Week 10 - Cultural Consecration (Association & Disassociation)

Question 1

What are the four ways things get prestigious?

Answer 1

1. logic of association and dissacoiation
2. logic of organizational form
3. critics
4. awards

Question 2

What do we do when the meaning of art is fuzzy?

Answer 2

we judge it by their patterns of association

Question 3

What does it mean to judge art by its pattern of association?

Answer 3

-imbue the status of different people and objects based on the patterns of who they’re associated with
-we judge art by who like this art; the status of art fans influences the status of art
-if classy people like it, the art is deemed classy

Question 4

How is association a recursive process?

Answer 4

-classy people are also considered classy if they like good art
-status of art fans — status of art — status of art fans

Question 5

What does Bethany Bryson’s “Anything but heavy metal” exmaine and argue?

Answer 5

-Highly educated like many types of music and that hate some kinds of music (distancing yourself from the genre)
-Four types of music most hated by educated people were rap, gospel, heavy metal, and country
-Bryson argues this isn’t a coincidence - highly educated were distancing themself from this music because it was associated with lower socioeconomic status
-Not about the intrinsic qualities - these genres actually do have sophisticated musicological properties