What does 'contemporary culture' mean?

Question

what role does art play in contemporary culture?

Answer 1

Well, usually contemporary means same genre during the same time frame...

like Britney Spears and Christina Agulara are contemporaries (same genre, same time)

if you were trying to discribe classical music, you could also say "Bach and his contemporaries", meaning other people in the same genre during the same time period.

Traditionally, when speaking of art, "contemporary" is considered anything after WWII to the present, unless you give a specific example to the contrary (so if you were to mention da Vinci, it would indicate mid to late 1400's).

So, the question means "What is the purpose of art in today's society?  What impact does it have, or how does it influence our modern culture?"  

As far as answering THAT question for you, well, you're out of luck... I'm not writing any essays tonight! LOL

Hope this helped! :)