Lovers, 1996, Olivier Donnat
Many clues, starting with the constant increase in applications for registration in the schools of art and music, the show, in fact, for several years, the growing interest that the French have for the artistic activities and the amateur, without any synthesis study has been conducted in France. The question, beyond the purely quantitative, focused on the degree of proximity existing between the various activities : to what extent, for example, the practice of the piano is tied to that of the dance ? What are the activities that are linked by the relations the strongest ? More generally, the common points from one activity to the other are they enough to talk of artistic activities as a coherent whole, to be a category of thought relevant ?
The second objective of this study is to clarify the relationship between the training and the artistic activities and the amateur on the one hand, and consumption of goods and services related to works produced by professional artists. What are the relations between the amateurs and professionals ? To what extent do they differ from one artistic field to another ?
Many consider that the fact of practicing an activity amateur and “consume” the works of professional artists are two complementary forms of the same interest or the same “passion” for theatre, dance or music, without that the nature of the relationship that binds one to the other has been the subject of a reflection. The third and final objective is to analyze the way in which artistic activities are now part of the cycle of life of the French, by identifying the moments and the reasons of the abandonment. When the French find out, and if necessary abandon, the artistic activities ? Some of them are more early or the more ephemeral than others ?
Activities juveniles, which predominantly relate to the new generations
The artistic activities and the amateur concern primarily the young people : 44 % of 15-19 year-olds have performed at least one during the past year, compared with one-third of 20-24 year olds and slightly less than 20 % of French older. These activities – in the same way that sports activities have always attracted the young and suffered a high drop-out rate prior to the entry into adult life, sometimes even from childhood.
The boom since the early 1970s, The French aged 25 to 34 years old are emerging as a generation hinge : born in the 1960’s and adolescents at the turn of the 1980s, they were the first concerned by the development of artistic activities, but have already, for the majority of them, totally neglected : of the 53% who have engaged in an artistic activity, only 20 % still continue : they are ultimately little more of amateurs active than previous generations. The success that win in activities enthusiasts in the young, and the ado has not, until now, resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of practicing adults. The double observation established at a general level – rise within the generations under 35 years of age and precocity of many withdrawals – checks on each of the activities.
The developments are however contrasting : the example of the music
The evolution of choral singing, for example, differs very markedly from that of the musical practice. The proportion of players has nearly doubled in twenty years in the French population, from approximately 20 % in the older generation now over the age of 35 to 40 % among those aged 15-19 years. Singing in a choir or a vocal group is an activity that involves more the French-born pre-war young generations. .The song does not appear as a juvenile : it is, on the one hand, an ancient activity that adults today in the strength of age and of young retired people practice it since their childhood or adolescence ; on the other hand, the song has experienced a recent development that has affected primarily the young people, but rather people who have passed the quarantine.
The accumulated growing activities
The young lovers conquered since the early 1970s not only spend more readily than their elders of an artistic activity to another, but they are also more likely to engage in a number of front. It is fairly common to drop an activity for the benefit of another : four-lovers-in-ten have practised an artistic activity in the course of their life. When we are discussing a domain-by-domain, the number of amateurs who have never participated in other activities that they are currently active is never more than a quarter of the total : it is in the field of dance and song that they are the most numerous (26 %) and in the writing of novels or poems, as they are less (9 %).
– practice instrumental is often the entry point into the world of lovers because it is the most early : nearly half of all amateur adults, regardless of their activity at the moment, have already played a musical instrument (they are the same 66 % in the case of the theatre) ; – the actors-amateur, they usually have the artistic journey the more rich : they are often passed by the writing and the music before entering the theatre. In particular, there is a link strong enough between the practice of theatre and that of the écriturela dancing and singing, which have the highest proportion of practitioners exclusive, appear as the areas that are more self-reliant. The bonds the strongest affect, logically, the activities belonging to the same domain : playing the piano and singing in a choir, keep a diary and write poems, painting and drawing are the three couples activities related. Overall, the cumulative activities tends to increase as one goes from the generations born before the war to the youngest : one-third of the actors amateur write.
The majority of pianists and dancers amateur have taken a special education. The increase in attendance of schools of dance is particularly remarkable, similar to that of the dancers amateur : only 4 % of 55-64 year olds have completed their education compared to 19 % for the 15-24 age group.
Among children passed through these schools, how many continue to make music at the age adult ? One-third of the former students have retained today a musical activity. Dropouts are often early : between 15 and 19 years, more than half of the adolescents passed by a music school or a conservatoire, have already abandoned any musical practice.
To what extent the fact of having been a pupil of one of these schools increases there chances of being part of the public of concert halls ? The scale of the French population, the former students are two times more likely to have attended a music concert given by professionals in the course of the last twelve months, all musics combined. Such an outcome should be interpreted with caution, since the differences observed could not be considered as a direct consequence of school attendance, due to the effects of the structure of underlying : in fact, the former students are both younger (and therefore more prone to go out in the evening), more educated (and therefore more likely to” cultural output “), and therefore, more likely to take advantage of cultural facilities in general. The fact you went through a school of music seems to have a relatively small effect on the attendance of the concerts of professionals to adulthood. The playing of the music appears to be more decisive as fans in the business who have not followed courses in a school are more likely to be rendered to a concert that former students have abandoned all practice.
The conditions of access to artistic activities
Public with a strong female, especially in the case of dance, theatre and writing, fewer than in the plastic arts and music. He is rather young (in the five cases, the “15-24 years” account for approximately one-third of the total amateurs in assets) ; “executives and intellectual professions upper” and “intermediate occupations” are slightly over-represented, while employees are more numerous in the practice of writing and dance ; by against the workers are withdrawn in the five areas, most noticeably in music and the theatre.
An increased feminization ?
Women are more likely than men to invest in arts activities : 52 % of them have practiced a in the course of their lives, against 42% of men. They dominate in the five areas studied : the dance but also the writing where they are proportionally two times more numerous (in the case of the diary, the gap is even more important with 16% of women have held a at some point in their lives compared with 5 % of men). The practice of a musical instrument, singing, theatre, plastic arts is also female. The behavior of men and women, when they are amateurs, differ little : the propensity to give up, as well as the age of abandonment have variations relatively low, except in two cases : the women tend to start writing poems or a diary to be younger than their male counterparts.
The domination of the executives and higher intellectual occupations
The professions of the arts and information are distinguished, among executives and professions above, by their level of practice is very high. The teachers occupy within intermediate occupations a place analogous to that of the professions of the arts and information : a quarter of them are amateurs in activity, which places them significantly above other persons belonging to this category. In contrast, the foremen only account for 11 % of amateurs in activity, a level comparable to that of workers and employees. The balance of executives and professions above is particularly significant in the areas of music (piano and singing), theatre and dance. The differences are generally lower in the youngest population. The farmers and especially the employees seem to have filled a portion of their delay.
A matter of degree more than of income
In all areas, degree-holders of 2nd or 3rd cycle is two to three times more likely than those holding a CAP or BEP. The general studies tend to support the artistic activities. The increase in the proportion of amateurs, depending on the level of degree is true in the five areas. It is particularly spectacular in the field of music, less in those of the writing and the visual arts if one puts aside the non-graduates who bear the brunt of the birth cohort effects.
The advantage of celibacy
Singles have in all cases a level of commitment higher than that of individuals living in couples, married or not.
The influence of the family.
The fact of having lived as a child in a family of fans is a factor that can amplify or, on the contrary, to antagonize the effects of socio-demographic variables. In all cases, the proportion of amateurs is higher among children whose parents exercise an artistic activity than at the other, with the exception of the writing probably for reasons that are mostly in the mode of information gathering.