Public Servant Lifestyle

Heavy metal music is 'elite culture' while the classical music of the composer Vivaldi and Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice are 'popular culture', according to research.

The unique survey, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a series of lectures at Milton Keynes Gallery expose a series of interesting findings about Briton’s cultural and lifestyle tastes.

The research team from the Open University (OU) and the University of Manchester found that some items that are traditionally seen as high culture—Pride and Prejudice and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons—were amongst the most popular items in the survey. In contrast, a Briton with a degree is two and half times more likely than someone with no educational qualifications to like heavy metal music.

Other surprising findings include:

A similar percentage of people go to bingo as to the opera — just 12%

Britons still read, but not books - 74% of those in routine occupational work read less than five books in the previous year, but 98% of all respondents regularly read newspapers and magazines.

If you attend the opera frequently you are also likely to eat at French restaurants regularly, own paintings and go to the theatre. But you are also likely to go to rock concerts and the cinema.

Minority ethnic groups show little interest in the soap opera, Coronation Street, and programmes that embody values of ‘Middle England’ such as costume dramas and literary adaptations.

“Britons are consuming culture differently,” comments Professor Tony Bennett of the Open University. “The divide between high culture and popular culture is disappearing. Instead a divide is emerging between those who take part in any public cultural activities and those who do not.”

Nearly 1,800 adults completed the survey which covered their consumption of mass media, visual and performance arts, music, sport, food and drink and domestic leisure. The research investigated how our age, gender, professional and educational experiences shapes the things we like and dislike.

The research project: 'Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion', was conducted in partnership with The Arts Councils of the UK, the British Film Institute (bfi) and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is the, first such major exercise to examine cultural interests– including such strands as cuisine, fashion and cinema – and explore the connections between them that shape modern Britain.

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