Three chords & [somebody's] truth: Trajectories of experience and taste among hard country fans

To date, much social scientific work on taste has relied on Bourdieu's concept of habitus to account for changes in tastes across the life course. But little empirical work has explored the dynamics of taste formation implied but not explicitly theorized by the concept. Dewey enriches Bourdieu's work by providing a vocabulary to theorize processes of re-socialization. This paper demonstrates Dewey's utility for understanding taste development by considering a weekly country event where no taste-class homology exists. The analysis centers on taste trajectories, or paths to appreciation taken by patrons who acquired the ability to appreciate country later-in-life. Data point to three types of regulars (Listeners, Players, Dancers); trajectories produce structured variations in experience, indicating prior engagement shapes present experience of music. Taste and experience are shown to be tightly bound; experience shapes perception and makes individuals into persons capable of having particular tastes.