The purpose and significance of art is highly debatable for the reason that defining it can be a great challenge. Aesthetic essentialists argue that all works of art need to have a set of shared properties, while anti-aesthetic essentialists argue that there is no such set of qualities that ties all forms of art together. Before understanding if art requires shared properties or not, it is essential to understand those who makes art: artists. Artists follow aesthetic essentialism in that every artist needs to have the creative abilities to make and/or recognize something that can cause a reaction, in order to be considered a true artist. Therefore, anyone who has these essential properties and intends to cause some sort of reaction with them,…show more content… Before discussing the difference between an artist and performer it is necessary to understand rockism. Rockism is the prejudice that all music that doesn’t follow the guidelines of classic roll n’ rock isn’t truly art (Battin 3). Rockism is usually used to argue that pop stars and lip syncers aren’t true artists because they don’t demonstrate any authentic musical talent. This talent, according to rockists, is shown by writing or performing their songs similarly to old rock stars, like Bruce Springsteen (Sanneh 2). According to this argument, Ashlee Simpson would not be considered an artist, but an entertainer or performer. This is because, in 2004 when Ashlee Simpson performed on SNL it was revealed, rather awkwardly, that she was lip syncing when the track for the wrong song started playing, catching Ashlee off guard. Although holding all new musicians to the glorified standard of old rock n’ roll legends seems unfair and small-minded, the idea behind it is true. Ashlee Simpson is not an artist because she did not create art. She did not write or perform her music, both of which would classify her as an artist. Since she merely lip synced a song to a track produced and written by someone else, she can only be considered a