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Age Against the Machine

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PERCEPTION The man won't co-opt our music!
REALITY Who pays more — Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz?

If ''No sellout'' was the cry of '60s rock, buying in is the new mantra. In order to have their music heard at all amid the current barrage of releases (25,000 albums last year alone), acts are more than happy to place their material in films, sitcoms, and commercials. The general public will first be exposed to DJ John Digweed's transporting ''Heaven Scent'' in a DKNY perfume ad — just as it's available as a single. As techno pioneer Moby learned, the results pay off handily. Songs from his 1999 album Play have appeared in six films, 12 television series (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Veronica's Closet), and most recently, a Nordstrom's spot. Thanks to such exposure, the album — rejected by a number of major labels until V2 picked it up — has sold over 600,000 copies in the U.S. Here's the rare sellout with a happy ending: Without film and TV, a terrific album like Play could have gone unnoticed.

PERCEPTION Great performers learn their chops on the road.
REALITY Mickey Mouse runs pop's real farm club.

When producers of the 1989-94 update of the Mickey Mouse Clubwere casting the series, they were on the lookout for ''triple threats who could do it all,'' says Lynne Symons, then executive director of original programming for the Disney Channel. They found them in Spears, Aguilera, and two future 'N Sync-ers, Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, all of whom underwent the show's intensive regimen of singing, dancing, and acting lessons. ''When the other kids were playing during breaks,'' Symons recalls, ''Britney would be working on her choreography or going over her sketch or learning her song.''

It may seem, well, goofy for acts to emerge from such showbiz settings. But today's pop stars don't view them-selves as mere ''singers'' but as entertainers ready to conquer all media. Call it the Madonna complex. Spears has been threatening a TV crossover for more than a year; Timberlake launched his acting career with a recent TV movie; Simpson claims she's already turned down one film role. Instead of plotting world domination, these hyphenates should focus on topping undeniable hits like 'N Sync's ''Tearin' Up My Heart.''

PERCEPTION CDs are forever, and so are the careers of at least a handful of today's Top 40 superstars.
REALITY That MP3 download sounds cool, but it'll be so over by next year's Grammys.

Meeting recently with a 14-year-old pop act, Dave Novik, senior VP of international A&R at RCA, recalls the moment when their conversation turned to the domain of online music. ''She wanted a [CD], and the credits and artwork, in her hand,'' Novik recalls, ''but her friends want to download it.''

If doing business with yet another high-school-age act isn't disconcerting enough, Novik and his music-biz peers must grapple with another startling new scenario: the digital revolution. Legions of current grade school, high school, and college students have become accustomed to logging on to the Internet, visiting sites like Napster, and downloading their music for free. Scrambling to address and exploit this revolution, the record industry announces new developments almost weekly: Universal Music Group will offer about 12 downloadable tracks a week by June; Elvis Costello has made his back catalog available via MP3 downloads (for about $9 an album); new digital playback devices the size of fountain pens are already for sale. That pristine CD replacement copy of Imagine you just bought? It'll be considered a fossil sooner than you think.

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