20th century  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 11:41, 22 August 2007

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The 20th century was scandalized when Freud implied that all of human behaviour was influenced by sex, much as Darwin had implied that humans were descendant from primates in the 19th century.

Art and culture

• As the century begins, Paris is the artistic capital of the world, where both French and foreign writers, composers and visual artists gather. By the end of the century, the focal point of culture had moved to the United States, especially New York City and Los Angeles.
• Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world.
• After gaining political rights in the United States and much of Europe in the first part of the century, and with the advent of new birth control techniques women became more independent throughout the century.
• In classical music, composition branched out into many completely new domains, including dodecaphony, aleatoric and chance music, and minimalism. Electronic musical instruments were developed as well, vastly broadening the scope of sounds available to composers and performers.
• Rock and Roll and Jazz styles of music are developed in the United States, and quickly become the dominant forms of popular music in America, and later, the world.
• The plastic arts developed new styles such as expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.
• Modern architecture evolved within Europe with a radical departure from the excess decoration of the Victorian era — streamlined forms inspired by machines became more commonplace. Developments in building material technologies furthered this shift. European architects moved to the United States prior to World War II, where modern archiectural theory continued to blossom.
• The automobile provided vastly increased transportation capabilities for the average member of Western societies in the early to mid-century, spreading even further later on. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car. The car became a leading symbol of modern society, with styles of car suited to and symbolic of particular lifestyles.
• Sports became an important part of society, becoming an activity not only for the privileged. Watching sports, later also on television, became a popular activity.

Bibliography

• Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century

Deaths