Music, Ideology, and Emerging Political Elites: A Survey of Musical Taste and Aesthetic Sensibilities Among Young Politicians in Norway

• In Event: Communities of Sound: Affect and Aesthetics in the Sonic Domain

Abstract

Whereas studies of the politics of music have overwhelmingly focused on how popular audiences and subcultures engage with music, only minimal attention has been given to how the relationship between music and politics manifests in political elites – including the politicians who operate at the center of the political system. Based on a survey conducted among the members of the youth wings of five major political parties in Norway, this study demonstrates marked oppositions in musical taste and aesthetic sensibilities, which systematically follow the ideological left-right axis of Norwegian party politics. Moreover, this study makes evident that music to a significantly higher degree is invested with political significance among politicians of the left than among politicians of the right. Starting from Bourdieu’s cultural sociology, the article discusses the findings in light of socio-economic background factors and further highlights distinct resonances between aesthetics and ideological orientation.

Author

• Torgeir Uberg Naerland, Department of information science and media studies / University of Bergen