Where culture and technology are concerned, the news isn't just news any more; it's a chronicle of emblems. Barely a week passes without some fresh development highlighting the fact that everyday life is caught up in a riptide of change. Even those still standing timidly on the shore can see the way things are flowing: Like it or not, we are being swept into a digital world. Not, however, without some bumps along the way -- as is shown by the current unresolved and highly emblematic flap over Napster.
More than any other recent cultural fad, the pioneer music-swapping Web site symbolizes both the pace of change and the generational divide it has triggered. Everyone likes music, but the ways we get it vary enormously. At one end of the spectrum are (mostly older) people who go to concerts, listen to the radio and play tapes and CDs at dinner. At the other end are (mostly younger) people who do all those things too -- well, different concerts -- but who also do much, much more.
Young people want to listen to music all the time. This means they want their music portable, instant and cheap. Radio, you say? Not good enough. Those reared on instant gratification also want their music customized. Hence the popularity of Walkmans, Discmans and MD and MP3 players, which deliver portability and choice. Hence also the meteoric rise of Napster, which delivers instantaneous access to a vast and growing database of music and which delivers it not just cheap, but free. From the record companies' and artists' point of view, the scale of use makes this an obvious form of piracy. But from a kid's point of view, ethics doesn't even enter into it. Where Kant said, "I ought, therefore I can," Napster's 22 million happy users say, "I can, therefore I'd be a total dork not to."