Art pop

Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music^[1] influenced by art theories^[7] as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature.^[3][8] The genre draws on pop art's integration of high and low culture, and emphasizes signs, style, and gesture over personal expression.^[7][9] Art pop musicians may deviate from traditional pop audiences and rock music conventions,^[10] instead exploring postmodern approaches and ideas such as pop's status as commercial art, notions of artifice and the self, and questions of historical authenticity.

Starting in the mid-1960s, British and American pop musicians such as Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and the Beatles began incorporating the ideas of the pop art movement into their recordings.^[1] English art pop musicians drew from their art school studies,^[8] while in America the style drew on the influence of pop artist Andy Warhol and the affiliated band the Velvet Underground.^[11] The style would experience its "golden age" in the 1970s among glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Roxy Music, who embraced theatricality and throwaway pop culture.^[4]

Art pop's tradition continued in the late 1970s and 1980s through styles such as post-punk and synthpop as well as the British New Romantic scene,^[5][10] developing further with artists who rejected conventional rock instrumentation and structure in favor of dance styles and the synthesizer.^[10] The 2010s saw new art pop trends develop, such as hip hop artists drawing on visual art and vaporwave artists exploring the sensibilities of contemporary capitalism and the Internet.