Musical_preferences_and_technologies_Con.pdf (293.14 kB)
Musical preferences and technologies: Contemporary material and symbolic distinctions criticized
journal contribution
posted on 2018-02-20, 15:20 authored by Adrian LeguinaAdrian Leguina, Sara Arancibia-Carvajal, Paul WiddopMusic as a mechanism for social distinction is well established. Yet, perhaps more than any other form of cultural expression, it is music which has been systematically transformed by emerging technologies. From the gramophone, radio, cassette and CD, through to portable devices and shared through social media, music is in constant flux. To separate taste for music from its various acquisitional forms is to undermine its role in society. In this article, our aim is to integrate within taste and cultural consumption analysis a salient dimension, such as technologies to acquire music, conceptualized as modes of musical exchange and formats used to listen to music. We argue that these are components of musical consumption practices which enhance our understanding on how symbolic boundaries are shaped today. Using multiple factor analysis, this study provides a simultaneous analysis of musical tastes and technological engagement in Chile. We find that uses of technologies share a unique relationship to musical taste. Musical taste remains a relevant process of distinction, but modes of exchange prove to be an emerging property. They, however, do not create new symbolic boundaries; rather, they are important in reinforcing those that exist.
Funding
This work was supported by the Economic & Social Research Council – North West Doctoral Training Centre +3 PhD award (grant number ES/J500094/1 to Adrian Leguina).
History
Published in
Journal of Consumer CultureVolume
17Issue
2Pages
242 - 264Citation
LEGUINA, A., ARANCIBIA-CARVAJAL, A. and WIDDOP, P., 2015. Musical preferences and technologies: Contemporary material and symbolic distinctions criticized. Journal of Consumer Culture, 17 (2), pp.242-264.Publisher
SAGE Publications © The AuthorsVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2015-05-20Notes
Copyright © 2015 (The Authors). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. The definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540515586870.ISSN
1469-5405eISSN
1741-2900Publisher version
Language
- en