The Definition of Art

Each of us thinks of art and enjoys art in our own unique ways. However, art is so varied and means different things to so many of us.

Definitions of art are:

• The making of objects, images, music, etc. that are beautiful or that express feelings.
• Skill acquired by experience, study, or observation. A branch of learning, like one of the humanities.
• The conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.
• Art is the activity or educational subject that consists of creating paintings, sculptures, and other pictures or objects for people to look at and admire or think deeply about.

What is art? ART is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, the various branches of creative activity, such as PAINTING, SCULPTURE, MUSIC, LITERATURE, DANCE…

The Various Branches of Creative Activity

Our Activities such as when we Create, Work, Build, Design, Construct, Draw, Form, Generate, Invent, Make, Organize, Plan, Produce, Shape, Sculpt, Author, Compose, Paint, Decorate, Fashion, Formulate, Play, Dance, Write, Originate, Perform, Sing, Cook, etc.

Major Constituents of the Arts Include

Literary Arts (Literature) including Drama, Poetry, and Prose

Performing Arts – Is that form of art which includes Dance, Music, Theater, Opera, Films, Drama, and Shows. It is the most popular, recognizable, acknowledged, and appreciated form of art.

Visual Arts – Is a form of art that uses any medium to signify the artist’s idea, sentiment and imagination. Examples include Architecture, Ceramics, Conceptual art, Drawing, Painting, Photography, and Sculpture.

Applied art is a portion of visual art and it can be defined as art that has real-world application as well as functionality. Examples of applied art: Architecture, Fashion Design, Wood Crafts, Interior Design.

Art as a Form of Communication

Art was developed from the beginning of time as a form of communication.

From cliff drawings, petroglyphs, they were used to convey what primitive man wanted to say.

Besides signs, sounds started to be used to somewhat communicate with others around. Thus language in its earliest form was developing.

Language was written as drawings sketches. Then simple sounds became simple words. Words ultimately could be written as words, not just drawings. So sounds and words evolved to this day as Literature. The many forms of the written words. Philosophy, notes, letters, short stories, books, etc.

The sound of words was also music. Singing was the earliest form of music. Instruments were made from earthen materials. What we have now as wind, drum, etc.

Well-known Literary Artists

Literary Artists as authors, novelists, poets, playwrights, storytellers, and other writers produce their written classics in countless books, poems, plays, dramas, essays, letters, dialogues, and various writings.

A. A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh), Aeschylus (Oresteia, The Persians, Seven Against Thebes), Aesop (Aesop’s Fables), Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death on the Nile, The Murder at the Vicarage, Partners In Crime, The ABC Murders, And Then There Were None, The Mousetrap), Albert Camus (The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel, The Plague), Aldous Huxley was also a screenplay writer (Brave New World), Aleksandr Pushkin (Eugene Onegin, The Captain’s Daughter), Alexander Pope (Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad), Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo).

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (The Beggar Maid, A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplaces of the English language, including “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”.), Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking Series), August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (Das Lied der Deutschen), Bram Stoker (Dracula).

Brothers Grimm (Cinderella, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Children’s and Household Tales), C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Allegory of Love, The Screwtape Letters, The Space Trilogy), Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, The Pickwick Papers), Charles Kingsley (The Last Buccaneer), Christian Friedrich Hebbel (Die Nibelungen), Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders), Derek Walcott (Omeros, Dream on Monkey Mountain, White Egrets).

Dr. Seuss real name – Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel (The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Green Eggs and Ham), Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven), Emily Dickinson (Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955 – her hidden works after she died), Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not), Euripides (Collectibles – Plays: Euripides Electra), F. Scott Fitzgerald (This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, The Last Tycoon).

Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Genealogy of Morality), Friedrich Schiller (Ode to Joy), Gabriel García Márquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Autumn of the Patriarch, Love in the Time of Cholera), Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales, The House of Fame, The Book of the Duchess), George Eliot was the pen name for Mary Anne Evans (The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch), George Gordon Byron (Don Juan), George Orwell real name was Eric Arthur Blair (Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four), Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary).

H. G. Wells (The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man), H. P. Lovecraft (The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness), Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Nightingale), Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), Heinrich von Veldeke (The Life of Saint Servatius), Henrik Ibsen (The Works of Henrik Ibsen), Henry David Thoreau (Walden, Civil Disobedience), Herman Melville (Moby-Dick or The Whale)Hermann Hesse (The Glass Bead Game, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, Demian).

Homer (Iliad, Odyssey), Honoré de Balzac (Pere Goriot), Isaac Asimov (Foundation series, Galactic Empire series, Robot series), Jamaica Kincaid (A Small Place, Lucy), J. D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye), J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter series), Jack London (The Call of the Wild, White Fang), James Joyce (Ulysses), Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, Elective Affinities, Prometheus).

John Grisham (The Firm, The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, Skipping Christmas, and A Time to Kill), John Keats (The Complete Poems by John Keats, The Letters of John Keats), John Milton (Paradise Lost), John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), Jorge Luis Borges (Fictions, The Aleph), Joseph Conrad (The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’, Heart of Darkness), Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, Around the World in Eighty Days), Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions).

Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Kingdom of God Is Within You), Leonardo da Vinci (The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci), Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass), Lord Byron (Don Juan, She Walks in Beauty, Manfred, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage), Louisa May Alcott (Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys), Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time), Mark Twain (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus), Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote), Molière (Tartuffe), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter), Nikolai Gogol (Dead Souls), Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray).

Ovid (Metamorphoses), Plato (The Republic, Gorgias, Phaedo), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance and Other Essays), Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and I Sing the Body Electric), Richard Lovelace (To Althea, from Prison; To Lucasta, Going to the Warres), Roald Dahl (the writer of the performed scripts – Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, You Only Live Twice), Robert Frost (A Boy’s Will, North of Boston), Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, The Master of Ballantrae), Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Kim, Captains Courageous).

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, “Kubla Khan”, Christabel), Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot), Salman Rushdie (Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses), Socrates (Socratic method, Socratic concepts), Sophocles (Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Oedipus at Colonus), Søren Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling, Diary of a Seducer, Repetition), Stephen King (Pet Sematary, Salem’s Lot, The Green Mile, The Shining), T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land), Thomas à Kempis (The Imitation of Christ), Thomas Mann (Death in Venice), Victor Hugo (Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), Virgil full name Publius Vergilius Maro (Aeneid, Georgics),Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway).

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (Lolita, The Defense), Voltaire – real name François-Marie Arouet (Zaïre, The Age of Louis XIV, Candide), V. S. Naipaul (A House for Mr Biswas, The Mystic Masseur, Miguel Street, In a Free State), Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), William Butler Yeats (The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, Eleven Plays of William Butler Yeats), William Faulkner (A Fable, The Reivers, Fiction, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, A Rose for Emily).

William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, 1 Henry IV), William Wordsworth (Lyrical Ballads, The Excursion, The Prelude, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud).

The Development of Performance Art

The development of Performance Art from Plays, Music to Opera with Music, Theatre Shows on Broadway, and then came Silent Movies, followed by Movies with sound on the Silver Screen. All the different aspects of Art became intertwined and intersperse. Radio was developed as a news and entertainment programming medium. Television soon followed with television or tv shows and weekly series and films. Television networks, cable channels grew.

Now we have the internet – the world wide web. YouTube videos and channels are watched by millions of people every day. There is Streaming music, streaming live videos and shows. All the performing arts are still evolving in apps (computer programs and applications) on computers, tablets, and smartphones. Now there are VR -virtual reality devices and art is evolving through these devices and media as time unfolds.

Music

Primitive music, or prehistoric music is followed by ancient music as folk, indigenous or traditional music. It is probable that the first musical instrument was the human voice itself.

Periods and eras of Western classical music: Medieval (c. 500–1400), Renaissance (c. 1400–1600), Baroque (c. 1600–1760), Classical (c. 1730–1820), Romantic (c. 1780–1910), Impressionist (c. 1890–1925), Expressionist (c. 1908–1950), Modern (c. 1890–1975), Postmodern (c. 1930–present), Contemporary (c. 1945–present).

Gregorian Chant – “Dies Irae” YouTube Video

Medieval music that survived from before 800 to the present day is the plainsong liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church, the largest part of which is called Gregorian chant. Famous Renaissance music composers included Andrea and Giovanni, as well as Claudio Monteverdi, one of the most significant innovators at the end of the era. Well-known music composers from the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, and Antonio Vivaldi. The Classical Music period featured composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Famous Romantic music composers include Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bellini, Berlioz, Johann Strauss II, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Wagner, Dvořák, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Puccini, Sibelius, Grieg, and Rachmaninoff.

Arnold Schönberg – String Quartet No. “0” in D major (1897) YouTube Video

Our 20th and 21st-century music involved that of Arnold Schoenberg and that of Igor Stravinsky initially. Music composers Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern lay the foundation for the experimental techniques of other artist like Karlheinz Stockhausen. And in America, composers like John Cage, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich, fashioned their own ideas and became noted for their innovations in music.

Philip Glass – Glassworks (complete) YouTube Video

20s Music

I’m Just a Vagabond Lover (1929) Rudy Vallee YouTube Video

Popular in the Twenties included the music of dance bands Rudy Vallee, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, Ben Bernie and his Orchestra, and the Nat Shilkret Orchestra. Popular Jazz Musicians were Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Count Basie. Blues musicians included Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Jimmie Rodgers, and popular Broadway stars were Eddie Cantor, and Al Jolson. Some of the most popular dances of the time were the “Charleston,” the “Black Bottom,” the “Shimmy,” the “Foxtrot,” and the “Lindy Hop”.

Louis Armstrong – Hello Dolly YouTube Video

Broadway musicals which originated in the theatrical Broadway area of New York City became a place where talented performers, composers, writers, and musicians gathered to create new art together. Composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin thrived in their creation of this form of musical theater. And then some of these composers works were developed into musical films or Musicals like Show Boat.

An american in Paris – I got Rhythm YouTube Video

30s Music

Glenn Miller – Chattanooga Choo Choo (remastered) – Sun Valley Serenade (1941) HQ YouTube Video

Swing and Big Band became prominent throughout the 1930s and the 1940s as Jazz music evolved into some of these different styles. Popular in the 1930s were Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Eddie Cantor, Shirley Temple, Dick Powell, Betty Grable, Irene Dunne, Johnny Mercer, Mae West, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, Fred Astaire, Perry Como, Russ Columbo, Johnny Mercer, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Hoagy Carmichael, Eddie Cantor.

Frank Sinatra – Fly Me To The Moon (Live At The Kiel Opera House, St. Louis, MO/1965) YouTube Video

40s Music

Bing Crosby – White Christmas (1950) YouTube Video

Some of the favorites in the 1940s were Judy Garland, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Glenn Miller, Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Les Brown, Peggy Lee, Fletcher Henderson, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Red Foley, Tex Williams, Eddy Arnold, The Carter Sisters, Hank Williams, Carmen Miranda, Tito Puente, Perez Prado.

Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White – Pérez Prado YouTube Video

50s Music

Ray Charles – What’d I Say LIVE YouTube Video

The 1950s heralded the rise of Rhythm & Blues (R&B) and Rock ‘n’ Roll music. Popular among the Rhythm & Blues music were Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, The Drifters, Fats Domino, The Platters, James Brown, and Lloyd Price. For Rock ‘n’ Roll Musicians there were Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chubby Checker, Billy Haley & the Comets, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Roy Orbison, and Gene Vincent.

Bill Haley & His Comets – Rock Around The Clock (1955) HD YouTube Video

Popular 50s pop artists included Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Patti Page, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Frankie Laine, Andrews Sisters, and Pat Boone. Country stars included Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, Hank Williams, Conway Twitty, Patsy Cline, The Everly Brothers, June Carter Cash, and Les Paul.

Elvis Presley Heatrbreak Hotel Live (1956) YouTube Video

60s Music

Blowing In The Wind (Live On TV, March 1963) YouTube Video

The 60s music morphed into folk music, singers-songwriters with stars such as Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, The Mamas & the Papas, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Cat Stevens, Buffalo Springfield, and Pete Seeger. Rock music included The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Beatles, The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beach Boys, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds, The Who, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, and The Animals.

The Beatles – I Want To Hold Your Hand – Performed Live On The Ed Sullivan Show 2/9/64 YouTube Video

Some popular Motown and 60’s R&B artists include Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations, The Marvelettes, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Jackson Five, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and The Spinners. Then there was the Woodstock music festival in August 1969 held over 3 days, northwest of New York City, which drew an audience of more than 400,000 people.

The Supremes – Baby Love YouTube Video

70s Music

Bee Gees – I started a joke YouTube Video

Out of the 70s music scene emerged the short-lived Disco movement with acts such as Van McCoy, Gloria Gaynor, The Bee Gees, The Village People, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Yvonne Elliman, Thelma Houston, Donna Summer, Chic, and ABBA. Included in this decade were the Singers and Songwriters Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Elton John, Carole King and Billy Joel. Other 70s music included The Carpenters, Three Dog Night, George Harrison, Bill Withers, Neil Young, Al Green, Barbara Streisand, Glen Campbell, and The Eagles.

ABBA Dancing Queen Live 1977 YouTube Video

The 70s Rock mucic included Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Rush, Queen, Grand Funk Railroad, Kansas, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Cars, Blondie, Talking Heads, David Bowie, and Patti Smith. 1970s Soul and Funk music featured artists like James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, Rufus & Chaka Khan, The Isley Brothers, The Commodores, The Jackson 5, and Chic.

James Brown – Good Foot (Rare) YouTube Video

80s Music

Michael Jackson – Billie Jean live first time moonwalk YouTube Video

Music in the 1980s saw the advent and popularity of MTV Hip Hop and Rap with Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Salt-n-Pepa, Kurtis Blow, Public Enemy, and Ice-T. Pop stars in the 80s included Madonna, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Cher, Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Hall & Oates, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Kenny Rogers, Phil Collins, Men at Work, Survivor, Rick Springfield, George Michael, New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, Wham!, Duran Duran, Blondie, A Flock of Seagulls, The Cars, The B-52s, The Go-Gos, Depeche Mode, The Police, Billy Idol, Spandeau Ballet, The Bangles, Billy Idol, the Talking Heads, Culture Club, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Guns n’ Roses, and Poison.

Madonna – Like A Virgin (MTV Awards 1984) YouTube Video

90s Music

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit YouTube Video

1990s music consisted of more Hip hop, House and Techno. New Electronic Dance music genres developed. Rock and Alternative Rock was popular with such acts as Nirvana, Jethro Tull, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, AND R.E.M.. The Singer-Songwriter movement continued with artists like Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Natalie Merchant. Also in the 1990s, artists with new acoustic-based rock styles included Dave Matthews, Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Elliott Smith, and Melissa Etheridge.

Sheryl Crow – All I Wanna Do (Official Video) YouTube

In 1990s Pop music scene included Michael Jackson, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, *NSYNC, 98 Degrees, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Jennifer Lopez, Destiny’s Child, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Janet Jackson, Céline Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Robbie Williams, Ace of Base, George Michael, Robert Palmer, Sade, Sinéad O’Connor, The Cranberries, Lisa Stansfield, Roxette, Los del Río.

Britney Spears – Baby One More Time YouTube Video

Popular 90s American contemporary R&B artists included TLC, Faith Evans, Lauryn Hill, Sade, En Vogue, Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, Vanessa Williams, Usher, Aaliyah, Keith Sweat, R. Kelly, Brandy, Monica, Tevin Campbell and Babyface. Hip hop and Rap Music of the 90s included Dr. Dre, ,Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Vanilla Ice, Ice Cube, Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Busta Rhymes, MC Hammer, OutKast, Will Smith and Jay Z.

Céline Dion – It’s All Coming Back To Me Now YouTube Video

Country music in the 90s included acts such as Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lorrie Morgan, Trisha Yearwood, Diamond Rio, Brooks & Dunn, Billy Ray Cyrus, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Lee Ann Womack, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Collin Raye, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Lonestar and Dixie Chicks.

MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This YouTube Video

2000s in Music

Shania Twain – You’re Still The One YouTube Video

2000s in music saw the development of the internet, and media players such as iTunes, and music and video sharing websites such as Napster and YouTube, and musical acts such as *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, Shakira, Radiohead, Eminem, OutKast, The Black Eyed Peas, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Nelly, Nas, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, Lil Kim, Lil Wayne, Ludacris

Janet Jackson – What Have You Done For Me Lately YouTube Video

Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch, Kelly Clarkson, Alanis Morissette, Ashlee Simpson, Foo Fighters, Creed, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Aerosmith, Jonas Brothers, Destiny’s Child, the Pussycat Dolls, Pink, Anastacia, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke, U2, 2000s Country music featured Carrie Underwood, Dixie Chicks, Lonestar, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, and Reba McEntire.

Alicia Keys & Jay Z – Empire State of Mind LIVE (HERE in Times Square) 2016 YouTube Video

List of Songwriters

Al Green, Allen Toussaint, Babyface, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, Bert Berns, Billy Joel, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bono and the Edge, Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Chuck Berry, Cole Porter, Curtis Mayfield, Dan Penn, David Bowie, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Dolly Parton, Don Henley and Glenn Frey, Don McLean, Donovan, Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Elton John and Bernie Taupin

Elvis Costello, Ewan MacColl, Fats Domino and Dave Barthomolew, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Freddie Mercury, George Harrison, Gordon Lightfoot, Hank Williams, Harry Nilsson, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Jackson Browne, James Brown, James Taylor, Jay Z, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Webb, Joan Baez, John Denver, John Fogerty, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Kenny Gamble and Leon A. Huff, Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen, Loretta Lynn, Lou Reed, Louis Jordan, Madonna, Marvin Gaye, Max Martin

Merle Haggard, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, Otis Blackwell, Otis Redding, Patti Smith, Paul Anka, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Pete Townshend, Prince, R. Kelly, Randy Newman, Ray Charles, Ray Davies, Robbie Robertson, Robert Johnson, Sam Cooke, Sly Stone, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Bee Gees, Tom Petty, Tom T. Hall, Townes Van Zandt, Van Morrison, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Willie Dixon, Willie Nelson, Woody Guthrie.

Renowned Music Producers

The Popular list of Producers of Music include Arif Mardin, Babyface, Berry Gordy, Biddu, Bob Rock, Brian Eno, Brian Wilson, Chris Thomas, Daniel Lanois, David Foster, Dr. Dre, George Clinton, George Martin, Giorgio Moroder, J Dilla, Jeff Lynne, Jerry Wexler, Jim Steinman, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Jimmy Iovine, Jimmy Miller, Joe Meek, Max Martin, Mutt Lange, Narada Michael Walden, Nile Rodgers, Pete Rock, Phil Ramone, Phil Spector, Prince, Quincy Jones, Rick Rubin, Roy Thomas Baker, Sam Phillips, T Bone Burnett, Teo Macero, The Neptunes, Timbaland, Todd Rundgren, Tom Dowd, and Trevor Horn.

Plays

Art was performed by way of Plays in the early days by Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales, The House of Fame, The Book of the Duchess), and William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, 1 Henry IV).

Silent Films (Movies)

Some of the Silent Movies consisted 7th Heaven, Battleship Potemkin, City Lights, Flesh and the Devil, It, Lucky Star, Man with a Movie Camera, Metropolis, Modern Times, Nosferatu, Our Hospitality, Pandora’s Box, Safety Last!, Sherlock, Jr., Steamboat Bill, Jr., Sunrise, The Birth of a Nation, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Cameraman, The Circus, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The General, The Gold Rush, The Kid, The Last Command, The Last Laugh, The Mark of Zorro, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Phantom Carriage, The Phantom of the Opera, The Thief of Bagdad, The Wind, Variety, and Wings.

Silent Film (Movie) Stars

Actors and Actresses of Silent Movies included Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, Lillian Gish, Louise Brooks, Max Linder, Rudolph Valentino, and William S Hart.

Opera

Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century and is a form of theatre in which music has a leading role and the parts are taken by singers. Such a “work” is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costumes, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor.

Early Opera featured such Composers as George Frideric Handel. The most renowned figure of late 18th-century opera was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, most famous for his Italian operas like The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), and The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte).

The mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Giuseppe Verdi in Italy and Richard Wagner in Germany. The popularity of opera continued with conductors like Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss in the early 20th century. The 20th century witnessed modern styles with Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky (Neoclassicism), and Philip Glass and John Adams (Minimalism).

Some popular Operas through the centuries include: The Marriage of Figaro – Mozart Vienna, Austria, 1786; The Magic Flute – Mozart Vienna, Austria, 1791; The Barber of Seville – Gioachino Rossini Rome, Italy, 1816; Rigoletto – Giuseppe Verdi Venice, Italy, 1851; Don Carlo – Giuseppe Verdi Paris, France, 1867; Carmen – Georges Bizet Paris, France, 1875; Der Ring des Nibelungen – Richard Wagner Bayreuth, Germany, 1876; Tosca – Giacomo Puccini Rome, Italy, 1900; Tristan und Isolde – Richard Wagner Munich, Germany, 1865; La Bohème – Giacomo Puccini Turin, Italy, 1896; Madama Butterfly – Giacomo Puccini Milan, Italy, 1904; The Merry Widow – Franz Lehár Vienna, Austria, 1905; Porgy and Bess – George Gershwin New York, US, 1935.

Singers such as Enrico Caruso and Maria Callas became known to much wider audiences that went beyond the circle of opera fans with the rise of recording technology. For operas were also performed on radio and television. A number of major opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world beginning in 2006. And since 2009, complete performances can be downloaded and are live streamed over the internet.

Radio

The use of early Radio broadcasting involved AM Radio – Amplitude Modulation and FM Radio Frequency Modulation. With Stereo FM broadcasting of radio becoming more dominant. Now we have broadcasting-satellite service better known as Satellite Radio. The first 2 Satellite Radio were Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio who joined together to form Sirius XM Radio.

A variety of new entertainment formats and genres such as plays, mystery serials, soap operas, quiz shows, talent shows, daytime and evening variety hours, situation comedies, play-by-play sports, children’s shows, cooking shows were created for Radio. These programs were later migrated to television. Since the early days of Radio, American commercial radio programming has shifted to more formats of news, talk, sports and music.

Theatre or Theater

Theatre or Theater is a form of fine art that uses a combination of live performers, including actors or actresses, singers, and dancers. This art-form represents a show or play before a live audience on a stage. The use of gestures, speech, song, music, and dance with artistic painted scenery and lighting add to this experience of theatre.

Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre. The art forms of ballet and opera are also theatre and use many conventions such as acting, costumes and staging. They were influential to the development of musical theatre.

Famous musicals have included My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1980), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), and more recently The Lion King (1997), and Hamilton (2015).

Popular Movies

Some of our most popular Movies on the Silver Screen include 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Streetcar Named Desire, Amadeus, American Graffiti, Annie, Apocalypse Now, Ben-Hur, Braveheart, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Casablanca, Cinderella, Citizen Kane, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dances with Wolves, Doctor Zhivago, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Forrest Gump, From Here to Eternity, Gladiator, Gone with the Wind, Good Will Hunting, It’s a Wonderful Life, Jaws, Jurassic Park, La dolce vita, Lawrence of Arabia, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Mutiny on the Bounty, My Fair Lady, Network, Oklahoma, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Raging Bull, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Rebel Without a Cause, Rocky, Rosemary’s Baby, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Shane, Singin’ in the Rain, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Sunset Blvd., Terms of Endearment, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Exorcist, The French Connection, The Godfather’ and ‘The Godfather Part II, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Graduate, The Grapes of Wrath, The Green Mile, The Karate Kid, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Philadelphia Story, The Pianist, The Shawshank Redemption, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, Titanic, To Kill a Mockingbird, Vertigo, West Side Story, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Popular Movie Directors

Some of our Renowned Directors of Movies include Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, Charles Chaplin, David Zucker, Francis Ford Coppola, Franco Zeffirelli, Frank Capra, George Lucas, Ingmar Bergman, James Cameron, John Huston, John Landis, John Lasseter, Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, Orson Welles, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Wise, Roman Polanski, Ron Howard, Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Sydney Pollack.

Early Television (TV) Shows

Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Bonanza, Dragnet, Father Knows Best, Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Lassie, Leave It To Beaver, The Lone Ranger, Make Room For Daddy, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Dragnet

Batman, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Flipper, Get Smart, Gilligan’s Island, Green Acres, Hawaii Five-O, Hogan’s Heroes, I Dream Of Jeannie, Marcus Welby M.D., Mission: Impossible, Mister Ed, My Three Sons, Star Trek.

Art Movements

An Art Movement is a Style of Art involving a specific common School of Thought, Philosophy, or Goal. It comprises a Group of Artists during a Period of Time, which can consist of a few Months, Years or Decades.

Art Periods

An Art Period is an Interval of Time in the Development and Process of the Work of an Artist, Groups of Artists, or Art Movement.

Renaissance c. 1300 – c. 1602
Renaissance to Neoclassicism c. 1520 – c. 1830
Romanticism 1790 – 1880
Romanticism to Modern Art 1803 – 1845
Modern Art 1860 – 1945
Contemporary Art 1946–Present

Art Periods and Popular Art Movements

Renaissance c. 1300 – c. 1602 Renaissance to Neoclassicism c. 1520 – c. 1830 (Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism); Romanticism 1790 – 1880 (Luminism – American art style, Romanticism, German Romanticism); Romanticism to Modern Art 1803 – 1845 (Photography, Realism)

Modern Art 1860 – 1945

Impressionism, American Impressionism, Luminism (Impressionism), American Realism, Analytic Cubism, Arts and Crafts Movement, Tonalism, Symbolism (arts), Russian Symbolism, Aesthetic Movement, Post-Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Art Deco, Futurism (arts), Dada, Surrealism, Concrete Art, Geometric Abstraction, Neo-Romanticism, American Scene Painting, Social Realism, Abstraction-Création, Abstract Expressionism, Action Painting, Color Field Painting, Lyrical Abstraction, Modernism, Neo-Classicism

See Modern Art Video on YouTube

Contemporary Art 1946–Present

Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Dada, Public Art, Retro Art, Serial Art, Abstract Illusionism, Art Photography, Body Art, Classical Realism, Conceptual Art, Earth Art, Hyperrealism, Internet Art, Land Art, Late Modernism, Neo-Expressionism, Neo-Figurative, Neo-Pop, Performance Art, Psychedelic Art, Sound Art, Pop Art, New Realism, Minimalism , Video Art, Psychedelic Art, Conceptual Art

Graffiti, Junk Art, Performance Art, Op Art, Lyrical Abstraction, Process Art, Photorealism, Land Art, Post-Minimalism, Postmodern Art, Installation Art, Mail Art, Maximalism, Neo-Expressionism, Neoism, Street Art, Digital Art, Remodernism , Algorithmic Art, Computer Art, Computer Graphics, Electronic Art, Environmental Art, Internet Art, Neo-Minimalism, New Media Art, Pixel Art, Post-Postmodernism, Relational Art

See Modern Contemporary Abstract Art Video on YouTube

Renowned Artists in Popular Art Movements 

Abstract Art: Wassily Kandinsky, Abstract Expressionism: Jackson Pollock, Action Painting: Willem de Kooning, Appropriation Art: Marcel Duchamp, Art Deco: Erté, Art Nouveau: Louis Comfort Tiffany, Baroque Art: Caravaggio, BioArt: Hunter Cole, Color Field: Mark Rothko, Conceptual Art: Sol LeWitt, Cubism: Pablo Picasso, Dada: Man Ray, Digital Art: David Em, Expressionism: Edvard Munch

Fauvist: Henri Matisse, Geometric abstraction: Piet Mondrian, Impressionist: Claude Monet, Installation Art: Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Internet Art: Aaron Koblin, Landscape Art: John Constable, Light Art: Dan Flavin, Mail Art: Ray Johnson, Minimalist Art: Donald Judd, Neo-Impressionism: Paul Signac, Neo-Figurative: Verónica Ruiz de Velasco, New Media Art: Ken Feingold, Op Art: Bridget Riley

Outsider Art: Howard Finster, Painting: Rembrandt van Rijn, Performance Art: Carolee Schneemann, Photography: Ansel Adams, Pointillism: Georges Seurat, Pop Art: Andy Warhol, Posters: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Post-Impressionism: Vincent van Gogh, Realism: Ilya Repin, Renaissance Art: Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rococo: Antoine Watteau, Street Art: Banksy, Suprematism: Kazimir Malevich, Surrealism: Salvador Dalí, Video Art: Bill Viola

Conclusion

What is your own definition of art? What does art mean to you? What is art to you?

As you can see, Art is multi-faceted. Everyone adds their own meaning to art. For art is creativity. And we all creative beings by our thinking. Even if we are cooking our food and adding ingredients as we go along. That in essence is what is art. So continue creating, for you are creating art.

The world would be less without your creative or artistic contribution. This is your stamp, your legacy. Whether it be the spoken word, the written word, music, dance, new ideas, new media, it is all art. What is Art? Art is whatever we Create?

And the world is richer for your creativity – YOUR ART.