Description
"Some music may initially be perceived as elitist but can later shed that perception due to the possibilities offered by television", affirmed João de Freitas Branco in the music dissemination program Melomania, aired in 1978 on Portuguese National Television (RTP). Through this statement, Freitas Branco expressed the intention of dismantling the elitist perception of "Classical Music" and making it more accessible to a wider segment of the population, educating audiences on music and its connection to everyday life. This paper explores precisely this - how television fostered the cultural dissemination and shaped "Classical Music's" accessibility in Portugal during the post-revolution period of the 1970s and 1980s -, by cross-referencing historical materials with cultural sociology and media studies, particularly the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Jürgen Habermas.
My work focuses on the Portuguese context, but it is primarily about the historical impact of television on the discourse surrounding the so-called "Classical Music" as a medium for reaching a broader audience. Internationally, it is possible to find similar phenomena and draw parallels with this intention of expanding the social engagement with music through television. In this cultural context, dissemination of "Classical Music" was pivotal to the democratization of culture, as its longstanding elitist label ultimately turned it into a symbol of redefined cultural accessibility.
The findings suggest that, although participation in live concerts did not become more socially diverse within the studied scope, television made an unprecedented contribution to the democratization of "Classical Music" in mass communication medium contexts. People from different social backgrounds were now engaging with the same musical content through employed mediation strategies, using linguistic and aesthetic bridges to expand its reach. Nevertheless, despite growing public dialogue and greater recognition of its repertoire, "Classical Music" still faces social barriers, which are reflected in the social distribution of cultural habits.
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