Art and Music
modes of expression that use skill or imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.
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Displaying Featured Art and Music Articles
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David BowieBritish singer, songwriter, and actor who was most prominent in the 1970s and best known for his shifting personae and musical genre hopping. To call Bowie a transitional figure in rock history is less a judgment than a job description. Every niche he ever found was on a cusp, and he was at home nowhere else—certainly not in the unmoneyed London suburb... -
Star Warsspace opera film series (created by George Lucas) that became one of the most successful and influential franchises in motion picture history. Begun in the 1970s and ’80s and resuscitated at the turn of the 21st century, the Star Wars films continually advanced the field of motion picture special effects and developed into an enormously lucrative merchandising... -
AdeleEnglish pop singer and songwriter whose soulful, emotive voice and traditionally crafted songs made her one of the most broadly popular performers of her generation. Adkins was raised by a young single mother in various working-class neighbourhoods of London. As a child, she enjoyed singing contemporary pop music and learned to play the guitar and... -
Harrison FordAmerican actor, perhaps best known for playing charismatic rogues in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film franchises. Ford was born in Chicago and was raised in the city’s suburbs. After attending Ripon College in Wisconsin, he took minor acting roles in movies and television for Columbia and Universal studios but soon fell back on a sideline career... -
Charles PerraultFrench poet, prose writer, and storyteller, a leading member of the Académie Française, who played a prominent part in a literary controversy known as the quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns. He is best remembered for his collection of fairy stories for children, Contes de ma mère l’oye (1697; Tales of Mother Goose). He was the brother of the physician... -
Leonardo DiCaprioAmerican actor and producer, who emerged in the 1990s as one of Hollywood ’s leading performers, noted for his portrayals of unconventional and complex characters. DiCaprio first acted at age five, performing on the children’s television show Romper Room, and, as a teenager, he made numerous commercials and educational films. In 1990 he began appearing... -
J.J. AbramsAmerican writer, director, and producer who was known for his role in creating several hit television series, including Lost (2004–10), and for his blockbuster action and science-fiction movies. Abrams’s father was a producer of made-for-television movies, and the younger Abrams followed him into the entertainment industry at an early age by making... -
Darth Vaderfilm character, lead villain of the popular American science fiction franchise Star Wars. First seen in the movie Star Wars (1977; later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope), the towering, black-clad Darth Vader is a menacing villain. His head is covered by a mechanical helmet, and the sound of his breathing is an eerie, mechanical hiss. Armed... -
William GibsonAmerican-Canadian writer of science fiction who was the leader of the genre’s cyberpunk movement. Gibson grew up in southwestern Virginia. After dropping out of high school in 1967, he traveled to Canada and eventually settled there, earning a B.A. (1977) from the University of British Columbia. Many of Gibson’s early stories, including Johnny Mnemonic... -
George LucasAmerican motion-picture director, producer, and screenwriter who created several of the most popular films in history. Early work The son of a small-town stationer and a mother who was often hospitalized for long periods for ill health, Lucas was an early reader of classic adventure stories such as Daniel Defoe ’s Robinson Crusoe and Robert Louis Stevenson... -
Quentin TarantinoAmerican director and screenwriter whose films are noted for their stylized violence, razor-sharp dialogue, and fascination with film and pop culture. Tarantino worked in a video store in California before selling two screenplays that became True Romance (1993) and Oliver Stone ’s Natural Born Killers (1994). In 1992 he made his directing debut with... -
Jennifer LawrenceAmerican actress who by the age of 22 had been nominated twice for the Academy Award for best actress. In 2013, on her second nomination, she won the award for Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Lawrence was known for her versatility on-screen and her accessible, honest off-screen persona. Lawrence knew from an early age that she wanted to act, and she... -
Ludwig van BeethovenGerman composer, the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. Widely regarded as the greatest composer who ever lived, Ludwig van Beethoven dominates a period of musical history as no one else before or since. Rooted in the Classical traditions of Joseph Haydn and Mozart, his art reaches out to... -
Frank SinatraAmerican singer and motion-picture actor who, through a long career and a very public personal life, became one of the most sought-after performers in the entertainment industry; he is often hailed as the greatest American singer of 20th-century popular music. Sinatra’s father, Martin, was a tavern owner and part-time prizefighter, and his mother,... -
Justin BieberCanadian singer and teen idol whose fresh-faced good looks and appealing pop songs sparked a global craze beginning in 2009. Bieber was raised by a single mother in Stratford, Ontario, and as a child he learned to play the drums, the piano, the guitar, and the trumpet. In 2007 he participated in a local singing competition, placing second, and his... -
Céline DionFrench Canadian pop singer, known for her vocal prowess and her passionate showmanship, who achieved international superstardom in the 1990s. Working primarily in the pop ballad tradition, she recorded numerous hit albums in both French and English and was the recipient of several prestigious awards. The youngest of 14 children raised in a small town... -
Natalie ColeAmerican singer, who forged a successful career performing rhythm and blues and jazz-based pop music. The daughter of legendary crooner Nat King Cole, she earned a degree in child psychology from the University of Massachusetts in 1972. Although uncertain about pursuing a career in entertainment, she accepted a summer job singing with a band and was... -
Taylor SwiftAmerican pop and country music singer-songwriter whose tales of young heartache achieved widespread success in the early 21st century. Swift showed an interest in music at an early age, and she progressed quickly from roles in children’s theatre to her first appearance before a crowd of thousands. She was age 11 when she sang The Star-Spangled Banner... -
Sylvester StalloneAmerican actor, screenwriter, and director who was perhaps best known for creating and starring in the Rocky and Rambo film series, which made him an icon in the action genre. Stallone was born at a charity hospital in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City. Forceps used during his birth damaged a facial nerve, leaving him with a droopy left eyelid... -
Kanye WestAmerican producer and rapper who parlayed his production success in the late 1990s and early 2000s into a career as a popular, critically acclaimed solo artist. West, the child of a photographer and former Black Panther father and a college professor mother, grew up in Chicago and attended Chicago State University for one year before dropping out to... -
the EaglesAmerican band that cultivated country rock as the reigning style and sensibility of white youth in the United States during the 1970s. The original members were Don Henley (b. July 22, 1947 Gilmer, Texas, U.S.), Glenn Frey (b. November 6, 1948 Detroit, Michigan —d. January 18, 2016 New York City, New York), Bernie Leadon (b. July 19, 1947 Minneapolis,... -
Doctor WhoBritish science fiction television series produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The show’s original run lasted 26 years, from 1963 to 1989. Remembered for its primitive special effects and compelling story lines, Doctor Who became a landmark of British popular culture. The series resumed to much acclaim in 2005. Doctor Who chronicled... -
the BeatlesBritish musical quartet and a global cynosure for the hopes and dreams of a generation that came of age in the 1960s. The principal members were John Lennon (b. October 9, 1940 Liverpool, Merseyside, England —d. December 8, 1980 New York, New York, U.S.), Paul McCartney (in full Sir James Paul McCartney; b. June 18, 1942 Liverpool), George Harrison... -
Netflix, Inc.video rental and distribution company, founded in 1997 by American entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Los Gatos, California. In 1999 Netflix began offering an online subscription service through the Internet. Subscribers chose movie and television titles from Netflix’s Web site; the shows were then mailed to customers in the form of DVDs,... -
John Waynemajor American motion-picture actor who embodied the image of the strong, taciturn cowboy or soldier and who in many ways personified the idealized American values of his era. Marion Morrison was the son of an Iowa pharmacist; he acquired the nickname “Duke” during his youth and billed himself as Duke Morrison for one of his early films. In 1925 he... -
One DirectionBritish-Irish male vocal group whose stylish good looks and bright pop-rock sound captivated young fans around the world beginning in the early 2010s. The original members were Niall Horan (b. September 13, 1993 Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland), Zayn Malik (b. January 12, 1993 Bradford, West Yorkshire, England), Liam Payne (b. August 29, 1993... -
Michael JacksonAmerican singer, songwriter, and dancer who was the most popular entertainer in the world in the early and mid-1980s. Reared in Gary, Indiana, in one of the most acclaimed musical families of the rock era, Michael Jackson was the youngest and most talented of five brothers whom his father, Joseph, shaped into a dazzling group of child stars known as... -
Elvis PresleyAmerican popular singer widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll” and one of rock music’s dominant performers from the mid-1950s until his death. Presley grew up dirt-poor in Tupelo, moved to Memphis as a teenager, and, with his family, was off welfare only a few weeks when producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records, a local blues label, responded to his... -
William ShakespeareEnglish poet, dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers; but no writer’s living... -
Glenn FreyAmerican musician who was a cofounder, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the country-rock band the Eagles, one of the most-successful musical groups of the 1970s. The Eagles had a string of hits so extensive that for many people the beautifully crafted and undemanding songs constituted the decade’s sound track. Frey began his career in the Detroit...
