Look up show business in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since c. 1945),[5] is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.[5] 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.[6][7][8] At that time and for several decades, it typically included an initial the.[5] By the latter part of the century, it had acquired a slightly arcane quality associated with the era of variety, but the term is 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.[9]
Industry
The global media and entertainment (M&E) market, including film, television shows and advertising, streaming media, 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.[10][11][12]
^The term is used to describe any and every aspect of the entertainment industry, with the "show" being the forms of entertainment and "business" being the goings on behind the scenes of those entertainment events
^"Slanguage Dictionary". Variety. 20 February 2013. Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
^T. Ford (1850) Peep behind Curtain vii. 26 (cited by the OED)