In Defense of Popular Taste: Film Ratings Among Professionals and Lay Audiences

Portions of the myths surrounding popular taste are based upon the conjectures and condemnations of professional critics of popular culture. Different pictures of the professional citic have been painted: some characterize the critic as a snob; others, along with Gans, are more likely to characterize the critic as a typocal upper-middle-class American belonging to the upper-middle taste public. This paper reports a secondary analysis of a direct measure of popular taste and contrasts in with professional evaluations of the same cultural product. The data are 5,644 motion pictures rated over a twenty-two-year period by members of a consumer organization and a group of professional movie reviewers. Rating of the two groups are compared, and the snobbism of critics is tested and refuted.