The Netherlands has added ‘pirate music culture’ to its list of intangible cultural heritage, but carefully points out that only the culture and not any illegal acts are being honored. The music largely reflects locally-made music that might otherwise be lost in the globalization of pop culture.
The intangible culture list follows the concept of the world list kept by Unesco, but is directed to local treasures that would not make the world stage.
Peter Zwiers, a politician who helped lead the campaign for recognition, told DutchNews.nl that “It started in the 1930s in the Overijssel, and after the war it moved to the east and the north.
‘It’s mostly Dutch language music, also some 1960s and 1970s tracks: it’s music you rarely hear on commercial radio, typically comes from workers and people with a manual profession and is very big especially in the north and east of the Netherlands.
‘Pirate music started illegally, and this has been recognised, but as with a lot of culture, today there are lots of modern possibilities. It brings together young and old, and I’m extremely happy and proud that it has been recognised.”
