Mainstream and popular music

Before we investigate the mutual relationship between the mainstream and music, it is worth taking a closer look at the ‘mainstream’ concept itself. Proposing a single and coherent definition of this phenomenon is a challenging task. ‘Mainstream’ appears in academic discourse, as well as in the media, in public debate, but also occurs in everyday conversations.Footnote ¹ The mainstream touches many aspects of life – it appears in discussions on culture, politics, or media (Huber Reference Huber, Taylor, Baker and Bennett2013). Moreover, for many people, ‘mainstream’ has a negative connotation, because it brings to mind cultural products that are repeatable and easy to appreciate. These cultural goods are seen as made not from a need for artistic expression, but rather towards the achievement of measurable financial benefits (Toynbee Reference Toynbee, Hesmondhalgh and Negus2002).

Regardless of the mentioned difficulties, it is still possible to describe the relationship between mainstream and popular music. Mainstream popular music is the most well-known part of pop music that reaches a wide audience and is very successful on music charts (Steinbrecher Reference Steinbrecher2021, p. 407). Jason Toynbee names three currents that have influenced and sustained the process of mainstream’s long-life: hegemony; the search for an aesthetic middle ground and the need for the existence of a low-other; and the connection between popular music and economy (Toynbee Reference Toynbee, Hesmondhalgh and Negus2002, p. 150). As shown in the following sections, the history of disco polo’s rise is closely linked to these three areas of mainstream functioning: disco polo is a crucial element of the processes of imposition and subordination and class struggles over tastes. Also, it is treated by various elites as something culturally inferior and different, yet its presence is needed to distinguish between what is valuable and what is not. Additionally, the history of disco polo’s advancement to the public media is a story of economic success that even the biggest stars of the Polish mainstream would be proud of.

The first current mentioned by Toynbee – hegemony – is a leading research topic for the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. His analyses are important for examining the status of disco polo music, as they combine hegemony with class struggle over taste. Bourdieu’s research on the formation of class distances in France showed a strong correlation between participation in culture and a specific class position. Bourdieu pointed to a phenomenon he called homology: people at the top of the social hierarchy (e.g. professors, members of the liberal professions) representing ‘higher’, ‘better’ taste, while members of the lower classes (which he included, e.g. workers and farmers) represent ‘lower’, ‘worse’ taste. According to Bourdieu, the upper classes (also known as the dominant class) impose their cultural patterns on the lower classes (the subordinate class). Bourdieu describes the process of imposing legitimate culture as symbolic violence – a form of ‘soft’ violence that involves forcing these values on the subordinate class, causing it to perceive its inferior position as natural. In this process, institutions such as schools play a significant role, promoting the culture of the elite and negatively evaluating the culture of the lower classes. Furthermore, Bourdieu assigns music a special role in the process of imposing cultural content. In his opinion, compared to other forms of artistic activity, music is the most spiritual and sophisticated art form. Therefore, it most fully reflects the analogies between cultural patterns and class hierarchy (Bourdieu Reference Bourdieu1984).

The second important current of the mainstream listed by Toynbee is based on a constant need for an aesthetic middle ground, which entails confronting and negotiating with the cultural content from ‘below’. Following Richard Middleton’s arguments, Toynbee argues that the musical mainstream seeks new sources of inspiration to fill a constant feeling of lack. To this end, it turns towards the ‘low-others’. On the one hand, the repertoire of musical forms regarded as ‘high’ incorporates (assimilates) cultural content identified as ‘low’. On the other hand, Toynbee points to the existence of a strategy he calls projection, i.e. borrowing elements of a low-other culture in an effort to create its own quality. An example of such practices is African American music, where ‘both these strategies are used in popular music as a way of translating and controlling […] the mainstream’s chief source of otherness’ (Toynbee Reference Toynbee, Hesmondhalgh and Negus2002, p. 154). Thus, the mainstream produces ‘others’. These may be conscious ‘others’ like members of subcultures described by Hebdige (Reference Hebdige2010) or like elite fan club music presented by Thornton (Thornton Reference Thornton1995). But ‘others’ might also be marginalised, with musical identities treated as ‘worse’. This process uncovers the mainstream’s ambiguous nature, as middle ground music is a broad category open for change. Still, it consolidates inequalities in power relations in the music field (Toynbee Reference Toynbee, Hesmondhalgh and Negus2002, p. 160).

The last current mentioned by Toynbee is the mainstream economic dimension. Music activity can involve financial profits, so the music industry pays a great deal of attention to making sure its products appeal to as many people as possible (Toynbee Reference Toynbee, Hesmondhalgh and Negus2002, p. 150). It is not just about the commercial success of a particular song or artist; mainstream music is accused of being created solely for financial gain. Therefore, its primary purpose is not to satisfy creative needs, but to generate profit (Steinbrecher Reference Steinbrecher2021, pp. 408-9).

We believe that there is a need to add one more area to the above-mentioned currents of mainstream music, which, as shown later in this article, is essential in the case of Poland. Namely, the state’s cultural policy and the ways in which various political actors (e.g. political parties) use music to pursue specific objectives can be highly significant. Despite various changes brought by globalisation and the development of new technologies, states can still have a great influence on the functioning of music markets. Even when the official state censorship does not exist, the performers can self-censor and create a ‘safe’ and culturally conservative repertoire in order to avoid conflict with authorities and gain acceptance from the wider public (Kärjä Reference Kärjä2006, p. 15). The influence of the state on the functioning of the music market is particularly evident in centralised economic systems, where free market mechanisms operate to a minimal extent. For example, in Poland during the communist era, all musical activity (from album releases to radio broadcasts) was controlled and supervised by specially appointed state agencies. These processes become very clear when examining the communist authorities’ attitude towards rock music. First, for political and ideological reasons (viewing rock as a rebellious genre rooted in Western values), attempts were made to isolate rock. Later, to ease social tensions and resentment towards the authorities (particularly evident among young people), attempts were made to appropriate rock and use it for propaganda purposes (Zieliński Reference Zieliński2005). As a result, the presence of rock music in the media and at major music events was heavily dependent on decisions made at the state level.

The social history of disco polo

Disco polo emerged in the early 1990s. This timing is not accidental, as the system transition in Poland, i.e. moving from a communist system to a democracy based on a free-market economy, took place in 1989. It brought not only political changes, but also new economic and cultural possibilities. Certainly, favourable market conditions were a great impulse for the development of disco polo. For artists and the record companies associated with disco polo, making this type of music was at this point primarily an attempt to fill a gap in the domestic market and an activity aimed at achieving economic profits. Disco polo seemed a much more profitable activity than other forms of employment (Mazierska Reference Mazierska, Mazierska, Gillon and Rigg2021, pp. 250-1). Moreover, at the beginning of the 1990s in Poland, there was basically no copyright law in effect, and other rules regulating the production of cultural goods were missing. The creators of disco polo music took advantage of the situation – tapes with disco polo were everywhere, copied in quantities difficult to estimate and sold in grocery stores, bazaars, outside of churches, and literally on the streets (Sierakowska Reference Sierakowska2019, pp. 199-218). In 1990, Blue Star, the first phonographic label devoted to disco polo, was established by Slawomir Skręta, who is regarded as the father of the ‘disco polo’ term. In 1994, a private TV station, Polsat, aired the first episode of ‘Disco Polo Live’ (Łuczaj Reference Łuczaj2020, p. 111). What is more, the creators of disco polo self-organised their own music structures: they established their own record labels, organised the distribution of recordings, and set up concert agencies (Socha Reference Socha and Gałuszka2020).

The more disco polo was around, the stronger criticism it drew from journalists, the media, and cultural elites, who spoke from the position of defenders of higher cultural values, trying to discredit the genre (Mizierska Reference Mazierska, Mazierska, Gillon and Rigg2021, p. 250). Among other things, they accused disco polo of primitivism, repetitiveness, schematism, excessive simplicity, a lack of deeper meaning, and vulgarity (Filar Reference Filar2014, pp. 116-18). Also, numerous references to class divisions can be seen in these actions of self-proclaimed high culture defenders. Disco polo fans were often automatically classified as representatives of lower classes, less educated people, and residents of villages and small towns. At the other end of the spectrum were well-educated city residents, upper- and upper-middle-class members, who, according to critics, were supposed to have better and more sophisticated taste (Mizierska Reference Mazierska, Mazierska, Gillon and Rigg2021, pp. 250-4). It can be said that this criticism from the so-called cultural elites started the process of stigmatisation of disco polo and its listeners.

The early 2000s marked a transformation in how disco polo functioned. Foreign music became popular on Polish television and radio. For example, techno music – potentially a rival to disco polo – gained a stronger foothold in the Polish market. Although techno settled in Poland in the late 1990s, in the early 2000s, some signs of appreciation of this genre by the cultural elite and critics could be observed (Mizierska Reference Mazierska, Mazierska, Gillon and Rigg2021, pp. 252-4). In addition, the appearance (with some delay) of rap was a kind of challenge for the disco polo scene. Although rap is associated with the city and urban lifestyles, it also quite quickly found listeners among the youth from rural Poland (Wyrzykowska Reference Wyrzykowska and Kotarba2018, pp. 201-2). This may be related to the fact that rap contained reflections on the feeling of alienation and social injustice, and during this period, media and expert debates featured claims that residents of villages and small towns were failing to adapt to the new democratic reality and were holding back the country’s development and modernisation (Buchowski Reference Buchowski2006). In addition, the rapid development of the Internet and new media further expanded the repertoire of easily accessible musical content with which the local artists had to compete. This situation led some journalists and music critics to announce the beginning of the end of disco polo. However, time has shown that the rumours about the death of disco polo were premature. Disco polo artists survived the difficult period by doing what had worked best for them so far, such as giving regular concerts in villages and small towns, which allowed them to maintain direct contact with their fans. Moreover, in the long run, it turned out that the creators of disco polo also benefited from the emergence of new technologies. As a result, they partially altered their image, a significant professionalisation of the music’s production took place, and the aesthetics of disco polo music videos changed. Furthermore, disco polo began to be quite visible on YouTube and social media. This ‘new’ disco polo, in a refreshed version, was nothing like the amateur productions of the 1990s. A certain manifestation of the fans’ appreciation of this change was a rapidly growing number of views of the newest disco polo songs on YouTube, competing with the level of the biggest stars of the Polish mainstream music scene (Wyrzykowska Reference Wyrzykowska and Kotarba2018, pp. 202-3).

The following years brought an intensification of the presence of disco polo in media. In 2011, Polo TV – a TV station mainly dedicated to disco polo – was established. In the same year, the television show ‘Disco Polo Live’ returned to Polsat TV. Two years later, one of the bank companies used a theme from a song by one of the well-known disco polo stars, Shazza, in their marketing campaign (Łuczaj Reference Łuczaj2020, p. 111). However, the real breakthrough came in 2016, when during a New Year’s Eve celebration organised and broadcast by the public television, the star of Polish pop music, Maryla Rodowicz, and the king of disco polo, Zenon Martyniuk performed one of his greatest hits together, ‘Przez te oczy zielone’ (‘Because of those green eyes’). What was unthinkable in the 1990s and early 2000s became a reality: a distinguished artist performing a song that is a symbol of the widely criticised disco polo. The idea of such a performance came from the then-head of the Polish public television, Jacek Kurski, who is also a prominent politician of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) party, ruling the country at that time (Borys Reference Borys2019, pp. 29-30). Kurski directly emphasised that it was in line with the preferences of millions of Poles:

In the opinion of many journalists and popular culture researchers, this event definitively confirmed disco polo’s promotion to the mainstream.

Prawo i Sprawiedliwość has effectively leveraged the political potential of disco polo. In this context, the literature on the subject contains opinions that disco polo is a manifestation of the so-called provincial rebellion (Borys Reference Borys2019, pp. 103-6). Above all, disco polo culture challenges the stereotypical vision of the Polish provinces imposed by the big-city elites. Disco polo is therefore sometimes viewed as a cultural alternative to elite music, which is often associated with serious themes, a high level of musical complexity, and a challenging reception. Disco polo is thus a symbol of cultural independence, as well as economic success achieved without the support of the state or major music industry actors (Filar Reference Filar2014; Socha Reference Socha and Gałuszka2020). Moreover, the preference for disco polo is sometimes interpreted as an identity-based choice, a kind of declaration of strong attachment to one’s region of origin, its culture, and music (Sierakowska Reference Sierakowska2019). Undoubtedly, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość has been very sensitive to the cultural and class tensions surrounding disco polo. Incorporating the tension between the elites and the general public surrounding disco polo into its political strategies was relatively easy. For many years, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość has consistently advocated for the elites that formed with the fall of communism to be removed from power and deprived of their influence on social reality in Poland. Among these unwanted elites, we find journalists, intellectuals, scientists, and publicists who had publicly criticised disco polo and who for years ‘defended’ the public sphere from this music. Therefore, it is clear that the appreciation of this ‘provincial rebellion’ was a valuable tool in gaining and maintaining an electorate that is tired of the dominance of the post-communist elites. Consequently, disco polo not only entered public television controlled by Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, but also became a recurrent feature of the party’s congresses and other official events.

Methods and data

The analyses presented in this article are based on the results of a nationwide qualitative study conducted in 2021 (an online formula).Footnote ² The basic unit of analysis was the family. Both married couples and people in informal relationships who perceived themselves as family were invited to participate. Each family study consisted of In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with partners and their children (ages eight and up) and a Focus Group Interview (FGI) with all the family members. The results discussed in this text are based on individual interviews with adults only.

The selection of specific cases was based on four criteria. Firstly, only families whose adult members actively participate in musical culture and declare an interest in music were recruited (i.e. music is an essential element of their lives). One of the study’s goals was to trace the patterns of cultural transmission, which made having children a crucial criterion. In addition, in order to trace the variety of cultural practices and reflect class diversity in Poland, representatives from five socio-professional categories were invited to participate in the qualitative study. These were the so-called cultural elites (i.e. specialists in highly qualified professions related to culture, but also managers, executives, and specialists in highly skilled professions seen as possessing high cultural capital); white-collar workers (e.g. mid-level specialists in the fields of the education and culture, nurses, insurance agents, secretaries, police officers); non-agriculture owners (i.e. the owners of manufacturing plants, shops, and other commercial facilities); skilled and unskilled workers (e.g. miners, electricians, machine operators, bakers); and farmers. The fourth criterion was the size of the place of residence (i.e. the balance between rural residents and residents of cities of various sizes has been kept). Forty families took part in the study, eight per profile. A total of eighty adults took part in the interviews. The interviews were conducted in audio-video form and then transcribed, maintaining the naturalness of the respondents’ expressions. Later, all the files were analysed with the assistance of the MAXQDA program.

Disco polo as a musical phenomenon

The interviews with adult respondents followed a semi-structured scenario. One of the aims of the study was to reconstruct the development of individual interests and locate them in a broader socio-cultural context. Disco polo and its then-peak of popularity were therefore not the main topics of the interviews. While planning the study, we did not suspect that the disco polo phenomenon would appear spontaneously in the respondents’ narrations so often. Regardless of the social origins of respondents, they wove various disco polo threads into the stories about childhood, youth, or neighbours and friends. Most also felt the need to mention the remarkable success disco polo has achieved in recent years. However, it must be stressed that among all of the respondents, only a few declared that they like and listen to disco polo. These were mostly men from the group of farmers and workers. Among their favourite artists, they indicate bands that can be described as the protoplasts of this genre (i.e. Bayer Full, Boys, Classic, etc.), and they were less interested in newer disco polo bands. Most of the respondents listened to a diverse range of music, with a dominance of broadly understood pop and rock, also admitting to reaching for classical, traditional, and folk music. Some of the male interviewees declared listening to (mostly Polish) rap, typically choosing artists with a well-established market position.

Most of the respondents expressed negative comments about disco polo. They criticise trivial and often vulgar lyrics and repetitive and monotonous music: ‘Totally simple, dumb music …. Disco polo is simply music for no-brainers’ (KK_W_MFootnote ³). The most critical voices appeared among people representing cultural elites and owners. The representatives of workers and farmers had more understanding of the aesthetic value of disco polo; while they also expressed negative opinions, their remarks were more balanced and focused primarily on the purely entertaining nature of this type of music:

Respondents most frequently describe the lyrics as simple or crude, the music as lacking deeper reflection on life, and the sounds as repetitive, banal, and predictable.

Almost all the participants acknowledged the promotion of disco polo to mainstream music in Poland; however, their assessments of this process varied. Based on empirical material, we distinguish three types of reaction to this phenomenon. The first is the expression of disgust and strong contestation of the presence of disco polo in the mainstream. Respondents employing this narrative disapprove of public media promoting music they consider ‘the worst of all’, believing that these outlets should focus solely on high-quality cultural content.

They see the reason for this in the fact that the then-ruling party, which controlled the public media, realised that promoting disco polo had a certain political potential. According to the respondents, the introduction of disco polo into public radio and television can be read as a tribute to people whose musical tastes were previously marginalised. Disco polo fans could finally feel that someone noticed and appreciated them, which could possibly have transferred into real benefits for the politicians of the then-ruling party (e.g. they would gain a new electorate in the next elections). Moreover, the respondents noted an increased presence of disco polo performers in advertising and the press, particularly on gossip websites:

Another respondent underlined that public television played a significant role in the process of promoting disco polo in the mainstream:

However, the event that profoundly disturbed several interviewees was Zenon Martyniuk’s benefit concert in Białystok at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. For some respondents, it constituted a symbolic violation of a space they strongly associated with high culture. This type of critical attitude towards the rise of disco polo is most often observed among the owners and the representatives of the cultural elite.

The second type of opinion regarding disco polo’s emergence in the mainstream is marked by a fascination with the phenomenon, yet, at the same time, considers this music genre to have low cultural value. For this group of respondents, disco polo represents a low artistic level. Still, they somehow admire the path that the artists associated with the genre have gone through, so their success is appreciated. For instance, a man who daily listens to progressive rock and blues comments as follows:

Another respondent, who reported mainly listening to Polish pop and American rock, observes and values the fact that disco polo artists are able to fill entire stadiums during their concerts:

This type of fascination with the disco polo phenomenon is especially visible in the case of the respondents from the cultural elites and white-collar workers.

The third kind of reaction to the appearance of disco polo in the mainstream is indifference – for some respondents from the farmers and workers group, disco polo was in their social environment for many years. Even if these respondents do not like this type of music, they have become accustomed to its omnipresence:

The appearance of disco polo in the public media did not impress this group of respondents, as they had witnessed the genre’s development firsthand in their close social environment. Hence, the promotion of disco polo to the nationwide media was not so surprising to them:

Disco polo fans: the same as before, or maybe different people?

Fans constitute a crucial component of disco polo culture, as they form a dynamic and engaged community. The question arises whether the increased presence of disco polo in mainstream media contributed to the emergence of new listeners and whether this dynamic led to greater visibility of these audiences relative to those associated with other musical genres.

In most cases, respondents construed disco polo fans through the lens of the music itself, characterizing them as having poor taste, limited education, and minimal musical knowledge.

Among most respondents, the typical disco polo listener is perceived as a resident of a small town or village, characterized by a passive attitude, limited aspirations, and a primary focus on entertainment: ‘It is probably unfair what I’m going to say and very stereotypical, but this folk music, that is disco polo, is more associated with the music of such people who are intellectually poorer, in a civic and social sense’ (KS_EK_M). Another interviewee adds:

A significant part of the respondents easily point to Eastern Poland as the region that, in their opinion, is inseparably linked to disco polo. They see the east of the country as the place where most of the disco polo fans reside, especially in the Podlasie region, which is directly indicated as the place where disco polo was born:

Simultaneously, the respondents highlight that disco polo fans constitute a closely knit community that gathers and attends concerts together. This is not a new phenomenon – disco polo fans had long constituted a relatively united community, yet it was only through their growing visibility on public television that this became evident to the wider Polish audience:

Although the disco polo fan community is seen positively by many interviewees, most respondents distance themselves from the idea of joining the group. Especially the representatives of the cultural elites and owners draw sharp boundaries between their own community and the audience of disco polo: ‘In any case, I probably couldn’t make friends with such a person; it would be a problem for me if he or she listened to it. It makes me think negatively about this person’ (DZC_W_M). Another respondent expresses it even more explicitly:

However, it should be stressed that respondents from the other three groups (i.e. white-collar workers, farmers, and manual workers) are less likely to express such strong criticisms, although there are still some examples of denial of disco polo fans among members of these groups: ‘As Pidżama Porno [an alternative rock band] sang: “I will never love a girl who listens to disco polo”. I think there is a certain limit somewhere’ (WR_ROB_M).

It appears that the incorporation of disco polo into the mainstream did not significantly alter the social composition of its audience. Nevertheless, some respondents noted that they observe more young people listening to disco polo:

However, it should be emphasized that the interviewees had in mind primarily young adults, not youth or teenagers:

This interest in disco polo, visible among young people, is associated with eliminating shame, a type of feeling that, for many, has long been related to liking this genre. The respondents mention that listening to disco polo was related from the beginning with avoiding public admission of appreciation of this type of music. Disco polo has always been criticised, and listening to it was a sign of poor musical taste:

With the rise of disco polo, it seems that its fans got rid of this inferiority complex, felt appreciated, and stopped being afraid to show their affinity in public:

‘… and back’: summary and discussion

Our study was conducted in 2021, i.e. at the peak of the recent rise of disco polo’s popularity. In October 2023, parliamentary elections were held in Poland. Although Prawo i Sprawiedliwość won, the result did not give them the prospect of governing independently; they were unable to form a government. At the end of the year, a new government formed under the leadership of the opposing Koalicja Obywatelska (Civic Coalition) immediately took over the public media and introduced new orders. This marked the beginning of the end of disco polo in the public media. Disco polo bands still appear on the private Polsat television, which supported it almost from the start. Also, online media, in particular gossip portals, still devote some attention to the genre, but they mostly focus on disco polo stars’ private lives (e.g. Zenon Martyniuk’s family problems), not the music as such. Radio stations that specialised in playing mainly this type of music still exist. Nevertheless, the necessity of participating in disco polo culture, whether wanted or unwanted, has ended for the majority of Poles.

It appears that the temporary promotion of disco polo to the mainstream was superficial and, to some extent, artificial: it was not caused by naturally growing popularity of the genre and new crowds of fans, but rather by politically calculated programming decisions of the public media authorities. According to the respondents from the presented study, disco polo was only a tool to gain the support of social groups that had been so far less privileged, with their musical preferences mocked and pushed to the margins. The entanglement of disco polo with the political sphere differs fundamentally from that of, for example, its Serbian counterpart, Turbo-Folk. Artists associated with Turbo-Folk frequently offered explicit endorsements of Serbian nationalism, a trend particularly pronounced during the 1990s (Archer Reference Archer2012). Such ideological motifs are largely absent from disco polo. However, disco polo’s breakthrough to the mainstream would not have been possible without the support of the ruling party and the subordinate public media. Disco polo bands took advantage of the favour of politicians in order to appear on a broader scale; this transferred into financial success, the emergence of new earning opportunities (e.g. participation in commercials), and advancement to the world of celebrities.

Another phenomenon highlighted by the respondents concerns the influence of disco polo’s growing popularity on the attitudes and public visibility of its listeners. One can get the impression that disco polo fans, marginalised for years, finally felt noticed and respected. The music they like, and to which some of them had been faithful, suddenly started to be ‘appreciated’. Therefore, following Ziemowit Socha, we can look at disco polo as a tool that gives a sense of agency and enables modernisation of Poland’s peripheral regions:

An essential element of this process is overcoming the sense of shame associated with listening to disco polo. This is new because, as Michał Rydlewski notes, shame and embarrassing practices have been used by the dominant class to impose their narrative on the subordinate class with respect to listening to disco polo (Rydlewski Reference Rydlewski2020, pp. 281-2). Our respondents depict disco polo listeners as individuals who no longer conceal their musical preferences and, in fact, often display them openly. As respondents frequently noted, the strong sense of integration and community that emerged among disco polo fans following the genre’s rise to the mainstream undoubtedly facilitates their ability to ‘defend’ themselves against attacks and criticism.

At the same time, it appears that the social profile of disco polo listeners has not changed much. Despite the strong promotion of this genre by the public media, it does not seem that representatives of cultural elites or other groups of the middle class have become convinced of the genre. Nevertheless, within this group, one can also observe attempts to reappraise disco polo culture, as well as the emergence of practices that may be described as the ironic consumption of disco polo. The ironic mode of appropriation of music involves culturally privileged individuals reaching for cultural content perceived as a domain of groups with low social status. However, this practice does not legitimise the content itself, but rather emphasises the distance between the two groups and serves as a tool of social distinction (Prieur and Savage Reference Prieur and Savage2013, pp. 257-8). Therefore, neither attempts at understanding what the phenomenon is all about, nor listening to this type of music, ironically, makes the respondents change their attitude about disco polo. Despite this, it is worth showing the existence of this type of musical practice, as it would have been unthinkable in the early years of disco polo. Moreover, the only profound change in the profile of disco polo fans observed by the respondents was the appearance of young people among the listeners of this genre. Some respondents attributed the emergence of this new type of listener to the increased visibility of disco polo in the media.

The advancement of disco polo to the mainstream shows the extent to which this genre is entangled in the class order and the fight over the musical taste of Poles. Its growing presence and visibility in the media revived the discussion on what is valuable and what is not, and who has the right to determine and decide what is good. Moreover, the discussed process can also be treated as a test through which the Polish elites and middle class have worked through their prejudices against disco polo and its listeners. The analysis of the empirical material reveals that cultural elites, owners, and partly white-collar workers still have a rather critical attitude towards disco polo. Despite the above-mentioned fascination with the phenomenon, they still believe that it is music of low aesthetic and artistic value. More often than other groups, they point out disco polo performers’ connections with politics. In addition, the cultural elites (and partly also the owners) seem to be much more aware of their class autonomy and willingly emphasised this during interviews by reinforcing negative statements about disco polo. These attempts to defend against the invasion of disco polo can be interpreted as securing one’s own position in the field of power, as defined by Pierre Bourdieu (Bourdieu Reference Bourdieu1984, pp. 226-56). The cultural elites and other representatives of the upper middle class, while defending against disco polo, claiming its primitive character, and outraged by its omnipresence on television, are in fact maintaining the stability of a specific system of cultural hierarchies and the right to decide what should be at the top and what should be at the bottom. Additionally, by distancing themselves from disco polo listeners, this group of respondents uses symbolic violence – they impose their worldviews and values, often using harsh, categorical, and sometimes even hateful language. In an article about disco polo published at the beginning of 2020, Kamil Łuczaj summed up the revival of disco polo:

Looking from today’s perspective, we can risk the claim that it was a partial victory. At the end of 2023, the new government cut off disco polo from the public media and other forms of state support, and for the mass audience, disco polo became merely a part of the celebrity world.

Unfortunately, the available data are insufficient to determine the extent to which the genre’s promotion into the mainstream contributed to the growth of disco polo’s audience, or whether it attracted listeners migrating from other musical genres. In 2018, the Public Opinion Research Centre (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej, CBOS) published a comparison of its findings from 2018 with those from 1996. These analyses suggest that the socio-demographic profile of the fans of this genre remained almost unchanged over more than twenty years. Moreover, there has been a slight increase in the number of people expressing a negative opinion of disco polo (CBOS 2018). These results are consistent with the narratives of the respondents in our study. It can therefore be noted that despite a period of strong promotion in the public media, disco polo is still not accepted by groups that were previously hostile towards it, i.e. the liberal middle class, big-city elites, and the intelligentsia. Nor do we see any greater interest in disco polo on the part of the media or record companies, which previously usually avoided this genre. However, the biggest winners in this battle over taste are disco polo fans, as they benefited the most from the promotion of disco polo to the mainstream. This strengthened their sense of self-worth, taught them to cope with class shame, and reinforced their integration as a community built around shared musical preferences.

In the context of the disco polo revival, the class distinctiveness of the respondents from the group of farmers and workers is also noticeable. Although the interviewees do not explicitly declare a desire to emphasise their autonomy, this tendency becomes apparent when their statements are analysed in relation to the narratives provided by other groups of respondents. Regardless of the declared sympathy for disco polo, workers, and especially farmers, seem to be more understanding of the phenomenon of disco polo’s advancement to the mainstream. They discuss this process in a relatively subdued and unemotional way as something natural and expected. Farmers in particular have always been aware of the omnipresence of disco polo in their immediate environment, so its conquest of the public media is more acceptable for them than for representatives of the cultural elite. While some respondents in this group distance themselves from disco polo and from its popularity in villages and small towns, when they assume the position of an external observer, they nonetheless recognise certain positive dimensions of disco polo culture, including its role in cultivating a sense of community around music.