Editing Highbrow (section)

==Applications==
"Highbrow" can be applied to [[music]], implying most of the [[European classical music|classical music]] tradition; to literature—i.e., [[literary fiction]] and [[poetry]]; to films in the [[art film|arthouse]] line; and to comedy that requires significant understanding of [[analogies]] or references to appreciate. The term ''highbrow'' is considered by some (with corresponding labels as 'middlebrow' 'lowbrow') as discerning or selective;<ref>Lawrence W. Levine, "Prologue", ''Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America'', 1990: 3</ref> and ''highbrow'' is currently distanced from the writer by quotation marks: "We thus focus on the consumption of two generally recognised 'highbrow' genres—opera and classical".<ref>Tak Wing Chan, ''Social Status and Cultural Consumption'' 2010: 60</ref> The first usage in print of ''highbrow'' was recorded in 1884.<ref>{{OED|Highbrow}}</ref> The term was popularized in 1902 by Will Irvin, a reporter for ''[[The Sun (New York)|The Sun]]'' of New York City, who adhered to the phrenological notion of more intelligent people having high foreheads.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hendrickson|first=Robert|title=Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins|url=https://archive.org/details/qpbencyclopediao00robe|url-access=registration|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York|year=1997|isbn=9780965379458|quote=New York Sun reporter Will Irvin popularized 'highbrow,' and its opposite 'lowbrow' in 1902, basing his creation on the wrongful notion that people with high foreheads have bigger brains and are more intelligent and [[intellectual]] than those with low foreheads. At first the term was complimentary, but 'Tristi' came to be at best a neutral word.)}}</ref>