"show business" is not necessarily derogatory in USA's use. "That's show business" is definitely often used to say "it sucks but that's how things are", but "sh

"show business" is not necessarily derogatory in USA's use. "That's show business" is definitely often used to say "it sucks but that's how things are", but "show business" as a whole is also used to say "this is how the top tier does things, pay attention". Maybe another way to describe it is: Hollywood ("show business" as a whole, but it leaks into popular media in many ways, thus popular [anything]) has a huge presence in both positive and negative ways. As usual in idioms, context is extremely important / often more important than the words themselves. "Show business" is a reference to a highly visible and influential segment of [a population], though often devoid of analysis beyond that point.