A Guide to Pop Albums for Adults  Published: November 29, 1996
THE pop music industry is so fond of giving a catchy name to
each hot new sound that nowadays it is tempting to see music as
a steadily lengthening list of niche markets with names like
alternative, grunge, hip-hop, new jack swing, gangsta rap, and
trance ambient. But putting records into niches ignores the
broader sweep of pop music history. Trends come and go, but
beneath the labeling hubbub, plenty of durable music is still
being recorded that resists narrow categorization. Much of this
music involves exploring the interplay among broader musical
currents -- pop, rock, country, jazz and rhythm-and-blues --
that will remain long after subdivisions have faded into
historical footnotes.  One of the greatest pop albums of the
decade, Cassandra Wilson's ''New Moon Daughter,'' brings
together original and classic songs from the four corners of
music and integrates them into a suite that defies any stylistic
categorization. Ms. Wilson is nominally a