The rapid development of entertainment technology was assisted by improvements in data storage devices such as cassette tapes or compact discs, along with increasing miniaturisation. Computerisation and the development of barcodes also made ticketing easier, faster and global.
An important aspect of entertainment is the audience, which turns a private recreation or leisure activity into entertainment. The audience may have a passive role, as in the case of people watching a play, opera, television show, or film; or the audience role may be active, as in the case of games, where the participant and audience roles may be routinely reversed. Entertainment can be public or private, involving formal, scripted performances, as in the case of theatre or concerts, or unscripted and spontaneous, as in the case of children's games.
Animals have been used for the purposes of entertainment for millennia. They have been hunted for entertainment (as opposed to hunted for food); displayed while they hunt for prey; watched when they compete with each other; and watched while they perform a trained routine for human amusement. The Romans, for example, were entertained both by competitions involving wild animals and acts performed by trained animals.
Although kings, rulers and powerful people have always been able to pay for entertainment to be provided for them and in many cases have paid for public entertainment, people generally have made their own entertainment or when possible, attended a live performance. Technological developments in the 20th century, especially in the area of mass media, meant that entertainment could be produced independently of the audience, packaged and sold on a commercial basis by an entertainment industry.
She spoke with AP entertainment journalist Rick Taber after the handprint ceremony about persistence, experimenting with technology — and embracing opportunities: “Sometimes you get a little sprinkle of fairy dust on you and it’s magic.”
The past gives us pleasure and is of more service than the present; but the delight of what we once felt is dimly lost never to return and its memory is as distressing as the events themselves were then delectable ... But when we happen to put our thoughts in writing, how easily, later on, does our mind race through an infinity of events, incessantly alive, so that a long time afterwards when we take up those written pages we can return to the same place and to the same disposition in which we once found ourselves. quote from and commentary by Fischer (2003)[75]
In Australia, the horse race run on Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday and the public regards the race as an important annual event. Like horse racing, camel racing requires human riders, while greyhound racing does not. People find it entertaining to watch animals race competitively, whether they are trained, like horses, camels or dogs, or untrained, like cockroaches.
Dances can be performed solo, in pairs, in groups, or by massed performers. They might be improvised or highly choreographed; spontaneous for personal entertainment (such as when children begin dancing for themselves); a private audience, a paying audience, a world audience, or an audience interested in a particular dance genre. They might be a part of a 九游娱乐投注网 celebration, such as a wedding or New Year, or a cultural ritual with a specific purpose, such as a dance by warriors like a haka.
"[180] The Romans subsequently developed the stadium in an oval form known as a circus. In modern times, some of the grandest buildings for entertainment have brought fame to their cities as well as their designers. The Sydney Opera House, for example, is a World Heritage Site and The O₂ in London is an entertainment precinct that contains an indoor arena, a music club, a cinema and exhibition space. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Germany is a theatre designed and built for performances of one specific musical composition.
[204] Individuals and corporations use video hosting services to broadcast content that is equally accepted by the public as legitimate entertainment.
Opera is a similarly demanding performance style that remains popular. It also encompass all three forms, demanding a high level of musical and dramatic skill, collaboration and like the masque, production expertise as well.
The use of animals for entertainment is sometimes controversial, especially the hunting of wild animals. Some contests between animals, once popular entertainment for the public, have become illegal because of the cruelty involved. Among these are blood sports such as bear-baiting, dog fighting and cockfighting. Other contests involving animals remain controversial and have both supporters and detractors. For example, the conflict between opponents of pigeon shooting who view it as "a cruel and moronic exercise in marksmanship, and proponents, who view it as entertainment" has been tested in a court of law.
Animals that perform trained routines or "acts" for human entertainment include fleas in flea circuses, dolphins in dolphinaria, and monkeys doing tricks for an audience on behalf of the player of a street organ.
While technology increases demand for entertainment products and offers increased speed of delivery, the forms that make up the content are in themselves, relatively stable. Storytelling, music, theatre, dance and games are recognisably the same as in earlier centuries.