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The same process of gentrification has happened in the media where the career path from private school to Oxbridge to plum jobs in the mainstream organs of public opinion formation is well entrenched. Entry into the unofficial trade union of the professional middle class requires money, privilege, time and networks. The pay-off though is access to what has become a closed-shop. In the fields of drama, film, the news media, stand-up comedy, even music, once a place where working class cultural producers could survive on their UB40s, are now thoroughly dominated by the middle class. Lilly Allen, Florence Welch, Chris Martin, Laura Marling, Noah and the Whale, Pixie Lott, Mumford and Sons were all privately educated. According to the now defunct Word magazine a 2010 survey found that around 60% of chart pop and rock acts came from a private school background where as 20 years ago it was more like 1%. How can you have a culture that has any sensitivity to working class life, working class perspectives and working class norms, if all the doors to entry have been slammed shut? If politics has Nick Clegg, culture has Benedict Cumberbatch whining about how his class privilege really had no bearing on his superstar success.
full: http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_gentification_of_the_left
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