The Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in the Netherlands contains ICH of which the communities, groups or individuals involved have written a safeguarding plan. Those plans are reviewed by an independent review committee. Every three years an evaluation of the safeguarding takes place.

Description

The Culture of Pirate Music is characterised by a large group of people who broadcast and listen to music via the internet or at parties. It concerns the legal activities that originate from the illegal ether piracy.

The music consists largely of Dutch-language music, bands from the 60s, 70s and 80s, German hits and polkas. It is music that is hardly ever heard on regular radio stations.

Becoming a pirate has become much easier with the arrival of internet radio. Anyone with the appropriate equipment can decide to start broadcasting via the internet and thus become a pirate.

The larger legal internet stations are often groups of pirates that all take a part of the programming for their account in order to realise a full day programme. These pirates work from attics, sheds and log cabins in and around their homes. Their studios are often attractively decorated and during the broadcasts you can often hear that the studio is filled with visitors.

The listeners often send requests to the pirate, who discusses those in the broadcast with a talk show. The pirate addresses the listener very directly, for example by asking if the reception is good or asking for a greeting, a request, or a reaction. The contact between the artists and the fans is also very close. Many artists have direct contact with their fans and the internet stations. Artists who are enormously popular in the pirate world are often hardly known outside of it. Pirate music can be heard in almost every sports canteen, workplace and building site in the north and east of the Netherlands. This does not alter the fact that there are also pirate music lovers in other parts of the Netherlands.

Broadcasting is not the only thing that belongs to the Culture of Pirate Music. Pirate music can be heard at almost every village festival in the north and east of the Netherlands. Some festivals are annual, of which the Twente Pirate Feast in Rossum is the largest.

Community

Within the pirate music industry, several parties are active: the broadcast pirates, the artists and the artist agencies. There are also an estimated 100,000 listeners and visitors to the feasts.

The Stichting Piratencultuur (Pirate Culture Foundation) is the driving force behind this intangible cultural heritage and thus a formal point of contact. The entry is also supported by Radio Olympia (the largest internet pirate station in the Netherlands, with more than 40 affiliated stations), among others, Time Out (one of the largest pirate bands), internet collective Radio Moonlights (an internet collective in Overijssel and Drenthe that arose from pirates who used to broadcast via the ether) and internet collective Hitstream FM (an internet collective with about 20 affiliated stations).

History

Pirate music originated in the 1930s within the working class in the industrial areas in Almelo. In the 1930s, the pirate movement spread further across the province of Overijssel. The music was at the time also characterised by music that was not played by 'Hilversum'. Real working-class songs were played, music that was not allowed on the official radio. Most broadcasts were in the morning or after the broadcast from Hilversum and in the weekend, so it was complementary to the normal radio programme. Most pirates at that time were young men from the working class.

Until 1938, a pirate could be heard illegally almost every weekend in Twente and the pirates were known in Overijssel and parts of the Achterhoek region.

In the autumn of 1939, probably because of the (impending) war, the pirate stations were finished.

Immediately after the war, however, broadcasting was picked up again. Until 1950 mainly in Twente, where before the war people also used to broadcast. After that, it spread to other parts of the north-eastern Netherlands and even to the west of the country. The strong growth after the war had to do with the increased technical possibilities. Making a transmitter was easy and the growth of music on single went very fast. Probably between 1946 and 1967 there were about 2,000 different radio stations.

In the 80s, 90s and 2000 many pirates were active on the airwaves. They played with higher powers, which increased the nuisance. The government then decided to impose severe sanctions. This led to internet radio and unmanned broadcasting. With the advent of the Internet, there has been a shift towards the Internet and events in recent decades. However, the music and the atmosphere have not changed. Whereas radio stations/illegal pirates used to play alone, more and more collectives are emerging, such as HitstreamFM, Radio Moonlights and Radio Olympia. All their broadcasts are digital, with individual stations/pirates playing under one name.

Safeguarding

Safeguard actions

2021-2024

  • Prominent artists within the pirate community will be invited as ambassadors to show the added value of the pirate music and culture to the outside world.
  • A lobby is started for more (positive) attention in the media. The ambassadors are linked to this.
  • A database of 'good example pirates' is created and maintained to maintain contact with the media.
  • There is a curriculum and lesson plan developed for high schools in the Northeast of the Netherlands in which attention is paid to the pirate music and culture. Some enthusiastic schools are being sought to serve as a front group for this.
  • The Stichting Piratencultuur will take responsibility for documentation, archiving and research.
  • Pirates who want to safeguard their archives for the future can place their archives with the foundation so that no collections are lost.
  • The Stichting Piratencultuur will serve as a mouthpiece for the relationship with the government. It serves as a source of information for both the (local) government and for broadcasting pirates when it comes to, for example, applying for licences and possibly subsidies.
  • The board and candidate board members will be trained to speak to the press, and they will be taught how to deal with critical questions from the media, for example about illegal aspects that are explicitly not part of the safeguarding.

Contact

Piratencultuur
Beene Dubbelboerstraat 13
9571DA
Tweede Exloermond
Drenthe
Netherlands
Website