Research Paper on Art and Entertainment

Introduction

The terms art and entertainment have a very thin line of demarcation regarding their application in our daily lives. Art is defined as the range of human activities which express the author's imaginative powers in creating visual, auditory or performing artefacts (artworks), or a conceptual idea, or it can be a technical skill, intended to be appreciated or transform the beholders for their beauty or emotional power (Meltzer and Meg, 2018).

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Entertainment, on the other hand, is a composition of all activities which are meant to amuse the audiences of the beholders. In most cases, the spheres of art and entertainment interact, making it harder to appreciate the place of either of the two in our society. The determining factor of whether something is a form of entertainment of art is the motive. Art is meant to be appreciated and most of the times, transform society. Entertainment simply buoys the spirits of people watching or listening to it with no particular exertions.

The history of the interplay of art and Entertainment is long. The sands of times have been marked with the footprints of leaders and economic classes who paved way for the various perceptions in the society. Neal Gabler in his book Life: The Movie drives us through the undulating hills and the valleys of the American history concerning art and entertainment. The feuds witnessed in institutions and halls on which discipline is superior are not without a cause. Dating the conflict back to the 15th century, art then, was superior to entertainment. Many people were ready to take in what was good and edifying than we do witness these days. As years advanced, religion, politics, media shaped for a lifetime, the picture of entertainment in people's minds.

Starting from the first chapter of the book (Republic of Entertainment), Neal talks defines entertainment and gives a rationale for the superiority it has over art. Entertainment addresses masses, crowds and large sizes of the population with no demands as they receive the information (Gabler, 1998). This open view of who can consume the content of entertainment allows everyone, both men and women, children and older folks, the working classes and the unemployed, the religious and irreligious members of the society to be eligible to entertainment. If the society was to truly account for who takes in the entertainment offered from various artists, it will be ascertained that literally, everyone loves it. In this light, the derogatory quote of Karl Marx on religion that "Religion is the opium of the people" will find its new meaning and definition. It should be rather, "entertainment is the opium of the masses"(Gabler).

Neal proceeds to define art still in the first chapter. He acknowledges that art requires an intellectual effort to take in and process information on art. For a person to appreciate technical skill and painstaking effort demanded to process artwork, the mind must be fully engaged. Art is more objective in its purpose of existence than entertainment. But the question people ask themselves often is: "why then is entertainment dominant in the society than art?"

The roots of this helpless occurrence will be traced to the 17th and 18th centuries when religion had a big voice in American society. Religion dominant in Europe found its way to America. Up to mid-19th century, religious people ratio to the general population was 1:15. Evangelism improved it to a value of 1:7 (Gabler, 1998). As more and more American folks flocked the worship centres, they started to demand charming preachers who could entice them through amusement of captivating stories. The primary purpose of the religion of teaching people to subdue their nature was lost. People preferred humorous anecdotes to reason and logic which otherwise could have tamed passion and making it submit to reason. The definition of a good preacher was the one who was able to keep his audience enthralled (Pontynen, 2017).

The 1828 presidential campaigns are a historical keynote of what politics can do in influencing the masses (Walsh, 2015). It was a singular campaign between John Quincy Adams who stood for literacy (art) versus Andrew Jackson who was an embodiment of entertainment, signified by "a man who can fight"(Gabler, 1998). The Republican John Adams won in the hotly contested seat. Literacy was not very new but he elevated the status of art by calling upon people to choose a man who lead them into books. A learned population is a developed generation. Literacy levels grew later, as evidenced by magazine consumption growth between 1870 and 1900 by 400%. The society then was accustomed to the entertainment of operas and Shakespearian theatres and many people considered them as the noblest elevation humanity can get to.

Entertainment continued to gain a mileage over art as economic conditions of the American people improved. In theatres and halls of entertainment, the bourgeois and the aristocrats introduced a ridge in the society. There were dedicated placed for the rich to occupy and a place for the poor also. Definitely, the poor persons at times could wish to take the seat where the rich were occupying. Through the act of the rich consecrating special places for themselves, entertainment was increasingly being treated with the magnificence of a superior discipline than art.

In the last half of the 19th century, the worker's wages (non-farm) grew by 50%. In the same proportion, the number of working hours reduced by 3 12 hours (Gabler, 1998). Workers had more time to spend in idleness. Some of the workers demanded proper entertainment facilities, serving as cultural arbiters for work conditions. As all this was happening, the war waged to advance the cause of art was not felt. In addition to the economic conditions, the influx of immigrants on the American soil reached the sky, amounting to 11million up to 1900. In this team of immigration were a majorly of entertainment lovers. Innovations in science like discovering electricity and mass generation availed electrical power to many people who used it for entertainment purposes.

In chapter two (The Two Dimensional Society), Neal accounts of how the media boosted the warfare of art and entertainment in favour of the latter. The flourishing printing industry was the kitchen for preparing entertainment savouries. Before the magazines started printing meaningful information, the editorial team flooded the magazine pages with photographs and graphics whose sole purpose who to amuse the readers. In graphics, people are not required to use logic, if the intent of the literary works is to amuse a person (Gabler, 1998).

News, which were capable of demanding some intellectual effort was given a small place in the newspapers, and this led to the triumphal trampling of entertainment over art. The situation has not changed much nowadays. The advantage of the modern day era is that the print literature comes in many kinds. There is print on economics, politics, science, technology, history, sports, and many fields. In this way, art is favoured because people will be led into genres with objective intentions of education, transforming or appreciating the beauty of some work.

The media which was to act as an educating wedge sunk to the murky deep of a fiasco. The serious news headlines slowly were debased in their solemnity including war news. For a time, the middle working class chided the media for the trend (Gabler, 2016). Before long, tabloid papers were circulating all over the nation and people were developing a great liken for them. As it can be predicted, they had nothing to education, if any, it was very little. The early 20th century saw the invention of television which was welcomed by many. In the television programs, only praiseworthy content was being aired.

Entertainment soon made its way to the TV broadcasting stealthily. Since a great part of the working class who initially hated the tabloid papers had credited the TV, they could not take notice of the aspersing effect that was paving its way to the TV programs. In a powerful way, entertainment for another time trounced art, making it champion its effects as it had done before.

As from 1960, politics had started exercising its grip on entertainment. The political or government drama was crafty in feeding the citizenry what they wanted to hear. There were very many demonstrations, ballooning strikes by workers, and lots of press conference addressing. Appealing the multitudes was the easiest way of painting a "darling candidacy picture" in people's minds.

The shrewdness of politics using entertainment entered a climactic trajectory, engineered by Roosevelt and sealed by President Reagan. These two lovers of Hollywood performances were tactful in winning the feelings of their audiences. Neal records in chapter three (The Secondary Effect), that Reagan was a mastermind of entertainment and politics who viewed politics as a method of digressing the attention of people from real issues facing them (Walsh, 2015).

It was in this era that the MacGuffin narratology gained eminence. It became increasingly difficult to sell a book without "raising its calibre" to that of a movie. Art was losing it here. The content of the book was no more important; its amusement was. Some elements of art like the visual art were no longer art as usual. The 19th-century art paintings could value the skill of the painter as humanity adores God's handiwork. Classroom education was not spared of the corruption drawing its energy from entertainment. College professors started becoming instruments of entertainment too. Art to this point was powerless to the invincible dominion of its rival, surrendering its vitality to the irresistible pecking order of entertainment.

Chapter four of the book Life: The Movie (The Human Entertainment) has a full-scale manifestation of entertainment. Terms like celebrity lost their conservative meaning into a skewed implication of mere "well-knownness." (Gabler, 1998). Before 1980, celebrity was sparingly used in print. It was coined with a degree of success and achievement in one's profession or talent or ability. Entertainment redefined the word to deify artists like movie stars for their personality. Performance or delivery which ought to have taken precedence was obliterated from view and reasonable consideration.

Neal enlists a few examples of such contemporary celebrities who did nothing glorious to earn the reverence they were accorded. Madonna spent her time reinventing her infamy through scandals. Reprehensible lifestyles of unstable love-lives like that of Elizabeth Taylor made subjects publicity figures. Some were, as nonsensical as it may sound, "famous for being famous". All forms of infamy stood a chance of landing in the celebrity genre of entertainment (Cashmore, 2014).

Everyone can see today the power celebrities hold in moving the masses. Most of the times, they lack an objective mission in their activity on the media. Fashion stars are used by advertisement teams incorporation and business empires to market their products. Everything they touch is treated as sacred and life-giving. The society fails to question the morals of these celebrities (Sternheimer, 2014). Once they make their way to the TV, books, and other sources of literature, the case is sealed. That is how art has lost beyond words to entertainment.

Neal comes to a conclusion of life being modelled as a movie in the fifth final chapter (The Mediated Self). The society is ruled by models the movies provide be it in dress, looks, behaviour and the kind of goods people consume (Skovsgaard, 2014). It was only in the ancient Puritan past that true upright character was valued. Starting from the minutes of all-our phone. They have camera features which can edit the photographs taken so that the countenance of someone will be...