original pirate material

With The Pirate’s Dilemma, journalist Matt Mason shows how changes in music, technology, and youth culture in general affect the marketplace and our day-to-day existence.

Covering everything from punk and hip-hop to street art and sea-fort dwelling principalities, Mason shows how the pirate mindset and “cut-and-paste” culture have created a new brand of marketplace competition and unforeseen developments in how we create and consume.

Part history, part commentary, The Pirate’s Dilemma proves to be an engaging and surprisingly fun read. Mason utilizes a conversational tone and youthful patois that still comes off as intelligent and well-informed and doesn’t end up sounding like a graying, tweed-wearing professor attempting to incorporate words like “bling-bling” into the discussion in an attempt at keeping up with the times.

To find out more, check out www.thepiratesdilemma.com.

the pat boone version is hysterical

In 1968, twenty-two year old Nik Cohn wrote what is widely considered to be the first book of rock criticism. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom explores the worlds of rock & roll and pop – something that Cohn figured at the time would end up being a passing fad, much like the genres’ forebears.

Due to the time of its writing, Cohn has provided an insightful account of rock as it was within the context of those who created and experienced it. influential artists are looked at through a fresh and critical eye, without the filter of myth that surrounds those that are legends today. Elvis was still alive, the Beatles had not yet broken up, and Cohn thought that the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger was past his prime to be wiggling about on stage – if he’d only knew Jagger would still be at it 40 years later, I wonder what he’d say.

Though some of the text is wandering and at points borders on rubbish, Cohn occasionally transcends to pure poetry.

on pop, page 85:

“The point is that pop doesn’t work around good records or pretty voices or cute people – those are only details. Really, it happens off superheroes and superdollars, off hyped mass hysteria and deepdown social change, off short-term collective insanities. People aren’t relevant.”

on Phil Spector’s sound, page 95:

“They were dirty great explosions, guerrilla grenades. They were the loudest pop records ever made.”

Amazing is how well Cohn’s observations have held up and how much of it still applies to the industry today.

*tear*

I’m not sure  how I feel about Leslie Simon & Trevor Kelley’s book Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture. They try to walk the line between reality and satire [or at least I hope that’s what they’re doing] and it doesn’t always work.

Some of their mocking works well, like the illustrated guide to emo sub-types (in general Rob Dobi’s illustrations are one of the book’s highlights), the trend of not looking at the camera when pictures are taken, and the general musical obsession that tends to accompany the genre.

Some of their mocking, however, starts to border on insulting. The book has been tauted as being “funny because it’s true” – and if that’s the case then you’re agreeing that emo kids are friendless, lacking in social skills, unintelligent, and illiterate among other things. If this guide is the truth, as an emo kid I should be following it like the Bible because it’s stamped with Chris Carrabba’s (Dashboard Confessional) and Matt Rubano’s (Taking Back Sunday) approval.

I realize that lodging these complaints will probably only serve in painting me as the emo kid the book describes – oversensitive, unable to take a joke, ready to cry about it, and letting out these frustrations via blog post on the internet.  It’s a catch-22.

And who knows – maybe my friends and I are anomalies. The emo kids I know are smart, friendly, and got into the scene through the music. We’re also old, checking in at our mid-twenties. We’re too young for the early wave of emo (I was two when Rites of Spring hit and was still playing with Barbies when Sunny Day Real Estate’s Diary came out), but were at that magic high school age when what is popularly considered to be emo was blossoming but was still somewhat underground (Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, Saves the Day, etc). Now that emo has become mainstream, maybe the bulk of fans are just trendy followers who got into the music through the scene and do care more about their clothing, haircuts, and number of MySpace profile views.

My final contention is that I’m fairly certain that the authors are not and never have been emo. Some tip-offs: the endless references to Good Charlotte and the Madden twins (wearing eyeliner, whining, and liking Tim Burton do not get your music classified as emo), and dropping Fall Out Boy into the mix as often as possible without ever mentioning their best disc – 2003’s Take This To Your Grave.

The overall feeling of the book is more the authors cashing in on a current trend than actually trying to understand and explain a musical genre and the people surrounding it.

All that said, the book was enjoyable overall. It does have some good recommendations as far as movies and music, and parts are really quite funny. For those who consider themselves to be emo, I think it plays well. As far as being an actual insight into the scene for those who want to learn more or are looking for musical guidance, I’d advise you to look elsewhere.