Copyright 1999 VV Publishing Corporation
The Village Voice
August 17, 1999, Tuesday
SECTION: Music; Pg. 121
LENGTH: 997 words
HEADLINE: THE SOUND OF THE CITY
BODY:
The success Lilith Fair, now in its third and final year, reads well on
paper. Big-voiced gals with guitars have gained thousands of new female
fans who leave clutching free CD samplers, NOW stickers, and Biore strips.
The largesse to LIFEbeat and local women's shelters radiates an especially
benevolent vibe after Woodstock. Lilith brings women together almost long
enough to force a massive cycle synchronization and moves with an equality-driven
efficiency--no two bands played concurrently; the end of one set cued the
next. But something troubling lurked beneath the you-go-girl positivism.
Women's music may be more bankable, but only if it fits into the marketable
mold that has been wildly reinforced, ironically,by Lilith Fair itself.
It seems that slinky, bass-driven soul searching (Me'Shell Ndegeocello)
and insidious melodies of bittersweet introspection (Aimee Mann)
don't sell records. When MN played ''Grace,'' she quietly mentioned, ''It's
the first single from my new album, I hope.'' That is, if it can get past
Maverick, which is apparently hoping for something instantly accessible.
Mann, whose laconic delivery recalls Chrissie Hynde, is buying her album
back from ''the evil record company,'' which ''didn't hear a single,'' and
will release it independently. Not even 20-year veterans like Hynde can
relax. Before the Pretenders launched into ''Human,'' she said, ''Our record
company and lots of radio people are here, so act like you like it.'' What
kind of celebration is this?
Little imagination was required to figure out where the performers fit in
the pop music market. Mya, a poised teenage song-and-dance prodigy, showed
the influence of Miss Jackson's Rhythm Nation. Sheryl Crow, in a muscle
T-shirt and sporting a short, tousled haircut, plowed confidently through
her hits, with the swagger of a male rocker. Though Sarah McLachlan's sparkly,
seraphic presence evoked high-pitched screams, I keep waiting for her to
evolve as Mann and Ndegeocello have, and buy a distortion pedal. McLachlan
must have been the quiet girl on the playground who never got angry and
never chased the boys.--Carrie Havranek