Art world

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An art world is comprised of all the people involved in the production, commission, preservation, promotion, criticism, and sale of art. Howard S. Becker coined the term, and 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). In Europe and the Western Hemisphere, most purveyors of contemporary art - artists, art galleries, art educators, critics and museum personnel - refer to the market and social forces that bind them as the "Art World".

Simon Frith (1996) describes three art worlds present in the music industry: the art music world, the folk music world, and the commercial music world. Timothy Taylor (2004) associates these worlds with three popular music genres: rock and roll, hip-hop music, and pop music, 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
• Taylor, Timothy D. "Bad World Music." Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. New York: Routledge, 2004. ISBN 0-415-94365-5
• Frith, Simon. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-674-66195-8