elite culture
Upper-class artistic pursuits
Elite culture refers to artistic, intellectual, and social practices associated with society's upper classes or highly educated—opera, fine art, classical literature, haute cuisine.
The term often carries implicit contrast with popular or mass culture: Elite culture has traditionally been the province of the wealthy.
It can be neutral description or subtle criticism, depending on the speaker's stance toward cultural hierarchy.
- art patronageFinancial support for artists
- Renaissance artEuropean cultural rebirth's visual output
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
- bespoke tailoringIndividualized garment construction
- fine diningElegant restaurant experience
black tie · literary canon · classical music · private clubs · ballet · box seats · connoisseurship · cultural capital · haute couture · chivalry · rare books · noblesse oblige · country estate · think tanks · opera · bourgeois · dynasties · cultural preservation
- culturesMediterranean cultures, subculture, multicultural, counterculture, underground
- Imperial Brazilemperors, empress, imperial army, imperial navy, Second Empire
- social classupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, social class
- Six Dynastiesbamboo grove, epitaphs
elite culturepopular culture
Mainstream societal trends
mass culture · pop culture · working-class culture · consumer culture
elite culturefolk culture
Traditional practices of communities
kitsch · street culture · schlock · underground culture · DIY culture