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"  I&amp;#039;ve grown up in the era when music became more or less free. This means I can usually avoid iTunes \u2014 sorry, Steve \u2014 in order to download bootlegs (or mashups, if we&amp;#039;re talking cover songs). It feels a little like cheating. But who cares if you&amp;#039;re taking a page from classic rock&amp;#039;s rulebreakers? I&amp;#039;m talking about the people who pirated radio, a historical highpoint that&amp;#039;s explored in a a British movie that lands stateside today. Though I haven&amp;#039;t seen the flick, the history behind it is worth endorsing: In England during the early 1960s, rock bands including that little one named after some insects were blowing eardrums \u2014 just not on the radio. By law and tradition, much of it was considered unbroadcastable. So a couple of scallywags figured out a way to beat the system. Radio Caroline and, soon, other stations began to broadcast from boats anchored in international waters, just offshore, to avoid the pesky bureaucrats that controlled radio programming. For these rule-breakers, we have much to be thankful for: The Who, for one. Same with the Stones, who produced this lovely song that was the first played on Radio Caroline. We also owe pirate radio for the proliferation of the Beatles, which means those swashbucklers deserve a pat on the back for modern pop music as a whole. In these digital days, you can still stream modern Caroline online (and scour the archives), as well as other guerilla stations (offshore or otherwise) that get as specific as Trinidadian Rock (if this DJ is online when you are). But modern piracy is generally a one-person affair \u2014 no jockeying necessary \u2014 so allow me to remind you of the unending powers of The Hype Machine, the mp3 aggregator that rules \u2014 or at least curates \u2014 the digital-music world. In an era when pirates are once again the bad guys (or are they?), their bloggers are some vagrants we&amp;#039;d love at our next party. That is, if they bring The Who. Or, better, who&amp;#039;s next. RELATED LINKS:  THE ENDORSEMENT: Underground Radio You Can Listen to at Work THE LIST: 75 Albums Every Man Should Own PLUS: 50 Songs You Should Listen to Right Now "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a6820/real-pirate-radio-111309/>