How did the gap between high culture and low culture formed?

Culture is a term in used in sociology to represent the way of living by a society and also used to putting people into groups in the society which they belong. For example, there’s high culture which usually associate with elites and low culture which is for the ‘middle-class’ and ‘low-class’ people.

In the book ‘Culture and Anarchy’ which is written by Matthew Arnold, an English poet and a cultural critic, the term ‘high culture’ was introduced. High culture usually associate with the idea of ‘advantaged groups within societies establish and retain social dominance through monopolizing, or “closing,” access to valued resources and opportunities at the expense of other members of the community’ (Benzecry, 2014).  

According to Paul DiMaggio, elites produced social closure by using three projects:
1. Entrepreneurship which gives the elites members power and control
2. Classification which defines the boundaries between art and entertainment 
3. Framing which develops etiquette of appreciation such as concert manners. 

This is why sometimes there's vast difference between high culture and low culture. For example, their concert manners and dress codes, the aesthetic values of the art pieces, the viewers or the users and so much more. 


Reference:
Phillips. D. C (2014) 'Encyclopedia Of Educational Theory And Philosophy'. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=1715010. [Accessed on 11th December 2018]
Lawson. T and Garrod, J. (2001) 'Dictionary Of Sociology'. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=1074695. [Accessed on 11th December 2018]
Benzecry. C. E (2014) 'An Opera House For The "Paris Of South America": Pathways To The Institutionalization Of High Culture'. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43694714. [Accessed on 16th November 2018]