Bordieu’s discussion of music is of particular interest. Bordieu breaks taste down into three different divisions: legitimate taste, middlebrow taste and popular taste. The most interesting point in Bordieu’s discussion comes when he talks about popular taste. Bordieu asserts that within popular taste the preference of the individual leans more towards “works of so-called ‘light music’ or classical music devalued by popularization” (16).
It is interesting that Bordieu would classify classical music devalued by popularization within the sphere of popular taste. In Bordieu’s hierarchy popular taste is situated as being lower than the other spheres of taste. It’s interesting that Bordieu would classify popularized classical music within this sphere. This seems to suggest that in becoming popular a work of art loses its value. There is no given change to the intrinsic worth of a given piece of art, music or literature, yet the fact alone that it is popular has led to it of being of lesser value. This line of logic seems suspect. How can the popularization of a given work lead to a reduction of its artistic value?
Bordieu goes on to assert, “nothing more clearly affirms one’s ‘class’, nothing more infallibly classifies than tastes in music. This is of course because, by virtue of the rarity of the conditions for acquiring the corresponding dispositions, there is no more “classifactory’ practice than concert going or playing a ‘noble’ instrument…” (18). This is one point in which Bordieu’s study shows its age. While the bit about playing a ‘noble’ instrument may still hold true today, the part about concert going does not. In an age where music is readily available to anyone with an internet connection, it seems that such definitions of taste based on musical preference are highly outdated. While educational capital may still play a role in such preferences, it seems that anyone could stumble upon such a cultivated piece of music as “Well Tempered Clavier” for download on the same blog as the new Lil’ Wayne album. In this regard, Bordieu’s view of the acquisition of musical taste is proven to be outdated by the dissemination of music, legitimate, middlebrow and popular, on the internet.