The concept of popular art is very broad and includes disparate creative activities: literature, music, painting, cinema, crafts, performing arts, graphic arts and a long list of modalities, genres and subgenres.
General features of popular art
The main characteristic of any popular art is its orientation towards the general public. It could be said that the town is the protagonist of popular art. It must be borne in mind that art has traditionally been linked with social elites and, therefore, with minority sectors and, consequently, it is logical that the people were creating their own forms of artistic expression.
The concept of popular linked to art implies that an artistic manifestation aims to connect with the majority of people. In this way, this art modality is eminently participatory, open and street.
The style of folk art is usually straightforward and affordable. Thus, everything that is sophisticated and enigmatic is far from the spirit of the popular. This does not mean that popular art has a lower category but that it has a different language and a different approach. Let's take an illustrative example: classical dance is elitist (it is performed in theaters with a certain luxury and tickets are usually expensive) but popular dance or folklore can be danced in a square and in a relaxed atmosphere and far from formalities. Thus, dancing can be elitist or popular and this difference could be applied to any artistic expression.
Some examples
The minstrels of the Middle Ages recited poems in the streets of the villages and their activity was not normally carried out in luxurious palaces.
If we think of cinema, we find films aimed at the general public, in which the spectator's entertainment is intended.
In the markets there are usually artisans who make objects aimed at the general public.
On the streets of large cities, it is common to find graffiti, which usually presents messages related to the culture of the people.
Poetry is a literary genre that also offers two faces: poems full of symbols and rhetorical figures and clearly popular poems (many traditional songs are inspired by these poems).
Despite the differences between what is popular and what is not, sometimes the border between the two manifestations is blurred. An example would be the serialized novels of the 19th century (they emerged to be read by the general public but with the passage of time they have acquired another meaning, as evidenced by the serialized novels of Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo).
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