Intense pirate-radio competition among crews generates musical innovation

Evidence

That is related to pirate radio, the competition between DJ and MC crews both within a particular station and between stations. And the sheer number of pirate radio stations owes a lot to the urban landscape of London, the number of tower blocks to broadcast from, and the density of the population, and the existence of a sizeable minority (in both the racial and aesthetic sense) whose musical taste is not catered for by state-run radio or by the commercial radio stations (including the commercial dance station Kiss FM). This competition — expressed through the pirates striving to increase their audience share but also through raves and clubs competing for dancers — is partly economic and partly purely about prestige, aesthetic eminence. And it has stoked the furnace of innovation. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1260

Categorization

• XREF: This echoes the reader’s earlier material on medieval reputation economies and self-regulating private orders sustaining productive competition without state direction.