ABSTRACT
Additional evidence of the growing interest in the sociology of culture and the arts is the establishment of a formal research committee by the International Sociological Association and by roundtables and paper sessions devoted exclusively to the sociology of the arts, which is recurrently featured at regional, national, and international conferences. In the American socio-musicological community it was observed that Adorno’s writings and analyses on musical topics suffered from social-scientific defects. American sociology follows a model of science that seeks to produce findings with general applicability to all comparable social situations. More directly addressing topics of mass communication as they relate to the sociology of the arts are several publications by Silbermann and his colleagues at Cologne. Changes in the institutional world of music become the specific focus of inquiry in the work of Bontinck on education, and Heister on symphony concerts.
