FAREWELL, MASH

As this is my final MASH column - and the one that will run at the real beginning of the 21st Century - it seemed appropriate to round up some significant recent developments and trends and make a few last portentous, highly opinionated observations.

Over the last year or so, I've tried to steer readers toward music of all genres that pushed the creative envelope and, most of all, achieved a direct emotional connection with the listener. To that end, I've extolled the work of artists as diverse as Macy Gray, Elliott Smith, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Aimee Mann, Henri Dikongué, Nina Gordon and Fiona Apple, as well as numerous unsung soul, funk, dance and hip-hop acts.

Sadly, most of these gifted performers (Gray being a notable exception) have seen their work languish in the marketplace, surpassed a thousandfold in popularity by manufactured teenpop, ear-lacerating angst-metal and saccharine "adult" ballads.

What's more, the last few years have seen a precipitous decline in the role of the album, the collection of songs somehow united by the period of their composition, a set of themes or just a sonic formula. Those artists dedicated to giving listeners more than a single strong tune and a batch of filler are in the minority, banished to college and specialty radio, indie record stores and Internet cliques.

The Net, meanwhile, looked for a while like the savior of independent music. But apart from the explosive popularity of free services like Napster, which offer no career opportunities for musicians at the moment, the Net has simply been the proving ground for the power of media-conglomerate lawsuits.

Even so, SPIN tellingly named "your hard drive" as its Album of the Year - pointing to an upcoming era in which consumers created their own dream albums from a plenitude of musical offerings.

Such utopianism may be premature, but the era of digital distribution is upon us, and with it a wealth of possibilities as well as headaches.

But nothing changes as long as the priorities of major labels determine our musical diet. The majors are themselves subject to the merciless economic imperatives of the conglomerates that own them. And their returns, which justify the budgets and salaries and bonuses allotted by said congloms, are dependent on the radio stations that will or won't play their records. And the radio outlets are beholden to their multi-chain owners and mustn't risk losing their advertising - which necessitates appealing to the widest, least adventurous audience. Is it any wonder, then, that so much of aforementioned diet is junk?

Still, there is hope. The majors still manage to come up with a surprising number of compelling CDs each year - in fact the past few months have seen such pleasant surprises as the latest U2 album, Outkast's amazing breakthrough, STANKONIA, and the mesmerizing alt-rock of Paloalto.

Next year will see the highly anticipated release from pop-rock geniuses Semisonic, who scored a hit in '98 but saw the rest of their superb album go unheralded, as well as the major-label bows from indie experimentalists Creeper Lagoon and melody masters Annetenna (featuring the creative team behind Ednaswap). Also, look for promising soul-pop from Lina and Rama Duke, among others.

Readers eager to read about new developments in quality music are directed to the music area of Tribe (latribe.com); my writing on an array of topics will continue to appear on HITS Daily Double (hitsdailydouble.com).

Anyone interested in finding out about my band, Mysterypop (formerly known as Spanish Kitchen) should check out mysterypop.com in a few months.

My gratitude goes out to the editors of MASH and everyone who took the time to read these scribblings. If you enjoyed perusing them half as much as I did composing them, I'll feel truly blessed. So long!

--Simon Glickman