
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945),
[ is a ]vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
term for all aspects of the entertainment industry
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
.[''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989)] From the business side (including managers, agents, producers, and distributors), the term applies to the creative element (including artists, performers, writers, musicians, and technicians) and was in common usage throughout the 20th century, though the first known use in print dates from 1850. At that time and for several decades, it typically included the initial definite article ''the''.[ By the latter part of the century, it had acquired a slightly arcane quality associated with the era of variety, but the term was still in active use. In modern entertainment industry, it is also associated with the fashion industry (creating trend and fashion) and acquiring intellectual property rights from the invested research in the entertainment business.
]
Industry
The global media and entertainment (M&E) market, including film, television shows and advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
, streaming media
Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...
, music, broadcasting, radio, book publishing, video games, and ancillary services and products was worth US$1.72 trillion in 2015, $1.9 trillion in 2016, and estimated at $2.14 trillion in 2020. About one third of the total ($735 billion in 2017) is made up by the U.S. entertainment industry, the largest M&E market in the world.
Sectors and companies
The entertainment sector can be split up into the following subsectors:
* Amusement parks
* Animation
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...
* Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...
* Circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
* Event management
* Film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
* Gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...
* Game manufacturers
* Home video
Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...
and its distributors
* Literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
* Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
* Music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
* Politics
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
* Publishing
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
* Sex industry
* Sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
* Talent agency
* Theatre production
* Sports entertainment
Sports entertainment is a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competition, competitive event using a high level of theatre, theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation, with the purpose of entertainment, entertaining an audience. Un ...
ISIC
The industry segment is covered by class "R" of the International Standard Industrial Classification
The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) is a United Nations industry classification system. Wide use has been made of ISIC in classifying data according to kind of economic activity in the fields of em ...
: "Arts, entertainment and recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...
".
See also
* Creative industries
The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries (especially in Europe) or the ...
* Cultural industry
* Cultural technology
* Light entertainment
* List of show business families
This is a list of contemporary (20th- and 21st-century) show business families.
Families
A
;Adams-Beaver
*Actor Don Adams was the father of actress Cecily Adams. Cecily Adams was married to actor Jim Beaver. Adams' ''Get Smart'' series co-st ...
* Outline of entertainment
* '' This Is Show Business'', television series running from 1949 to 1956
* ''Show Business'' magazine
* " There's No Business Like Show Business"
References
{{Authority control
Entertainment industry
Performing arts