Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Grateful Dead Fans and the Power of Appropriation
Barry Barnes, author of
Everything I Know about Business I Learned from the Grateful
Dead
(2011), notes that in 1994—their last full year on the road before Jerry Garcia
died—the Dead grossed $53 million in concert revenue. Barnes points to the Dead
as progenitors of the “freemium” business model through choices like supporting
fans in taping shows (the “taper” section next to the sound board at concerts was
dedicated to tapers) and allowing fans to freely use and customize the band's sig-
nature graphic materials.
The creative effl orescence of
the band's culture (including the
omnipresent “parking lot” scene,
where Deadhead vendors sold
each other Dead-related stuff)
formed a distributed community
of wildly devoted fans. The band
promoted healthy disrespect for
“intellectual property” that liber-
ated fans from the commercial
swamp of the music industry. Many gleefully crossed boundaries by incorporating
copyrighted images like that of Mickey Mouse in their Dead constructions.
As a Deadhead, I know fi rsthand how this works, and it's brilliant. These scenes
of mass appropriation and creative fandom continued with The Other Ones and
now with Further. My strange collection of fan-created merchandise and gifts of
great tapes resonate with personal meaning.
By the way, although it is a bummer to see tie-dyed folks using walkers these
days, there's also a healthy infl ux of young people—many with children—coming
to shows. The Dead just won't die.
Original and personalized “space your face” Grateful
Dead images.
BBS-like systems was the
Community Memory Project
in Berkeley, created
by Lee Felsenstein in 1973, an electronic walk-up kiosk that worked like
a physical bulletin board. Usenet, established at Duke University in 1980,
supported threaded discourse among distributed interactors. A person
could sign up for a “news feed” on any number of topics. Readers responses
