Cultural logics and modes of consumption: Unraveling the multiplicity of symbolic distinctions among concert audiences

Abstract

In this study, we examined how audiences for different types of concerts structure their musical preferences according to specific cultural logics and how this relates to the motives for going to the concert. We used large-scale audience data collected at 73 concerts in Belgium ( n = 1594). Using Correlational Class Analysis, we inductively uncovered four different cultural logics: omnivore vs. disinterested; highbrow vs. lowbrow; acoustic vs. electric; and anything but/with distortion. Accordingly, besides the well-documented oppositions between highbrow and lowbrow, and between omnivorousness and univorousness, we found two other cultural logics among concert audiences. In subsequent analyses, we related these cultural logics to concert genre (e.g., classical and electronic) and mode of consuming concerts (e.g., music-centered and entertainment-centered). We demonstrate that mode of consumption is associated with both concert genre and the cultural logic to which one adheres.