The culture gap was generational.

It described the difference between an older population with more traditional values and a younger generation whose new ideas came not primarily from the family or church environment, but from the vibrant, seductive – some may say dangerous – ‘new media’ environment.

The new media of the 50s, 60s was not the internet, but music, television, film, magazines and comics… The ‘new media’ meant that for the first time culture was not primarily being passed vertically, from parents to children, but horizontally.

Peer-to-peer.

As the world becomes more connected, cultural isolation is becoming rarer – and ever harder to enforce. ‘Traditional’ and ‘modern’ cultures, like different generations, are now rubbing shoulders more closely than ever before.

Certain memes that are acceptable in one context will be suspect or even offensive in another: democracy, free speech, religion, race, the role of women, homosexuality, bacon… The Generation Gap has become the Culture Gap.

You could write the most informative review possible of a new record, but being made of words, that review will still not come close to the experience of actually listening to the song… This is another type of format conversion, of media remapping – a description in one media of something from another. A description, however accurate, is always a step removed, a reinterpretation of the thing itself.

Strangely, though, the description itself, now possessed of existence in the real world, has its own unique qualities and, though nothing like the musical experience it describes, is still a thing in its own right.

Again, the map becomes territory.

And due to this, can be mapped itself – it would be possible to have an article describing the history of the music review – a review of reviews. Or a book that detailed the history of mapmaking – a map of maps.