European inventory of
societal values of culture

Verboord - Music mavens revisited

Verboord, M. (2019). Music mavens revisited. Comparing the impact of connectivity and dispositions in the digital age. Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(3): 618-637.

This article aims to contribute to work on music mavenism with the explicit goals to analyze how important connectivity (e.g. someone social network) is in the way music spreads, compared to dispositions (schemes of perception and appreciation). Concretely, what is studied is how individuals find new music and who are involved in spreading information on music. Data from a representative survey on the Dutch population is used to examine this. Music discovery can be characterized by three types of practices: individualized networks, traditional expertise, and mass media. The results also show that successful influencers – mavens – differ only slightly from these listeners who are highly involved in exchanging music tips. Dispositions – particularly cultural capital – remain highly influential in explaining not only how people find music but also who recommends music and still seem to be more important than connectivity.