Bracket

[aleCcowaN]

In the first week of auditions of Britain's Got Talent, season 6, contestant Sam Kelly, from rural Norfolk, explains "(I) never really fit in with the working bracket of my family...".

What does bracket mean in that context?

Maybe I heard it wrong. It's about 0:30

[Rusty]

You heard it right. Bracket is used in this sense as a grouping of people based on their income. He felt he doesn't fit in with the working class, the working bracket, of his family because of his ambitions/talents in music.

[Perikles]

Escrito originalmente por Rusty

You heard it right. Bracket is used in this sense as a grouping of people based on their income. He felt he doesn't fit in with the working class, the working bracket, of his family because of his ambitions/talents in music.

I've heard it used specifically in the context of 'income bracket' as a range of incomes which has a particular tax code. I have never heard it extended to 'working bracket', but then I can't keep up with how English changes, especially slang. He's a nice kid, but doesn't seem to have a very good grasp of English. My guess is he is using the expression incorrectly.

[aleCcowaN]

Thank you very much, both of you. First time I heard that, I imagined a team of harvesters working coordinately and this chap playing the mandolin "outside the bracket", figuratively. He certainly may succeed in music, as his voice has the uncommon quality of singing to multitudes as if he were singing to every person one by one.