The word “culture” is vastly used in everyday life, but its meaning tends to be somewhat vague to certain people. Depending on the source, definitions tend to differ, but one that seems to be on point is that it is “the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next.” (Boundless) There are many different types of culture, such as everyday culture, mass culture, popular culture, low culture, and high culture. This web contribution will be mainly focussing on high culture.

 

To begin, let us take a closer look at what is high culture. “High culture most commonly refers to the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture. It is the culture of an elite such as the aristocracy or intelligentsia.” (Boundless) In other words, high culture is stereotypically seen as not being accessible to the masses; it is the culture of the refined and wealthy.

 

On the other hand, some, such as Pierre Bourdieu, “used a much broader, class-based, definition of high culture or "taste", which includes etiquette, appreciation of fine food and wine, and even military service, but also references different social codes supposedly observed in the dominant class, and that are not accessible to the lower classes.” (Boundless) In Bourdieu’s definition of high culture, one can see that high culture does not only involve the arts, but that it has a broad meaning that stretches out from literature all the way to food and dining etiquette.  

Moreover, here are a few examples of what is seen as high culture: ballroom dancing, ballet, theater, plays, classical music, certain films, fine wines and food, art, classic literature pieces such as Shakespeare, runway fashion, etc.

 

In contrast, “low culture refers to that of the less well-educated or the masses, encompassing such things as gossip magazines, reality television, popular music, yellow journalism, escapist fiction, and camp.” (Boundless) It is also often used as a synonym for popular culture, which is the culture that is accessible to everyone in middle or lower-class. For example, pop or rock music heard on the radio, television series, Hollywood movies, etc.