veenstra.

For example, the least-educated people in the study were over eight times more likely to dislike classical music compared to the best-educated respondents.

Meanwhile, lowbrow genres such as country, easy listening and golden oldies were disliked by higher-class listeners.

The study was published in the journal Canadian Review of Sociology.