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, p. x)

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.

Sources

• Sanjeck, David. "Institutions." Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. ISBN 0631212639
• Becker, Howard S. Art Worlds. Berkley: University of California Press, 1982. ISBN 0520052188
• Taylor, Timothy D. "Bad World Music." Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. New York: Routledge, 2004. ISBN 0415943655
• Frith, Simon. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. ISBN 0674661958

Arts