Abstract
Many studies on popular culture have been conducted in recent years. However, there are few solid studies that treat popular culture as embedded in a broader institutional context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between popular culture and high culture.
Popular culture tends to lose its popularity and counterpower as the process of institutionalization and diversification accelerates. As a result, popular culture sometimes resembles high culture. On the other hand, high culture itself has come to pervade society to the extent that people regard it as popular. Today, it is hard to discern popular culture from high culture.
The diminishing gap between high culture and popular culture results in people becoming omnivores of a wide range of cultural goods. This paper explores the realities of cultural preference by employing data obtained from a survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. In addition, this paper sheds light on the relationship between high culture and popular culture by examining a large collection of Minnesota Orchestra Archives at the University of Minnesota. The current and future steps in the study of popular culture is suggested in the research.
