Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 1996 The splintered art world of Contemporary Christian Music Jay R. Howard Butler University,
[email protected] John M. Streck Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers Part of the Sociology of Culture Commons Recommended Citation Howard, Jay R. and John M. Streck. 1996. “The Splintered Art World of Contemporary Christian Music.” Popular Music 15(1):37-53. Available from: digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/593/ This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The splintered art world of Contemporary Christian Music JAY R. HOWARD and JOHN M. STRECK For many, art is a product: the painting to be observed and contemplated, the concert to be heard and enjoyed. There is, however, another conception of art - art as activity - and it is in this context that Howard Becker (1984) develops his concept of art worlds. Art worlds, Becker argues, include more than the artists who create the work which the public commonly defines as art. Any given art world will consist of the network of people whose co-operative activity produces that art world's certain type of artistic