Art world

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The art world is the "world" composed of all the people involved in the production, commission, preservation, promotion, criticism, and sale of art. Howard S. Becker describes it as "the network of people whose cooperative activity, organized via their joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things, produce(s) the kind of art works that art world is noted for" (Becker, 1982). Sarah Thornton describes it as "a loose network of overlapping subcultures held together by a belief in art. They span the globe but cluster in art capitals like New York, London, Los Angeles, and Berlin." (Thornton 2008)

[edit] Music

Simon Frith (1996) describes three art worlds present in the music industry: the art music world, folk music world, and commercial music world. Timothy Taylor (2004) associates these worlds with three popular music genres: rock, rap, and pop, respectively.

[edit] Sources

• Sanjeck, David. "Institutions." Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. ISBN 0-631-21263-9
• Becker, Howard S. Art Worlds. Berkley: University of California Press, 1982. ISBN 0-520-05218-8. Cited in Sanjeck (1999).
• Frith, Simon. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-674-66195-8. Cited in Taylor (2004).
• Taylor, Timothy D. "Bad World Music" in Washburne, Christopher J. and Derno, Maiken (eds.) (2004). Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415943663.
• Thornton, Sarah. Seven Days in the Art World New York: WW Norton, 2008.