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In the early part of this period popular culture was very much a class thing. The poorer, working class people, had one type of entertainment, if they could afford it. The higher class had another. In the industrialised parts of Britain, there were working men's clubs that would include a staged area for acts to perform. The atmosphere was noisy and artists would often have to battle with shouting from the floor around the stage as they tried to perform. Music Halls, with their sometimes rather naughty songs, were replaced by more sophisticated variety theatres, attended more by the middle class. In 1912 there was the first Royal Command Performance (now known as the Royal Variety Show) and Marie Lloyd, with her somewhat naughty songs, was not invited. The organisers thought her songs might upset the Royals and also the fact she had been married three times made her unsuitable for royalty (Henry VIII had been forgotten). Marie Lloyd then hired another theatre and performed in a sell-out show billed as being by command of the British public. In 1913 she wasn't allowed to enter the United States of America because on the boat journey over there she had shared a cabin with her boyfriend although she was, at the time, still married to someone else. The invention of moving pictures meant that films began to be shown in places called cinemas. The pictures might be moving but, as yet, there was no sound and a pianist would be employed to sit at the front and play appropriate accompanying music.

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