High Culture Not Popular with Modern Students

Miller-McCune magazine notes that a journal called Poetics published a study on the current relevance of literature, classical music and other art forms. The study said these areas "are becoming increasingly more irrelevant for most students’ cultural lives." According to a trio of Norwegian researchers, this indicates "an increasingly precarious position for traditional highbrow culture." A study was conducted n Bergen, Norway from late 1998 to early 1999 and garnered 1,113 student responses. A very similar study was conducted precisely ten years later with 1,223 responses.

The researchers described their startling findings: "…a marked decline in interest and use of almost every form of culture that is identified with traditional legitimate taste….the most marked drops in popularity were often in the oldest and supposedly most legitimate genres, including classical music, opera, and literature."

There is less interest in classical theater but more interest in musicals. Students go to rock concerts but are less likely to attend jazz or classical concerts. Familiarity with major classical or folk artists has declined distinctly. Fewer students read serious literature, but the numbers for crime and suspense novels are up. Gripsrud, one of the researchers, sent an email to Poetics noting that "Class differences have become significantly more pronounced." He added that culturally literate parents have become "clearly distinguishable from the rest, since they continue to include the high art and avant-garde genres in their repertoire, and remain quite knowledgeable in these areas. They also are considerably more active, not least as producers/contributors in the digital realm."


Students are less likely to attend cultural events than they were ten years ago. High culture remains a value to students, but this is perhaps "more theoretical than practical." The researchers themselves ask, "how marginal practices of supposedly legitimate culture can become before they lose their relevance for the population in general."

The entire study took place in Bergen, Norway. So the results may not be typical, though it is at least possible that high culture is indeed becoming a rarer quality that has value only to the upper class in the twenty-first century.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/are-the-arts-irrelevant-to-the-next-generation-37937/

Comments by the Blog Author

If 3-D and surround sound can make Shakespeare, LaRochefoucauld, Greek tragedies and Homer important to young adults, I don’t think there is an overwhelming loss involved here. Nor do I see Franz Lizst nor Sergei Rachmaninoff headed for the wastebasket. Shakespeare in Love and the 2010 Clash of the Titans argue that there is little to worry about.

But if the grand classics are ignored or, worse, trivialized and glibly presented, there is indeed a problem. It can and should be contended that practical wisdom –Phronesis – is rapidly and effectively taught through stories that remain worth telling over long periods of time, and this description serves as an effective alternative definition of what makes a "classic."

The compelling stories ingeniously told and brilliance of unforgettable classic melodies impels me to suspect that the sturdiest elements of the classical works will find a place in the relentlessly visual electronic arts of this dawning century.[Footnote: the blog author has a bachelor’s degree in English literature. That education occurred very long ago, even before the personal computer itself was invented.]