Cultural Transformation in the Consumer Society: Emergence of the Victorian Music Hall as a Popular Entertainment IndustryEssay from the year 2007 in the subject History - Miscellaneous, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Centre for British Studies), course: British History, language: English, abstract: In this paper I would like to demonstrate the historical antecedents of the cultural change Britain went through in the nineteenth century as it finds its expression in the construction of a new type of urban institution: the music hall. I will scrutinize the drives that brought in its emergence as a mass entertainment industry by presenting the economic and social factors that prepared the necessary background. By relating the innovations that reshaped the Victorian population, I will try to illustrate the ground upon which this new institution was built. By giving an account of the responses from different sections of the society, I will try to establish the music hall as a product of the new urban population. After delivering a brief history of its evolution I will try to portray the great success it attained. Finally, I will analyse one of the popular entertainment forms it offered in order to understand the values it represented and how it reflected and shaped the cultural trends. |
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accumulation of wealth activities was subsequent afford for luxuries became a cultural Brief History Canterbury centred leisure activities century society Champagne Charlie Champagne swell city centred leisure classes commercial attitude conspicuous consumption consumer population consumer society consumerism became consumerist attitude cultural phenomenon cultural trait Cultural Transformation Cultural Trend demand directly charged diverse city Eighteenth century emergence entertainment sphere epicures Evans Evans’s extravagant spending factor field of leisure George Leybourne GRIN growth of city growth of population ideal Industrial Revolution Innovations that Contributed KNOWLEDGE HAS VALUE leisure market mainstream social mass consumer mass entertainment middle-classes Neil McKendrick nineteenth century patterns of behaviour Peter Bailey phenomenal popularity popular entertainment form Popular Entertainment Industry population and accumulation production of consumer rapid growth Reflecting and Shaping Serda Brauns Shaping the Social social control Social Foundations social spectrum song spend on leisure Supper Rooms upper-class Victorian City Victorian Music Hall Victorian society widespread working-class www.GRIN.com