The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism | 
| Author: Matt Mason
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 26175
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 313
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1416532188
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.24209045
EAN: 9781416532187
ASIN: 1416532188
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
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Product Description
It started with punk. Hip-hop, rave, graffiti, and gaming took it to another level, and now modern technology has made the ideas and innovations of youth culture increasingly intimate and increasingly global at the same time.In The Pirate's Dilemma, VICE magazine's Matt Mason -- poised to become the Malcolm Gladwell of the iPod Generation -- brings the exuberance of a passionate music fan and the technological savvy of an IT wizard to the task of sorting through the changes brought about by the interface of pop culture and innovation. He charts the rise of various youth movements -- from pirate radio to remix culture -- and tracks their ripple effect throughout larger society. Mason brings a passion and a breadth of intelligence to questions such as the following: How did a male model who messed with disco records in the 1970s influence the way Boeing designs airplanes? Who was the nun who invented dance music, and how is her influence undermining capitalism as we know it? Did three high school kids who remixed Nazis into Smurfs in the 1980s change the future of the video game industry? Can hip-hop really bring about world peace? Each chapter crystallizes the idea behind one of these fringe movements and shows how it combined with technology to subvert old hierarchies and empower the individual. With great wit and insight -- and a cast of characters that includes such icons as the Ramones, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Russell Simmons, and 50 Cent -- Mason uncovers the trends that have transformed countercultural scenes into burgeoning global industries and movements, ultimately changing our way of life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Poor scholarship, poor editing, poor writing July 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found this book to be poorly researched, and clumsily written. The opening chapter on punk rock misspells Johnny Rotten's name throughout as "Jonny." The New York Dolls are lumped in with the Velvets as "another band that hung out at (Andy Warhol's) Factory." They had, in fact, no association with the Factory or Warhol. The author describes the reaction in England to the Pistols' appearance on the Bill Grundy show as mass hysteria, which is rather over the top - yes, the headlines expressed shock, no, it did not cause a national strike. The author also manages to use every cliche he could think of, from "too fast to live, too young to die" to describing Sid Vicious (at least he spelled it right!) as a punk martyr. I'll bet he thinks the Ramones were actually brothers.
 Book is worthwhile, but is even better with companion site. June 13, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
One the whole, this book offers an excellent snapshot into some of the issues currently driving the online world. While I thought it was an overall good read, this book is not without its flaws. Sometimes the author's opinion is concise and his criticism is well-aimed, such as when he addresses the music industry's decisions to punish its suppliers and its customers for its own mistakes. Especially noteworthy is how he takes what might be run of the mill criticism and offers alternative course of actions, elevating some of the book from the standard armchair quarterbacking into something that could be (gasp!) useful to the reader.
Unfortunately, this book also includes some filler. I am especially disappointed that he spent so much time extolling the virtues of hip-hop as both the original youth oriented remix-friendly music and `voice of the streets' (apostrophes for emphasis, not a quote) while totally ignoring, for example, Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie (and others)deciding to remix their pop music at warp speeds, ignoring the dictum that music should be the background for swing dancers.
On the whole, the book is worthwhile and is significantly better when paired with the companion website (and maybe that's the point).
Good for outsiders of the movement June 11, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is slightly maddening. The intention is valid: to steer people towards thinking about piracy in a new light. The "pirate's dilemma" is whether to persecute and shut down piracy, or to recognize it as a kind of creative competition. If you can't beat them, join them. The thrust of Mason's argument can be summarized by the two models of music industry approaches to P2P file sharing: either go the route of Apple and create a cheap, viable option for consumers, or the RIAA route and sue its customers.
As a former DJ, Mason cuts and pastes his way through the book with anecdotes. At first I found the approach a little obnoxious-- a kind of overly cheerful airline-style of magazine writing. As a former punk, I found the whole chapter on punk capitalism a little superficial, which lacked a discussion of a really important DIY capitalist, Discord Records. The section of the "Tao of Pirates" was also missing an important discussion of pirate culture, i.e. the black beard types that are so discussed so interestingly in Wilson's Pirate Utopias. I think the word pirate is used too general. Basically, anyone under 50 is a pirate these days, and I don't thing that's true. Also, the remix section failed to credit Dada.
But as I read on, I warmed up to the book and found the discussion of guerrilla marketing and hip hop pretty good. There was some history and anecdotes that I wasn't aware of, so I was pleasantly surprised here and there. Still, if you want a more in-depth analysis of the economic situation of open source, read Benkler's The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.
Ultimately I think Mason's intentions are good. I'm not sure celebrating the cooptation of underground culture by capitalism is something that is to be happy about, but I suppose as the pirates become more mainstream, maybe our society will be better for it, and that to me, is the ultimate Pirate's Dilemma.
Entry level discussion May 22, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have spent the last two years reading on pirates and piracy, from the pirates of the Caribbean to the p2p pirates of "The Pirates of the Caribbean", and any and everything in between. It is an extraordinarily rich subject that is deeply embedded in local and global social, economic, political, legal histories.
So with great expectations I have started to read this book.
And what a disappointment! I am devastated! Matt Mason tells stories about various innovators, renegades, avant-garde artists, oddballs, and labels all of these people as "pirates", though they share little more than the fact that they are being labeled by the author as pirates. The background he offers to accompany these stories is shallow and reflect the attitude of what Mr. Mason really is: a music magazine journalist, who needs not be neither deep nor very sophisticated in his studies.
It is insult to injury that Mr. Mason as he wrote for VICE should be, but is not funny or even entertaining. He tries though, but with dreadful results.
I would recommend this book for transcontinental flights if it wasn't a too long and unfunny thing to spend 8 hours accompanied by.
 Business and youth culture, remixed and purloined May 16, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
You've been sleeping through an earthquake if you haven't noticed teenagers freely creating and sharing digital music, photos and videos through the Internet. This is just one example of young pirates blurring the boundaries between ownership and invention, and rebelliously creating new innovations that ultimately transform society and the commercial marketplace. In a book that is both hipster and academic, author Matt Mason makes the case that idea pirates and other rebels who draw from pop culture to create new forms (thus often defying intellectual property laws) can, and often do, benefit society. Mason surveys the landscape for piracy and finds it everywhere, from music remixing to viral hip-hop videos. Although he sometimes slips into the youthful delusion that creativity began with his own generation, Mason does highlight an important point: pirate innovations can help steer society's course. getAbstract recommends this book to C-level executives seeking to understand changes in the competitive landscape, creative marketers who want to think outside the box and anyone interested in the underground's influence on mainstream culture.
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