The art world is all artists and non-artists involved in the production, commission, preservation, promotion, and sale of art.

Howard S. Becker, who coined the term, 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, folk music world, and commercial music world. Timothy Taylor (2004) associates these worlds with three popular music genres: rock, rap, and pop, respectively.

Sources

• Sanjeck, David (1999). Institutions. Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. California: Blackwell. ISBN 0631212639.
  • Becker, Howard S. (1982). Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520052188.
• Washburne, Christopher J. and Derno, Maiken (eds.) (2004). Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415943663.
  • Taylor, Timothy D. "Bad World Music".
    • Frith, Simon (1996). Performing Rites: on the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.