The Pirates Dilemma

April 30, 2008 · Comments

Matt Mason author of the Pirate's 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

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  • The book sounds interesting and I will have to check it out. I lived a good chunk of my adult life in England and wrote one of thesis papers on Indie music/Independent labels. Part of that paper was about pirate radio and legend John Peel.

    The mention of graffiti, I'll take this opportunity to mention artist, Banksy. In recent years, I have been living in the states and I was surprised to learn that Banksy is not very well known over here. I strongly urge anyone that is into graf art and hasn't heard of him check his stuff out: http://www.banksy.co.uk/
  • Hey Cynthia - That is his lesson isn't it? Philosophically, it's a cyclical argument. This generation creating the new will in turn become the generation that defends the old as the next crop of new makes its assault.

    At the end of the day, I think sustainability - at least in terms of economics - comes from an ability to if not 'join 'em, at least take the best from them and create your own new space.
  • Hi Chris. For me, Matt Mason's session was a fabulous end to a terrific un-conference. Kudos to Whitney for bringing him to the stage. What particularly resonated for me was his apparent economics lesson of the day: 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.'
  • Matt presents an interesting argument. I met him just before his book was published when he came to Rhode Island and spoke at our conference. (Ironic to your post Chris - we've got Marc Ecko coming this year.)

    His book chronicles our youth culture’s ability to drive innovation through any means necessary – often times treading in illegal waters along the way. Although I think this is a streak that characterizes every generation, it is a big time challenge for companies and artists to develop new economies for developing, sharing and consuming information. There's more than one answer but piracy as a business model is pretty darn intriguing.
  • Randi
    Oh,.... just make me nostalgic why don't you? Yes anyone who has ever been a part of the culture, that was one thing to appreciate is that you didn't need rich parents to be a part of it. Another documentary to look at which deals with youth and main stream media is a frontline documentary called "Merchants of Cool." It's incredibly thought provoking in how youth culture shapes mainstream media and how mainstream media shapes youth culture.
  • That's right! I think this is a culture about accessability and do-it-yourself. With that, comes a whole new world of ideas and possibilities. It's no longer a hindrance but a boost to move forward and evolve into something better! yay! I got to find this book now.
  • whoops .. meant to comment on the other story .. silly me .. a blogger driven by passion and wanting to talk to other bloggers
  • Chris - brilliant .. I just have to point people over hear -you articulate my intuition .. made it visible. Thanks
  • What made the punk scene special, in addition to the DIY culture, was the fact that it wasn't made with tomorrow in mind, it was made for the present and that immediacy, like twittering/blogging tools today allows trends to evolve at their own pace (instead of being planned out in intervals as with disco - anyone remember Dance Fever? haha!).
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