For the sake of variety

In the historiography of popular entertainment during the 20th century, we face a regrettable imbalance. For the period following World War 2, a wide range of studies has grown up covering all the significant areas of popular entertainment, so we not only have extensive knowledge of its historical development over this period but also in many cases sophisticated analytical treatments of the forms of entertainment that have prevailed. The imbalance is with the first half of the 20th century, for there is no equivalent body of work covering this period. An immediate qualification is in order, for this claim does not apply to historical studies of film and cinema during the age of the dream palace, with similar work on the early days of radio not far behind. The claim I am making is specifically with Britain in mind, and most of all with the tradition of variety theatre that developed out of the music hall. Popular music studies and popular culture studies are both highly relevant to this tradition, yet compared with the work devoted to the period subsequent to the advent of rock ‘n’ roll and skiffle, there is a huge dearth of scholarship, and variety entertainment has been the main victim of this. It is a serious case of neglect, and it is high time it was redressed. The purpose of this afterpiece is to sketch out why it has happened, and to ask why we should care.