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SOCIOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
DOI: 10.14515/monitoring.2021.2.1689
I. O. Papushina TESTING THE OMNIVORE HYPOTHESIS IN RUSSIA
For citation:
Papushina I. O. (2021) Testing the Omnivore Hypothesis in Russia. Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes. No. 2. P. 362-382. https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring. 2021.2.1689.
Правильная ссылка на статью:
Папушина Ю. О. Проверка гипотезы о музыкальной «всеядности» в России // Мониторинг общественного мнения: экономические и социальные перемены. 2021. № 2. С. 362—382. https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2021.2.1689. (In Eng.)
TESTING THE OMNIVORE HYPOTHESIS IN RUSSIA
Iuliia O. PAPUSHINA1 — Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Associate Professor, School of Management
E-MAIL: yupapushina@hse.ru https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8979-8965
1 HSE UNiversity, Perm, Russia
Abstract. In the last thirty years, a significant shift from the homology to omnivore argument has occurred in musical preference studies. Studies on the omnivore argument mainly come from North and South America, Western and sometimes Eastern Europe. To the best of our knowledge, there are no empirical tests of musical omnivorousness in Russia. The aim of this paper is to reveal omnivore musical preferences in Russia, and analyzes the links between musical preferences, social-demographic profiles, and tolerance. Our research also emphasizes the territory dimension.
The research setting is the Perm Region. A survey of 2,400 Perm Region citizens is analyzed using principal component analysis and linear regression provides evidence for the research. Our findings do not indicate omnivore musical tastes in Russia that contradicts the conclusions of the research in other cultures. Instead of finding the omnivore pattern, we found Bourdieu-like patterns of classical versus pop music taste and nostalgic taste versus contemporary taste. Representatives of each taste pattern have a specific social-demographic profile. The urbanization factor influences musical preferences as well. The paper discusses the limitations of the research and directions for further work.
ПРОВЕРКА ГИПОТЕЗЫ О МУЗЫКАЛЬНОЙ «ВСЕЯДНОСТИ» В РОССИИ
ПАПУШИНА. Юлия Олеговна—кандидат социологических наук, доцент, департамент менеджмента, Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики», Пермь, Россия E-MAIL: yupapushina@hse.ru https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8979-8965
Аннотация. В последние тридцать лет в исследованиях музыкальных предпочтений произошел заметный сдвиг от концепта гомологии к концепту «всеядности». Последний активно изучается в Северной и Южной Америке, Западной и иногда Восточной Европе. В России до сих пор эмпирических исследований музыкальной «всеядности» не проводилось. Данная статья преследует цель выявить музыкальные предпочтения россиян в контексте концепта «всеядности», а также проанализировать связи между музыкальными предпочтениями, социально-демографическими характеристиками и толерантностью.
Статья основана на данных регионального уровня: исследование проводилось в Пермском крае, в нем приняли участие 2 400 человек. Для анализа данных использовались методы главных компонент и линейная регрессия. Полученные результаты свидетельствуют об отсутствии «всеядности» в музыкальных вкусах россиян, что противоречит выводам исследований, проведенных по аналогичной тематике в других культурных контекстах. Вместо паттерна «всеядности» мы обнаружили выделенные П. Бурдье дихотомии предпочтений:«классическая vs поп-музыка» и «ностальгический vs современный вкус». Каждый из выделенных
Keywords: music preferences in Russia, omnivore, cultural consumption, urbanization, tolerance
Acknowledgments. The publication was prepared within the framework of the project "Intergenerational cultural dynamics" No. 18-011-00548A supported by Russian Fundamental Research Fund.
паттернов обладает специфическими социально-демографическими характеристиками. В качестве значимого фактора влияния на формирование музыкального вкуса выделяется также процесс урбанизации. В заключение статьи рассматриваются ограничения проведенного исследования и определяются перспективные направления дальнейшей работы.
Ключевые слова: музыкальные предпочтения в России, «всеядность», культурное потребление, урбанизация, толерантность
Благодарность. Статья подготовлена в рамках проекта «Межпоколенче-ская культурная динамика» № 18-011-00548А, поддержанного Российским фондом фундаментальных исследований (РФФИ).
Introduction
Musical taste studies have a long and rich record in sociology. In the last thirty years, a significant shift from the homology to omnivore argument has occurred. It started with the introduction of the omnivore argument in 1992 [Peterson, 1992]. The interaction of omnivore taste with social status [Chan, Goldthrope, 2005; Warde, Gayo-Gal, 2009; Van Eijck, 2001, 2011], values [Bryson, 1996; Atkinson, 2011; Coulangeon, Lemel, 2007; Cancellieri, Turrini, 2018], and place of residence [Cutts, Widdop, 2017; Leguina, Miles, 2017] has been extensively studied in recent decades. These studies contribute significantly to the understanding of the development of social group boundaries and the expression of inequality in modern societies.
Current studies on the omnivore argument mainly come from North and South America, Western and sometimes Eastern Europe. They conclude that modifications of omnivores in different societies have a lot in common, but there are also specific culturally determined features [Coulangeon, 2005; Warde, Gayo-Gal, 2009; Vanzella-Yang, 2018; Rankin, Ergin, 2017]. That is why the application to Russia of the results obtained in other cultures may be misleading. Russian research in the participation in arts does not involve music (for instance, in literature tastes or participation in arts [Sokolov, Sokolova, 2019; Sokolov, 2019; Zavisca, 2005]). To the best of our knowledge, there are no empirical tests of musical omnivorousness in Russia, which limits our understanding of social hierarchy and its representation. Studies in social stratification ignore this issue with rare exceptions [for example, see, Tikhonova, 2007;
Korotaev, Shkaratan, Gasiukova, 2016]. Papers studying cultural consumption in Russia focus on social demographic profile and generational dynamics disregarding other characteristics of consumers, such as values. This research is designed to fill this gap testing the role of tolerance in musical tastes. Research has not shown a radical transformation in the cultural consumption hierarchy in Russian society [Sokolov, 2019]. However, this conclusion comes from an analysis of leisure activity, not musical tastes, and was conducted in a capital city, not in a region. Music preferences are a fluid phenomenon which reflect and detect transformations in the hierarchy of tastes extremely well [Rossman, Peterson, 2015].
Therefore, the aim of this paper is to reveal omnivore musical preferences in Russia. Specifically, this research asks, "Do omnivores exist in Russia? If yes, what types of omnivores exist?", and it analyzes the links between musical preferences, social-demographic profile and tolerance. Besides, our research emphasizes the territory dimension. The research setting is Perm Region, a spacious industrial district located in the east of the European part of Russia. The region's municipal units vary significantly in terms of living standards and urbanization that allows testing the influence of the place of residence on musical preferences. Our data come from a survey of 2,400 Perm region citizens conducted from September 2019 to February 2020. Principle component analysis was used to extract latent structures of musical preferences and to reveal patterns of musical tastes. A multifactor linear regression was counted to test the significance of the variable for the configuration of musical tastes.
The main finding does not show the existence of the omnivore taste in the sample. We find four distinct patterns of musical preferences. These patterns witness the sustainability of highbrow versus popular music dichotomy in the respondents' tastes. The new patterns emerge around mainstream music styles versus those reflecting society's past.
The paper consists of seven parts. The Theoretical background shows the main evaluations in the sociological explanation of musical tastes. The Research Setting and Sample follows. It introduces the Perm Region, using selected social statistics, explains the way of the sample construction, and shows the demographic and social profiles of the sample. The third part is the Measurement and Data Analysis. This part represents how musical preferences and tolerance were measured. We also explain the urbanization variable. The Descriptive Analysis Results section delivers the first part of the research results. The Result of Principal Component Analysis part follows and shows how we identified four musical taste patterns. The sixth part is the Regression Analysis Results. It covers the results of the test of the hypothesis about the impact of gender, education, age, tolerance, urbanization, and living standards on belonging to each of the identified patterns. The Conclusion interprets the results in the context of the previous studies and draws further research directions.
Theoretical background
Musical preference studies is a well-established area of sociological research. Pierre Bourdieu [1984] introduced the most well-known approach to the analysis of participation in the arts. He launched the homology argument. Bourdieu claims that there is a homology between the space of social stratification and tastes in arts. Consequently,
one can assign each social stratum to a set of musical preferences according to the results of sociological surveys. The higher social stratum prefers musical genres prescribed to higher culture whereas the lower social stratum prefers popular music. The key variable associated with participation in high/popular music is education and early socialization both closely linked with parental family status [Bourdieu, 1984; Lizardo, Skiles, 2013]. This approach has become dominant since.
In the early 1990s, Richard Peterson introduced the omnivore argument [Peretson, 1992]. This new pattern is the acceptance of high and popular musical genres by the same consumer. According to Peterson, the omnivore musical taste has replaced the homological one. Unlike snobbish refinement and exclusion, the omnivore taste represents a conspicuous diversity [Rossman, Peterson, 2015; Veenstra, 2015; Atkinson, 2011]. The bulk of papers concluded the coexistence of the homology and omnivore arguments [Rossman, Peterson, 2015]. A higher social position is associated with more eclectic tastes [Veenstra, 2015; Chan, Goldthrope, 2005]. The omnivore listeners can appreciate different genres and styles thanks to the skills acquired during education and early socialization [Ferrant, 2018; Lizardo, Skiles, 2013]. As a result, cultural omnivorousness serves a group boundary marker [Lizardo, Skiles, 2013]. Developing the omnivore concept further, Sullivan and Katz-Gerro [2007] introduce the voracious concept rooted in lifestyles associated with higher status. The voracious consumption is associated with the image of an individual who is busy, speeding, multitasking, and "lives life to the full".
The more popular the omnivore concept has become, the more often it deals with specific cultural and geographical contexts [Cutts, Widdop, 2017]. Cross-cultural studies and one-country studies aim to detect different modifications of omnivorousness in different societies [Rossman, Peterson, 2015; Ferrant, 2018]. Numerous studies demonstrate how the same social demographic and lifestyle variables interplay in different societies, such as the Netherlands [Van Eijck, 2001, 2011], the US [Garcfa-Alvarez, Katz-Gerro, Lopez-Sintas, 2007], Turkey [Rankin, Ergin, 2017], France [Coulangeon, 2005]; the UK [Warde, Gayo-Gal, 2009; Leguina, Miles, 2017], and Canada [Vanzella-Yang, 2018].
Further development of the omnivore research addresses a deeper understanding of the omnivore values and lifestyles. In the middle of the 1990s, the first studies on the omnivores' values profile appeared. Analyzing disliked musical genres Bryson [1996] derives that tolerance is the foundation of acceptance of musical genres and styles originating from non-white cultures. Some studies link the omnivore argument with Bourdieu's open or cosmopolitan attitude [Atkinson, 2011] and highlight the association between the omnivore musical consumption, tolerance, and openness to diversity [Coulangeon, Lemel, 2007]. Other studies show that omnivores put more trust in people, are more risk-taking, and reveal more post materialistic cosmopolitanism in Inglehart's spirit [Chan, 2019; Ferrant, 2018]. Cancellieri and Turrini [2018] found that omnivorousness is linked positively with political engagement, religiosity, and cultural openness.
Recent research addresses the place factor in the formation of omnivores [Leguina, Miles, 2017; Cutt, Widdop, 2017]. The space dimension omnivorousness relies on the assumption that omnivores prefer sharing their lifestyles and network of con-
tacts [Cutt, Widdop, 2017]. Different levels of cultural production in territories and the neighborhood effect play a role as well [Ferrant, 2018]. Cutt and Widdop [2017] identify three territorial clusters with different degrees of inhabitants' omnivorousness. Leguina and Miles [2017] find an interplay between omnivorousness, geography, and rural-urban settlement.
In terms of omnivorousness, Russia is still perceived as an exclusion from the global omnivore analysis conducted in North American and Western European states where the majority of the omnivore research was undertaken [Ferrant, 2018]. The rare Russian-based studies of omnivore publics use a qualitative approach [Zaviska, 2005] or library and visitor survey data for testing the homology and omnivore effects in Russian context [Sokolov, Sokolova, 2019; Sokolov, 2019]. Sokolov and Sokolova found a partial matching of their results to the homology argument. The formal education, manual or non-manual work, generation, and life cycle phases affect reading tastes in Saint Petersburg. However, the researchers claim that conventional genres poorly differentiate cultural consumption. Poletaev and Perfil'eva [2011] concluded that younger generations of Russians are more eclectic in their music preferences and found salient nostalgic preferences.
Research shows the omnivores' value profile can be interpreted in terms of Ronald Inglehart's approach to values [Inglehart, 2016]. Inglehart's theory assumes that a higher level of economic and social security leads to the expansion of post-materialist values or individual-choice norms represented by gender equality and tolerance to nontraditional behavior [ibidem]. Numerous empirical applications proved this trend in a wide range of societies. However, there are exceptions from this consistent pattern represented by societies with a lower level of economic and physical security. One of these societies is Russia. Due to the series of economic and ideological shocks following the Soviet collapse the level of existential security in Russia decreased dramatically [ibidem]. Furthermore, Russian values are less secular and self-expressed compared with the values in Western countries [Brym, 2016; Inglehart, 2016].
Another factor that may be sensitive to our research is the country's illiberal political regime. Usually, researchers expect that increasing educational levels is accompanied by an increasing tolerant attitude. However, an analysis of the tolerance to nontraditional behavior in democratic and authoritarian societies using the World Value Survey Database shows the negative effect of authoritarian governments on the relationships between education and tolerance [Zhang, Brym, 2019]. Contemporary Russia may have this negative link too due to its non-liberal political regime.
In conclusion, there are two interconnected dimensions for the contemporary musical tastes, social stratification and the omnivorousness/univorousness. Criticism of Bourdieu's theory has not canceled the impact of social economic stratification on musical tastes and other areas of cultural consumption. Researchers define omnivorousness as a sophisticated variant of cultural capital that sometimes assumes conspicuous forms. This new form of cultural capital allows the enjoyment of a wide range of musical styles and leisure activities. The omnivore has a specific value profile: cosmopolitan, post-materialistic, tolerant, open to diversity, trustful, and risk-taking. However, in authoritarian political regimes, tolerance may be relatively low. The place factor affects omnivorousness in two ways. First, each society has a specific modifica-
tion and hierarchy of omnivores, similar to, but not identical to other societies. Second, the place of residence influences omnivorousness through the development of the cultural production field and the share of omnivores in the population.
The research setting and sample
Perm Region is a large industrial area located in the Urals where the proportion of the urban population is 76 % 1. The distance between the region's capital Perm city and Moscow is 1,386 km 2. Perm Region is 160,200 km2 [ibid.: 16] that is comparable with the size of Greece. It includes 280 municipal units 3. The region's settlements differ significantly from the regional capital, which boasts thirteen universities and developed cultural and economic infrastructures in comparison with predominantly agricultural, sparsely populated areas, struggling with the legacy of redundant and withering industries.
The population is 2,610,800 4. Perm region is the 18th Russian region in the number of inhabitants. In 2018, an average monthly nominal wage was 36,000 rubles (approximately $ 420). According to government statistics, the income related Gini coefficient in the region is 0.4 5. Manufacturing, the extraction of mineral resources, retail, wholesale, and transport repair made the biggest contribution to the region's gross added value 6. Other important economic activities are transportation and storage, construction, and real estate 7.
The sample of 2,400 citizens was based on the municipal unities list and the base of mobile phone numbers. Respondents were recruited for the survey during a phone call. The survey was conducted online by sending the link to the questionnaire for a smartphone. Participants got a reward for their participation from 100 to 200 rubles as a top-up. Face to face interviews were used for the group older than 60 who could have difficulties with an online survey and for the municipal units with low living standards. The sample was proportionally distributed between the municipal units and quota-controlled for gender and age. The sample was weighted according to the data of the 2010 National Census. After data cleaning the sample decreased to 2,200 respondents.
The social demographic profile of the sample is represented in table 1. The percentage is weighted.
The first problem with our sample is the pivotal role of owning a smartphone for participation. That may trigger the sample's bias. The second problem is the lack of control for the effects of a combination of online and face to face communication. The third is the lack of control of the survey completion.
1 Permskii Krai v Tsifrah: 2019. Kratkii Statisticheskii Sbornik [Perm Region in Numbers: 2019. Brief Statistical Year Book] / Territorial'ny organ Federal'noi gosudarstvennoi statistiki po Permskomu krau. Perm, 2019. P 31. (In Russ.)
2 Ibid.: p. 16.
3 Ibid.: p. 21.
4 Ibid.: p. 31.
5 Ibid.: p. 53.
6 Ibid.: p. 74.
7 Ibidem.
Table 1. The social demographic profile of the sample (%)
Gender
Male 48
Female 52
Age
18-30 25
31-45 36
46-60 22
Older than 60's 16
Education
Secondary school 8
High school or vocational secondary education 61
Tertiary qualification 30
Ph. D. 1
Income
Not enough for purchasing sustenance 9
Not enough for purchasing clothes and shoes 28
Not enough for purchasing large appliances 36
Not enough for purchasing a car 15
Not enough for purchasing an apartment or a house 10
Can afford everything we want 2
The urbanization level
No urban population 29
Less than 50 % 14
50 %-75 % urban population 9
More than 75 % urban population 48
Living standard of the population
Low living standard 8,3
Lower than the middle level 15
Middle level 30
Higher than the middle level 18
High 29
Measurement and data analysis
Based on the previous research we identified omnivore tastes as a dimension of social stratification with differences in value profile and depending on the place of living. Peterson and Kern establish a measurement of omnivorousness as the number of the music genres preferred [Rossman, Peterson, 2015]. Warde, Gayo-Gal [2009] and Garcfa-Alvarez et al. [2007] based their analysis of omnivorousness on the number and types of musical genres. Goldberg [2011] defined the pattern when all genres are liked or disliked as egalitarian. We took into account both the volume and the combination of styles.
Musical preferences were measured with the list of twenty-three musical styles based on Poletaev, Perfil'eva [2011]. The list includes classical music, religious music,
Russian chanson and prisoner songs (blatnaya pesnya)8, opera, Russian romantic songs, punk, post-punk, ska, reggy, Russian folk songs, musical comedy, musicals, bards' songs, ethnic music, country music, soviet popular music, contemporary symphonic music, contemporary popular Russian music, contemporary popular western music, Latino, Russian rock, rhythm and blues, electronic dance music, jazz and blues, western rock, old western popular music, hip-hop, and rap. In the questionnaire, each style was accompanied by several examples of names of performers 9. A respondent could choose if they liked, disliked, or cannot say for each style. We ask about the preferences, but not about behavior, as we take into account the social boundary construction function of musical preferences. Liking or disliking does not depend on the availability for listening to a certain kind of music whereas behavior does.
The omnivore value profile was narrowed to tolerance. Omnivorous research considers tolerance as the attitude to non-traditional behavior according to Inglehart's definition [Chan, 2019; Ferrant, 2018]. Tolerance was measured by a 7-point Likert scale. We measured the agreement with each statement from -3, which stood for "completely disagree", to +3, which stood for "completely agree". The list of the statements was developed during a longitude project on the modernization of culture [Vasserman, 2014]. Table 2 presents the statements included in the scale. The mark minus means disagreement with the statement gets the highest score and the agreement the lowest. Cronbach's Alpha is 0.7 which equals the recommended level [Schmitt, 1996].
Table 2. The tolerance scale statements
1. The prevention of cruelty to animals is a very important task
2. Religiosity or confession do not matter, the personality is the main thing
3. It is wonderful to broaden contacts with foreign countries, and foreign culture is becoming more influential
4. It is nice to see people of different ethnicities living and working together, communicating with each other
5. Our country has no friends; the majority of the foreigners are hostile (—)
6. Those individuals criticizing the authorities are as honorable as the individuals supporting the authorities
7. Homosexuals have the right to live their lives freely on their own, as long as they do not bother other people
8. Dissidents are a source of possible progressive changes, so it is worth being patient and attentive to any point of view
9. It is better to trust the authorities than to pay attention to those who cause troubles
10. To protect non-conformists' and dissidents' rights is a very important task
8 A syncretic style, encapsulating a wide range of musical styles including urban legends and romance, restaurant songs, soldiers' songs, and the prisoner folklore. Russian 'chanson' and prison songs have plots deeply rooted in everyday routine and individuals' social positions. The hero is at the peak of their emotions. The melody is secondary to lyrics and references multinational Russian melodies. The lyrics use urban spoken language and, sometimes, slang. Traditionally, performers in this style do not 'professional singing voices', singing rather with feelings and from the heart [Kravchnskii, 2012].
9 For the detailed list in Russian, see URL: https://bit.ly/3fMYZ9M (date of access: 27.04.2021).
Studies [Cutts, Widdop, 2017] reveal urbanization may be relevant variables for om-nivorousness. In this paper, we use ordinary variables displaying levels of urbanization. The variables and scales are shown in table 3. The variable was obtained from local social geographic studies [Chekmeneva, 2010; Balina; Demeneva, 2019].
Table 3. Urbanization variable
1. No urban population
2. Less than 50 %
3. 50 %-75 % urban population
4. More than 75 % urban population
The data analysis had two steps. The first step was the principal component analysis (PCA) of preferred musical styles. PCA is widely used for studying omnivore/univore consumption [Chuang, Lin, 2017; Purhonen, Heikkila, 2017; Van Eijck, 2001, Katz-Gerro, Shavit, 1998]. This method solves two tasks. First, it identifies a statistically significant combination of preferred musical styles. The explorative nature of the method identifies the latent structure of musical preferences, which is specific for the current data. Consequently, this method can reveal the existence of omnivore or univore musical taste. Second, the method reduces the data scale and replaces the initial twenty-three musical styles with fewer principal components. To make the data suitable for PCA we recorded them in dichotomous variables where "like" is coded as 1 and "dislike" as 0.
To test the impact of social demographic, territorial, and tolerance variables on musical tastes we made a second step in the data analysis. The result of the first step was a set of principal components, also called factors, correlated with a set of musical styles. Each respondent had her score for each factor, which was called the factor score. A high positive factor score means that a respondent belongs to a certain principle component and vice versa. We count a multifactor linear regression with the factor score as a dependent variable. Independent variables are presented in table 1 and table 3. Categorical and ordinal variables were recorded in dummy variables. Each option became a distinct variable.
Descriptive analysis results
The analysis starts with observing the patterns of musical preferences in the sample presented in figure 1. The average number of styles preferred is eight, mode and standard deviation is five, and the median is seven. The fact that the leading option is classical music is surprising. Perhaps, classical music has become the new norm because of Soviet cultural policy. This choice marks rather formality than true appreciation. Other leaders are expected. The most preferred musical styles are locally produced and have Russian lyrics. The nostalgia sentiment works for both Russian and Western music. The most popular styles after classical music are Soviet popular music. The most popular Western music style is that of the second half of 20th century. The styles
requiring more expertise to appreciate such as opera, jazz and blues, contemporary symphonic music, and religious music are less preferred.
Classical music Soviet popu a- music Russ an folk songs
Russian chanson and prisoner songs (t Contemporary popular Russian music Bards' songs Russian rock
Old Western popular rusic Russian Romantic Songs Latino
Electronic dance music Contemporary popular Western music Musical comedy, musicals Western rock Rhythm and blues Punk, Post-punk Religious music Hip-hop, rap Jan and blues Opera
Contemporary symphonic music Ska, Reggy
E:nnic music, folk, coun:"y music
Fig. 1. Distribution of musical likes
Tolerance was estimated as a sum of scores for statements represented in table 2 for each respondent. Higher sum means higher tolerance. Table 6 shows central tendency metrics for tolerance.
Table 6. Central tendency metrics for the tolerance scale
Measure Value
Minimum -25
Maximum 30
Mean 5
Median 5
Mode 4
Standard Deviation 8
The distribution has a slight shift at the left as the skewness equals -0.089. The histogram of the tolerance score is presented in figure 2.
Fg. 2. Histogram of the tolerance score
Principal component analysis results
We used PCA [Abdi, Williams, 2010] to reduce data scale and extract latent structures of musical preferences. The Kaizer-Meyer-Olkman's criteria is 0.94. Bartlett's coefficient is 10150, the p-value is 000. Therefore, PCA can be applied to the data. We used Varimax rotation with Kazer's normalization. As a result, we identified four types of musical tastes with an explained cumulative dispersion of 59 %. The PCA results are represented in table 7. The results of PCA show different musical taste patterns. Each principal component has a stronger or weaker bond with each musical style. The marker of bond strength is the PCA loading. The cut-off point for PCA loadings was 0.5. The music styles with loadings more than 0.5 are considered an element of a certain principal component. Based on each principal component composition we titled each of them.
Table 7. Matrix of rotated components
Types of music Principal Components
Current interest Highbrow taste Nostalgic Pop-music
Classical music .587
Soviet popular music .617
Russian chanson and prisoner songs (blatnaya pesnya) .758
Bards' songs .693
Religious music .586
Rhythm and blues .580
Latino .505 .531
Contemporary popular Russian music .746
Types of music Principal Components
Current interest Highbrow taste Nostalgic Pop-music
Russian folk songs
Old Western popular music
Hip-hop, rap .695
Musical comedy, musicals .756
Opera .765
Electronic dance music .686
Punk, post-punk .782
Contemporary popular Western music .673
Russian Romantic songs .695
Jazz and blues .532 .552
Contemporary symphonic music .637
Russian rock .687
Western rock .745
Ska, Reggy .746
Ethnic music, country music .641
The current interest component covers the styles rooted in Western culture. It can be obtained from the table 7 that Jazz, Blues, and Latino music have loadings exceeding 0.5 in two principal components. We decided to locate Jazz and Blues in the highbrow taste and Latino in the pop-music component because their loadings for these components were higher than for the alternative component.
Highbrow musical taste includes styles requiring more preparation to enjoy. Nostalgic musical taste has the highest loadings for Soviet popular music, Russian chanson and prisoner songs (blatnaya pesnya), and bards' songs. The pop-music taste consists of Russian popular music and Latino. Both styles are lively and easy to consume.
The results show no omnivore musical taste as has found in other studies. The findings clearly demonstrate Bourdieu's dichotomy between classical highbrow taste and pop music taste. However, we can also observe another dichotomy between a musical taste in Western music and musical preferences that are deeply rooted in recent Russian history, culture, and language
Regression analysis results
The next task is to test the impact of the respondents' social-demographic profiles, their tolerance and urbanization on musical tastes. We test with linear regression which variables increase the probability to have a certain musical taste, which decrease it and which are insignificant. The regression coefficients in table 8 show a value and valence of the influence for each variable and each musical taste. A dependent variable of the linear regression is a factor score for each of the four tastes. Independent variables are tolerance score, gender, income level, education, urbanization level, age, and the number of music styles. All variables, except for the tolerance score and number of musical styles, were recorded in dummy variables.
Table 8 shows adjusted the R-square, ANOVA results, and regression coefficients for each regression equation.
Table 8. Regression Analysis Result
Current interest Highbrow taste Nostalgic Pop music
Adjusted R-square 0.62 0.46 0.30 0.20
ANOVA F = 242*** F = 107*** F=53*** F=32***
Number of musical styles 0.089*** (0.003679) 0.11*** (0.004455) 0.07*** (0.005039) 0.06*** (0.005368)
Age from 18 to 30 0.64*** (0.064858) n/s —0 92*** (0.088365) 0.21*** (0.083203)
Age from 31 to 45 0.29*** (0.065006) n/s -0.38*** (0.088822) 0.38*** (0.082979)
Age from 40 to 60 n/s 0.33*** (0.065995) n/s n/s
Age older than 60 —0 22*** (0.058978) 0.55*** (0.060239) 0.17*** (0.080293) n/s
Male 0.4*** (0.043) -0.23*** (0.051034) n/s -0.51*** (0.062595)
Living in the area with more than 75 % urban population 0.22*** (0.049507) n/s -0.24*** (0.067361) -0.22*** (0.072123)
High school or vocational secondary school n/s n/s 0.16*** (0.059657) n/s
University degree n/s 0.19*** (0.056934) n/s -0.17*** (0.069566)
Income "Not enough for sustenance" n/s 0.24*** (0.088889) n/s -0.32*** (0.108345)
Not enough for purchasing clothes and shoes n/s n/s n/s n/s
Not enough for purchasing large appliances n/s n/s n/s n/s
Not enough for purchasing a car n/s n/s n/s n/s
Not enough for purchasing an apartment or a house n/s 0.19** (0.086826) n/s n/s
Can afford everything we want n/s n/s n/s n/s
Tolerance n/s n/s n/s n/s
Constant -1.12*** (0.059658) -1.16*** (0.065789) -0.46*** (0.092963) -0.23*** (0.061701)
* n/s means "not significant".
The regression analysis finds that the tolerance score is not significant for the factor score, but the territorial factor is. Inhabitants of highly urbanized territories have a higher probability of having a higher factor score in the current interest taste and a low score for nostalgic and pop music tastes. Education is less influential than ex-
pected. In fact, the education level is positively significant only for the highbrow taste and negatively significant for the factor score of the pop music taste.
The significance of age reveals clear differences. For the current interest taste, the ages from 18 to 45 are positively significant whereas the age older than 60 is negatively significant. The age from 40 to older than 60 impacts significantly and positively the highbrow taste. Only the age from 40 to 60 contributes significantly and positively for the nostalgic taste, but younger age groups impact negatively. Females from 18 to 45 have a higher factor score for the pop music taste.
The gender dimension of the musical taste patterns also exists. It is manifested in the positive significance of being male for the higher factor score in the current interest taste. Being male is negatively significant for the highbrow and pop music tastes.
The role played by income for the prediction of musical tastes is particularly interesting. For the highbrow taste, the impact of income is U-shaped. Both variables of low and high income are positively significant. This result may be partly explained by the fact that cultural consumption patterns are sustainable even when facing economic shortage [Sokolov, 2019]. The second equation with a significant income variable is the pop music taste, but in this pattern the lowest income is significantly negative. Generally, the ambivalent effect of income may be determined by the sample bias or the absence of coincidence between cultural and economic capital. The last explanation is plausible due to gradually falling living standards in Russia during the last five years.
To root the results in the knowledge about musical tastes looks the logical next step for this study. However, some limitations inhibit an adequate comparison of the current results with the previous ones. First, most research relies on one national sample, unlike our survey. Second, these studies use a more sophisticated statement of the problem therefore the social demographic profile is in the periphery of many studies on musical tastes. The main variable which non-Russian scholars employ as a predictor is class. That generates the third limitation. The absence of the publicly acknowledged class structure in Russian society and social science makes it impossible to compare the conclusions in terms of class. Keeping these limitations in mind, we tabulated the musical taste patterns we found and similar results from selected previous studies.
Table 9 shows there is not much in common between results of different societies. The more or less a stable type of musical taste is the highbrow one that may be observed in all cases except one. Other patterns find similarities in the studies much more rarely. We can conclude that highbrow taste exists in many highly industrialized societies with a complex social structure. Other patterns are perhaps strongly dependent on the historically developed classification of musical styles and cultural practices of music consumption. These historical and cultural particularities make results hard to compare.
Therefore, our analysis resulted in the identification of interpretable musical taste patterns, revealing socio-demographic factors of belonging to each pattern and the discussion of the correspondence between the given results, and the previous findings. Our results questioned the omnivore music taste and discovered the expected dimensions of Russian musical taste.
Table 9. The selected previous results and the obtained musical taste patterns
Cutts, Widdop [2017] Rankin, Ergin [2017] Katz-Gerro, Shavit [1998]
Our study Coulagneon [2005] Veenstra [2015] Van Eijck [2001] Goldberg [2011]
- high - high-brow respondents - "Educated there is the
education omnivores with college cultural group orient-
$ от ■£S - over 40 attending degree snobs" ed to Israeli
- higher opera - avoiding and world
г о income - over 65 banal No classics, but part of the sample structures
is - gender not - women taste the social
.л !°g significant with high - women demograph-
ir education ic profile is not clear their musical tastes along-
side the
there is high-brow —
о no common social de- a group low-brow
'от о oriented to dichotomy
£ No No No No pop-music,
mographic non-manual labor occupations
о CL profile
- there is
a group
equally
cold to
classics
and tem-
pestuous
music,
О 'ta oriented to
Is No No No traditional No No
о music
- the group consists of elderly respondents with a relatively low level of education part of the sample structures their musical tastes alongside the traditional — con-
temporary
the Omni
- young dichotomy
men A group
- m anag- oriented
to <D is С ers and to Western
students music is
- listing to younger,
rock, inter- No No No more edu- No
¡5 national cated and
о pop, rap, and hard rock wealthier than the one preferring local music
Conclusion
Omnivores have been extensively studied around the world for nearly thirty years. Previous results show that omnivores are cosmopolitan, post-materialistic, tolerant, open to diversity, trustful, and risk-taking individuals. They also have a higher social status than univores. However, it is still hard to say to what extent this hypothesis applies to Russian society.
This paper aims to identify and describe the Russian omnivores in terms of musical preferences, values, place of residence, and social-demographic background. However, our findings do not indicate the omnivore musical taste in Russia, which contradicts research on other cultures. Instead of finding the omnivore pattern of the musical taste, we found the Bourdieu-like dimension of the highbrow taste versus pop music taste. This result corresponds with previous findings on Russians' participation in arts [Sokolov, Sokolova, 2019; Sokolov, 2019]. The highbrow taste includes classical music, opera, contemporary symphonic music, musical comedy and musicals, jazz and blues, religious music, and Russian romantic songs. The pop music taste consists of Russian popular music and Latino. The results of the regression analysis support this dichotomy in terms of education, age, and place of residence. Educated respondents aged 40 to 60 have a higher factor score for the highbrow taste, whereas younger, less educated respondents living in less urbanized areas preferred pop music. Gender is a common factor between these two types of musical tastes. Women belong to these patterns rather than men.
Other extracted dimensions of music preferences are the nostalgic taste and the current interest taste. These patterns are also dichotomous. The current interest taste is about contemporary music and mainly Western styles whereas the nostalgic one covers Soviet retro, Russian chanson, and bards' songs. Respondents with these patterns differ from each other in terms of territorial and social-demographic profiles. The residents of highly urbanized areas and youngsters are positively connected with the current interest taste, whereas the respondents over 60 are negatively linked. The nostalgic taste has a diametrically opposed pattern: a negative link with age from 18 to 45 and a positive link for over 60. Men have these musical taste patterns more than women.
For all musical taste patterns, the number of styles affects positively the factor score. That means respondents choose a growing number of styles but avoid the omnivore mix. Supposedly, despite enormous changes that have happened in social stratification since the late eighties, Russians stick to a homological hierarchy of musical preferences. The emerging preferences compose new dimensions of the musical taste without embedding in the highbrow-lowbrow dichotomy.
A weakness of the current research is that the sample is limited to one region. Our results need to be verified on the national sample. The second weak point is the measurement of certain variables in the social demographic profile. Some of these variables such as income is less useful or confusing in the regression analysis. To develop a way to measure these variables is an important task. A direction for future research is determined by the fact that the creator of the omnivore argument questioned his early results. The omnivore trend was not replicated in 2002 and 2008 as it was in the 1990s. Researchers have been discussing a variety of explanations
for this [Rossman, Peterson, 2015]. Therefore, careful observations and analysis of changes in musical preferences in different societies, including Russia, is crucial for understanding if omnivorousness is simply a fashionable metaphor or something more [ibidem].
As the paper opens up this direction of study musical tastes in Russia, its main findings can be a base for further research testing the omnivore hypothesis. Any speculation on theoretical generalization or practical usage are premature until we will have sustainable results from other research.
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