Popular art
Popular art refers to products from the various branches of the “ culture industry ” as well as the work of individuals who align themselves with popular trends. The term is very fuzzy and is in a process of change from an originally negative meaning to a term used neutrally in science.
The term popular art took the place of the term folk art when something current, apparently short-lived, was to be distinguished from the simple but traditional. Folk art apparently feeds on traditions and rites, while popular art draws its inspiration from current events, especially in the mass media and the products of the entertainment industry. Folk art originally belonged to the culture of the Third Estate , the demarcated from the culture of the nobles with increasing self-confidence and the educated middle class has been upgraded. This folk art for its part became exclusive and thus separated from a mass culture . The folk song in Europe is apparently more traditional than the pop song , but on closer inspection it was no less with the current media of the 18th and 19th centuries. Century linked like the school book . In this respect, “folk art” is an ideal or an ideology, while the term popular art encompasses everything de facto popular that is often delimited from the products of a high culture .
The relationship between high culture and the art accepted by the art world on the one hand and popular art on the other is characterized by a mutual tension. On the one hand, (high) art distinguishes itself from popular art, which is oriented towards entertainment and commerce, on the other hand, popular art, like folk art before it, serves as a constant source of inspiration for contemporary art production. There are many examples of this, especially in the serious music of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Shostakovich or Krenek's adoption of jazz motifs. The penetration of the various areas of music has meanwhile led to the fact that outside of the German-speaking area the division into E, light and F music is no longer common.
In the visual arts , the reference of Pop Art artists to mainstream comics is a well-known example of the approach to popular art . Also, design and visual arts have now converged.