ABSTRACT
Our investigation has demonstrated, beyond question, the existence of systematic patterns of cultural taste and practice. These patterns exist within, and across fields. Some fields are more highly structured than others, music being the most marked by oppositions of taste between established and emergent forms. Sport, film and television, by contrast, have ratherweaker patterns, though in the latter, for instance, liking for news, documentaries and nature programmes cluster together, as do soap operas and costume dramas. Tastes are not singular. While probably no individual has exactly the same tastes as any other, preferences can be grouped. People who go regularly to the opera are also likely to find Impressionist painting appealing and to nominate French restaurants as their favourite type. Thosewho do not like watching sport on TV tend to like modern art and romance fiction. There are, then, homologies across fields that are indicative of shared styles amonggroups of people within the population.
