20th century

== Culture and entertainment ==
{{main|20th century in literature}}
[[File:Chagall IandTheVillage.jpg|thumb|''[[I and the Village]]'', 1911, by [[Marc Chagall]], a [[List of modern artists|modern painter]]]]
* As the century began, Paris was the artistic capital of the world, where both French and foreign writers, composers and visual artists gathered. By the middle of the century New York City had become the artistic capital of the world.
* Theater, films, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many films and much music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world.
* 1953 saw the [[coronation of Queen Elizabeth II]], an iconic figure of the century.
* [[Visual culture]] became more dominant not only in films but in comics and television as well. During the century a new skilled understanding of narrativist imagery was developed.
* Computer games and internet surfing became new and popular form of entertainment during the last 25 years of the century.
* In literature, science fiction, fantasy (with well-developed fictional worlds, rich in detail), and [[alternate history|alternative history]] fiction gained popularity. [[Detective fiction]] gained popularity in the [[interwar period]]. In the United States in 1961 [[Grove Press]] published ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'' a novel by [[Henry Miller]] redefining pornography and censorship in publishing in America.

===Music===
{{main|20th-century music}}
[[File:Elvis Presley first national television appearance 1956.jpg|thumb|[[Elvis Presley]] in 1956, a leading figure of [[rock and roll]] and [[rockabilly]].]]
The invention of music recording technologies such as the [[phonograph record]], and dissemination technologies such as [[radio broadcasting]], massively expanded the audience for music. Prior to the 20th century, music was generally only experienced in [[concert|live performances]]. Many new genres of music were established during the 20th century.
* [[Igor Stravinsky]] revolutionized classical composition.
* In the 1920s, [[Arnold Schoenberg]] developed the [[twelve-tone technique]], which became widely influential on 20th-century composers.
* In classical music, [[Musical composition|composition]] branched out into many completely new domains, including [[dodecaphony]], [[aleatoric music|aleatoric]] (chance) music, and [[minimalism]].
* [[Argentine tango|Tango]] was created in Argentina and became extremely popular in the rest of the Americas and Europe.
* [[Blues]] and [[jazz]] music became popularized during the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s in the United States. [[Bebop]] develops as a form of jazz in the 1940s.
* [[Country music]] develops in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States.
* Blues and country went on to influence [[rock and roll]] in the 1950s, which along with [[American folk music revival|folk music]], increased in popularity with the [[British Invasion]] of the mid-to-late 1960s.
* Rock soon branched into many different genres, including [[folk rock]], [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]], [[punk rock]], and [[alternative rock]] and became the dominant genre of [[popular music]].
* This was challenged with the rise of [[hip hop music|hip hop]] in the 1980s and 1990s.
* Other genres such as [[House music|house]], [[techno]], [[reggae]], and [[soul music|soul]] all developed during the latter half of the century and went through various periods of popularity.
* Synthesizers began to be employed widely in music and crossed over into the mainstream with [[new wave music]] in the 1980s. [[Electronic instruments]] have been widely deployed in all manners of popular music and has led to the development of such genres as [[house music|house]], [[synthpop|synth-pop]], [[electronic dance music]], and [[industrial music|industrial]].

===Film, television and theatre===
[[File:Chaplin_The_Kid_edit.jpg|thumb|[[Charlie Chaplin]] in his 1921 film ''[[The Kid (1921 film)|The Kid]]'', with [[Jackie Coogan]].]]
{{see also|History of film}}
Film as an artistic medium was created in the 20th century. The first modern movie theatre was established in [[Pittsburgh]] in 1905.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/movies/2005/06/19/You-saw-it-here-first-Pittsburgh-s-Nickelodeon-introduced-the-moving-picture-theater-to-the-masses-in-1905/stories/200506190169|title=You saw it here first: Pittsburgh's Nickelodeon introduced the moving picture theater to the masses in 1905|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=18 June 2005|access-date=11 February 2018}}</ref> [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] developed as the center of American film production. While the first films were in black and white, [[technicolor]] was developed in the 1920s to allow for color films. [[Sound film]]s were developed, with the first full-length feature film, ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', released in 1927. The [[Academy Awards]] were established in 1929. Animation was also developed in the 1920s, with the first full-length [[cel animated]] feature film ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]'', released in 1937. [[Computer-generated imagery]] was developed in the 1980s, with the first full-length [[computer animation|CGI-animated]] film ''[[Toy Story]]'' released in 1995.
* [[Julie Andrews]], [[Harry Belafonte]], [[Humphrey Bogart]], [[Marlon Brando]], [[James Cagney]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Sean Connery]], [[Tom Cruise]], [[James Dean]], [[Robert De Niro]], [[Harrison Ford]], [[Clark Gable]], [[Cary Grant]], [[Audrey Hepburn]], [[Katharine Hepburn]], [[Bruce Lee]], [[Marilyn Monroe]], [[Paul Newman]], [[Jack Nicholson]], [[Al Pacino]], [[Sidney Poitier]], [[Meryl Streep]], [[Elizabeth Taylor]], [[James Stewart]], [[Jane Fonda]] and [[John Wayne]] are among the most popular [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] stars of the 20th century.
* [[Madhubala]], [[Jean-Paul Belmondo]], [[Karel Roden]], [[Sean Connery]], [[Marcello Mastroianni]], [[Salah Zulfikar]], [[Marlene Dietrich]], [[Brigitte Bardot]], [[Omar Sharif]], [[Catherine Deneuve]], [[Alain Delon]], [[Soad Hosny]], [[Fernanda Montenegro]], [[Sophie Marceau]], [[Fatima Rushdi]], [[Amitabh Bachchan]], [[Jean Gabin]], [[Toshiro Mifune]], [[Shoukry Sarhan]], [[Lars Mikkelsen]], [[Sophia Loren]], [[Youssef Wahbi]], [[Claudia Cardinale]], [[Klaus Kinski]], [[Gérard Depardieu]], [[Max von Sydow]], [[Faten Hamama]], [[Rutger Hauer]] and [[Toni Servillo]] are among the most popular movie stars of the 20th century. 
* [[Sergei Eisenstein]], [[D. W. Griffith]], [[Cecil B. DeMille]], [[Frank Capra]], [[Howard Hawks]], [[John Ford]], [[Orson Welles]], [[Martin Scorsese]], [[John Huston]], [[Alfred Hitchcock]], [[Akira Kurosawa]], [[Spike Lee]], [[Ingmar Bergman]], [[Federico Fellini]], [[Walt Disney]], [[Stanley Kubrick]], [[Steven Spielberg]], [[Ridley Scott]], [[Woody Allen]], [[Quentin Tarantino]], [[James Cameron]], [[William Friedkin]], [[Ezz El-Dine Zulficar]] and [[George Lucas]] are among the most important and popular filmmakers of the 20th century.
* In theater, sometimes referred to as [[Broadway theater|Broadway]] in New York City, playwrights such as [[Eugene O'Neill]], [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Edward Albee]], [[Arthur Miller]] and [[Tennessee Williams]] introduced innovative language and ideas to the idiom. In musical theater, figures such as [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]], [[Lerner and Loewe]], [[Mohammed Karim]], and [[Irving Berlin]] had an enormous impact on both film and the culture in general.
* [[Modern dance]] is born in America as a 'rebellion' against centuries-old European ballet. [[Dancers]] and choreographers [[Alvin Ailey]], [[Isadora Duncan]], [[Vaslav Nijinsky]], [[Ruth St. Denis]], [[Mahmoud Reda]], [[Martha Graham]], [[José Limón]], [[Doris Humphrey]], [[Merce Cunningham]], and [[Paul Taylor (choreographer)|Paul Taylor]] re-defined movement, struggling to bring it back to its 'natural' roots and along with Jazz, created a solely American art form. Alvin Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th-century concert dance. His company gained the nickname "Cultural Ambassador to the World" because of its extensive international touring. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is believed to be the best known and most often seen modern dance performance.

{{see also|History of Television}}

===Video games===
[[File:Magnavox-Odyssey-Console-Set.jpg|thumb|[[Ralph Baer]]'s ''[[Magnavox Odyssey]]'', the first video game console, released in 1972.]]
{{main|History of video games}}
Video games—due to the great technological steps forward in [[computing]] since the second [[post-war]] period—are one of the new forms of entertainment that emerged in the 20th century alongside films.
* While already conceptualized in the [[1940s]]–[[1950s|50s]], video games only emerged as an industry during the [[1970s]], and then exploded into social and cultural phenomena in the late 1970s and early [[1980s]] with the [[golden age of arcade video games]], with notable releases such as [[Taito]]'s ''[[Space Invaders]]'', [[Atari, Inc.]]'s ''[[Asteroids (video game)|Asteroids]]'', [[Nintendo]]'s ''[[Donkey Kong (arcade game)|Donkey Kong]]'', [[Namco]]'s ''[[Pac-Man]]'' and ''[[Galaga]]'', [[Konami]]'s ''[[Frogger]]'', [[Capcom]]'s ''[[1942 (video game)|1942]]'' and [[Sega]]'s ''[[Zaxxon]]'',<ref name="Whittaker-122">{{citation|title=The cyberspace handbook|author=Jason Whittaker|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2004|isbn=978-0-415-16835-9|page=122}}</ref> the worldwide success of [[Nintendo]]'s ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]''<ref>{{cite news |url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-05-18/features/1993138174_1_mario-nintendo-mickey-mouse |title=How Mario Conquered America |first=James |last=Coates |date=May 18, 1993 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=February 7, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20151123103152/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-05-18/features/1993138174_1_mario-nintendo-mickey-mouse |archive-date=November 23, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and the release in the [[1990s]] of [[Sony]] [[PlayStation (console)|PlayStation]] console, the first one to break the record of 100 million units sold, with ''[[Gran Turismo (1997 video game)|Gran Turismo]]'' being the system's best selling video game.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/051130e.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060103211119/http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/051130e.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 January 2006|title=PlayStation 2 Breaks Record as the Fastest Computer Entertainment Platform to Reach Cumulative Shipment of 100 Million Units|date=30 November 2005|publisher=[[Sony Computer Entertainment]]|access-date=8 June 2008}}</ref>
* [[Video game design]] becomes a discipline. Some game designers in this century stand out for their work, such as [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], [[Hideo Kojima]], [[Sid Meier]] and [[Will Wright (game designer)|Will Wright]].

===Art and architecture===
[[File:Empire State Building (HDR).jpg|upright|thumb|The [[Empire State Building]] is an iconic building of the 1930s.]]
{{main|20th-century art}}
* The art world experienced the development of new styles and explorations such as [[fauvism]], [[expressionism]], [[Dadaism]], [[cubism]], [[de stijl]], [[surrealism]], [[abstract expressionism]], [[color field]], [[pop art]], [[minimal art]], [[lyrical abstraction]], and [[conceptual art]].
* The [[modern art]] movement revolutionized art and culture and set the stage for both [[Modernism]] and its counterpart [[postmodern art]] as well as other [[contemporary art]] practices.
* [[Art Nouveau]] began as a form of architecture and design but fell out of fashion after World War I. The style was dynamic and inventive but unsuited to the depression of the Great War.
* In Europe, [[modern architecture]] departed from the decorated styles of the [[Victorian era]]. Streamlined forms inspired by machines became commonplace, enabled by developments in [[building materials]] and technologies. Before World War II, many European architects moved to the United States, where modern architecture continued to develop.
* The automobile increased the mobility of people in the Western countries in the early-to-mid-century, and in many other places by the end of the 20th century. [[Urban planning|City design]] throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car.

===Sport===
* The popularity of sport increased considerably—both as an activity for all and as entertainment, particularly on television.
* The modern [[Olympic Games]], first held in 1896, grew to include tens of thousands of athletes in dozens of sports.
* The [[FIFA World Cup]] was first held in 1930 and was held every four years after World War II.
* American League [[Baseball]] was formed in 1900 and in 1903, both National and American agreed to play in the first [[World Series]] with over 100,000 in attendance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Giordano |first1=Ralph G. |title=Fun And Games In The Twentieth Century America: A Historical Guide to Leisure |date=2003 |publisher=GreenWood Press |isbn=0-313-32216-3 |page=20 |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=Fun+and+Games+in+Twentieth-Century+America%3A+A+Historical+Guide+to+Leisure |access-date=2 October 2023}}</ref>
* Boxing, also known as "Prize Fighting" became popular over this decade although [[bare-knuckle fighting]] was still popular.