How do elites signal their superior social position via the consumption of culture? We address this question by drawing on 120 years of “recreations” data (n = 71,393) contained within Who’s Who, an unique catalogue of the British elite…In November 2016, after extensive discussions with Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury Publishing—the 2 publishing companies producing Who’s Who—we successfully brokered access to all data collected by the publication since it began including full biographical details in 1897…Finally, to provide a more granular analysis of elite musical taste, we combine Who’s Who with another unique historical data source—the archive of Desert Island Discs, a radio show broadcast on the BBC since 1942 (Brown et al 2017; Dean et al 2018; Thurman2012). The format of the show is straightforward. Each week a “castaway”—usually a noteworthy and influential elite person—is asked to choose 8 songs or pieces of music they would take with them if they were to be stranded on a desert island. As over 60% of the people who have appeared on Desert Island Discs are also in Who’s Who, we are able to merge the 2 datasets to provide a more granular analysis of the music tastes of around 1,200 Who’s Who entrants.

Our results reveal 3 historical phases of elite cultural distinction: first, a mode of aristocratic practice forged around the leisure possibilities afforded by landed estates, which waned substantially in the late-19^th century; second, a highbrow mode dominated by the fine arts, which increased sharply in the early-20^th century before gently receding in the most recent birth cohorts; and, third, a contemporary mode characterized by the blending of highbrow pursuits with everyday forms of cultural participation, such as spending time with family, friends, and pets.

These shifts reveal changes not only in the contents of elite culture but also in the nature of elite distinction, in particular, (1) how the applicability of emulation and (mis)recognition theories has changed over time, and (2) the emergence of a contemporary mode that publicly emphasizes everyday cultural practice (to accentuate ordinariness, authenticity, and cultural connection) while retaining many tastes that continue to be (mis)recognized as legitimate.

…Our analysis begins by identifying a mode of aristocratic elite culture, dominant in the late-19^th century, that was forged around the leisure possibilities afforded by landed estates (eg. shooting, hunting, horse riding, polo, sailing). Here elites achieved distinction via the emulation of lower yet aspirational social groups, who largely deferred to their authority as inherent cultural paragons. We then show how this mode was threatened at the turn of the 20^th century. “Nouveau riche” industrialists began to buy their way into high society, and existing aristocratic elites, battling economic upheaval, were unable to guard against this pecuniary emulation. Next, we show how a new generation of elites—influenced in particular by the Bloomsbury intellectual collective—adapted to this threat. Positioning itself against the philistinism of aristocratic modes, this new cohort championed a set of emerging “high” cultural forms (eg. theater, ballet, classical music, abstract art) that went on to define elite culture in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. This new highbrow mode was successful in delivering distinction, albeit via a different mechanism. Rather than relying on an ascribed cultural legitimacy, as in the emulation model, highbrow elites instead focused on generating a widespread (mis)recognition, via the state and allied institutions such as the BBC, of the inherent value of their own tastes and recreations. Again, though, this mode of elite culture was eventually questioned. Beginning in the 1950s, the supremacy of highbrow culture was threatened by shifts within the art-world that initially challenged the highbrow esthetic and later legitimized certain popular cultural forms; generational value change that precipitated a decline in snobbery and deference (to elites); and the emergence of a managerial culture where access to a broad cultural repertoire functioned as a key resource.

The final part of our analysis explains how once again elites adapted to these threats, diversifying their cultural profiles and increasingly blending highbrow (and some aristocratic) recreations with popular tastes and a range of everyday practices, such as spending time with family, friends, and pets. We interpret this contemporary mode as pursuing dual aims. First, it continues to be distinction-seeking, with popular tastes still tilting toward more legitimate artists. However, the growing expression of everyday recreations, we argue, also signals something beyond distinction, and peculiar to the particular moral threats facing contemporary elites. As elites pull away economically, they face increasing suspicion from wider publics that they lack prosocial motives and, in turn, authenticity and moral character. The public expression of such “ordinary” everyday practices, therefore, with their intrinsic rather than extrinsic reward association, acts as a way to plug this authenticity-insecurity.

…Second, we go further to examine the legitimacy of the popular music being played. Specifically, we examined the critical-acclaim of musical artists by analyzing their average score on the music website Metacritic, which aggregates reviews of albums. Figure 6 shows that the artists played by Who’s Who entrants are consistently more legitimate, in terms of their mean Metacritic score, than the average musical artist.²⁵ Indeed, they are consistently in the top quartile. This indicates that although contemporary elites may be increasingly integrating popular cultural forms into their cultural repertoires, the individual artists they prefer still tilt toward the legitimate and consecrated.

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