Book
Ahead of Publication
Entertaining the empire
London music hall and the export of Britishness
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Andrew Horrall
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
The stage entertainments known as music hall emerged in mid-Victorian London just as the British began colonising large parts of the world.Settlers recreated this metropolitan popular culture throughout the empire and in places under foreign control. They erected music halls resembling those at home, imported songs and sketches, performed inamateur shows and watched touring professionals. London originals were rewritten as commentaries on local conditions. This activity transformed music hall into a marker of an exclusionary British identity overseas and made colonies look and sound more like Britain. The result was that settlers separated by vast distances were linked by a shared popular culture. The touring circuits and cultural affinities the Victorians created endure to this day.
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook
Available soon
eBook ISBN:
9781526188908
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781526188908
Keywords for this book
blackface minstrelsy; British empire; Harry Rickards; Marie Lloyd; Maurice E. Bandmann; music hall; musical comedy; popular culture; popular music; popular theatre; saloon entertainments; settler colonialism; settler societies; theatrical touring; variety entertainment; vaudeville; blackface; racism; comedy; parody; Anglo world; touring; songs; colonialism
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
