The Pirates Dilemma
When punk music and the social scene around it came around, music was deeply entrenched in the record industry’s current offering: disco. Punk showed up with far more attitude than aptitude and proceeded to take a big fat gouge out of the profits and expectations of the larger record/music industry, and people responded. People suddenly realized a music and an ethos where they could participate. Instead of fancy clothes or impossible musical setups, people could do punk with a very limited toolset, and they could make it their own. Very do-it-yourself.
Pirate radio had some similar beginnings (more prevalent in the UK, but remember, my friend Jeff Pulver occasionally admits to knowing about a “really great” radio station in New York), insofar as that it became music programmed by the people for the people.
This book by Matt Mason, The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism, is a great exploration of how people like the guys behind FUBU and Marc Ecko turned hip hop culture and street graffiti into a business while maintaining an ethical focus. There are tons of other examples of this kind of information in the book, and many cases where the upstarts and the do-it-yourselfers came along and made a new culture right alongside the status quo.
I’m grateful for Whitney Hoffman for recommending the book, and for getting Matt Mason himself to come to Brooklyn to attend PodCamp NYC2, where I could then meet Matt, bug him about his book, and learn more about him.
It’s a great book and worth a read:
The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism
