Browsing Quotes By Matt Mason
-
Punk Capitalism isn’t about big government or big markets but about a new breed of incredibly efficient networks. This is not digital communism, this isn’t central planning. it is in fact quite the opposite: a new kind of decentralized democracy made possible by changes in technology. Piracy isn’t just another business model, it’s one of the greatest business models we have.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 12:02 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
New youth cultures can’t be as safe as those of days gone by, because if they stay within socially acceptable limits, marketers pounce, and before long they are just another branded spectacle.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:59 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
We can transmit to the world a carefully managed perception of who we are, what we think is cool, what we wear and listen to. We need the network or no one will hear us, but we retain the power. Marketers can’t sell us meaning; we have to find it in their products, and if we do, and we’re passionate about them, we’ll happily tell everyone we can. But by the same token, if a brand or an idea makes one wrong move, it can cause the entire crowd to walk away.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:58 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
What has changed is the amount of choices we have. We have so much music available to us, the sample size is too large – it’s impossible to observe change. Youth culture can no longer rebel against the status quo in music, because there isn’t one.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:57 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Youth cultures today are small and loose-knit, floating on the electronic ether, making authentic connections with fans worldwide. Fans do not court them exclusively; they maintain open relationships with a number of other niche cultures at the same time. The days when punks had a uniform and were easy to identify are gone; marketers can’t tell who we are just by looking at us anymore. Old demographics are becoming obsolete, and old generation gaps are beginning to disappear.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:54 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The images of the tragedy confirm the world’s paranoia as they are instantly beamed back to the crowds in San Francisco, Beijing, and London. Desensitized viewers are delivered their daily dose of fear; the horrific stats scroll across the bottom of our flickering screens. There is no time for context as the network cuts to commercials.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:51 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The idea that youth culture might change things seems naive and quaint in an age where new trends are sold back to us before we even knew they were happening.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:50 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Hip-hop took over from the inside, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But now it’s just a herd of sheep dressed in adorable little limited-edition wolf outfits with dorky matching sneakers and fitted hats. The politics, rage, and rebellion of groups such as Public Enemy have been replaced by a generation more concerned with Public Enemy member Flavor Flav’s VH1 reality show 'Flavor of Love,’ confirming hip-hop’s worst fear: a wack planet.
Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 11:10 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The mainstream news media are being undermined by bloggers and citizen journalists offering a wider variety of local and niche coverage. But they are also regularly beating the pros at the networks to some of the world’s biggest stories. This is happening because journalism doesn’t work quite as it should anymore. As bloggers dig deeper and wider, the mainstream news networks are becoming increasingly shallow.
In June 2005, the major U.S. network and cable television stations ran 6,248 segments on the Michael Jackson child molestation trial. There were 1,534 segments discussing Tom Cruise, and 405 on a runaway bride from Georgia. Dramatic fighting broke out in eastern Sudan that June, an intensely newsworthy event, especially when one takes into account the largely ignored steady-state genocide in Darfur, which had killed more than four hundred thousand people in the previous two years. A total of 126 segments ran mentioning Sudan. Michael Jackson got fifty times more coverage than what was fast becomeing one of the largest humanitarian crises of the decade.Speaker: Matt MasonPosted: 26 Aug 2008 at 10:38 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment!