POP STARS PUT THE `UP' BACK IN `BEAT'.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

Another rap murder, a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour, the continued strength of ska, Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair and an adventurous album from a midlevel British act called Radiohead were watershed events in what turned out to be an encouraging year for pop music.

Songbirds dominated the charts. Newly minted superstar Jewel, Paula Cole, Meredith Brooks, the Spice Girls and Fiona Apple held up the pop side of the sky while stylish newcomer Erykah Badu and usual suspects Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion and LeAnn Rimes set up camp at the top of the charts.

Meanwhile, a ``Bitch'' and a ``Barbie Girl'' scored regular rotation on the car radio.

Old-timers including Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, James Taylor and Paul McCartney racked up their best sales in years at the same time Billy Joel and Paul Simon moved away from pop music.

We'll see if the breakthrough acts of '97 have staying power: Hanson, the Spice Girls, Matchbox 20, the Wallflowers, the Verve Pipe, Brooks, Badu, Third Eye Blind, Apple, Prodigy, Chumbawamba, Jewel, Duncan Sheik, Sugar Ray and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

The still-unsolved murder of New York rapper the Notorious B.I.G. in the mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles in March cast a pall over the hip-hop world, but that didn't stop such acts as Mase, Scarface, the Firm, Wu-Tang Clan, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Master P from mining the same tough-talking ground.

The biggest tours of the year included the Rolling Stones (``Bridges to Babylon'' was the top-grossing tour of the year at $90 million), U2, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Garth Brooks, Tina Turner and Jimmy Buffett. The all-female Lilith Fair was the summer's most successful trek, topping the apparently worn-out Lollapalooza concept.

The shortest-lived reunion tour belonged to Blondie (two shows).

In 1996, insiders predicted electronic pop in the shape of Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers and others would take over the pop world in '97. It didn't quite work out that way. While Prodigy and the Chemicals had hits, kids craved loud guitars and uplifting dance rhythms. That's where the third coming of ska came in: Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish, Smash Mouth, Sublime, Goldfinger and Sugar Ray all had national success with ska-inflected numbers and well-attended shows.

When it came to pure pop, the Brits took the cake. A bunch of basement anarchists from Leeds called Chumbawamba delivered the year's most insanely catchy chart-topper - the working-class ode ``Tubthumping.'' The Spice Girls' girl power shriek also fueled chart hits.

One of the looniest events of the year was the saga of the Insane Clown Posse, a profanity-spewing duo of cartoonish white rappers from Detroit who found their Disney-owned Hollywood Records debut, ``The Great Milenko,'' recalled from the stores a week after the Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott Disney for ``gay-friendly'' policies.

Suddenly, every major label in the business was in a bidding war for the Posse. Island Records won and re-released ``Milenko,'' which zoomed into the charts.

Even sillier, the band Marilyn Manson, led by a lipstick-decorated kid from suburban Florida peddling refried Alice Cooper theatrics, was paid not to play a concert in Columbia, S.C., after city fathers apparently believed an Internet smear campaign which had the rock band killing puppies and having sex with audience members on stage. That we'd pay to see.

In more rap turmoil, Death Row Records President Marion (Suge) Knight kicked off a nine-year prison term after it was found he had violated parole by joining in the 1996 scuffle in Las Vegas that preceded the murder of Tupac Shakur. The label, once the dominant force in rap with a roster that included Dr. Dre, Tupac and Snoop Doggy Dogg, continued to lose steam while insiders predicted Interscope will eventually drop the affiliate entirely.

Rock critics and fans seemed to agree on something for a change: Radiohead's ``OK Computer'' (Capitol) album, which ended up at the top of most 1997 best-of lists. The adventurous and atmospheric record, perhaps the best album Pink Floyd didn't make in 20 years, didn't boast any hit singles, but it did have a wonderfully surreal feel, as evidenced in lyrics like, ``unborn chicken voices in my head.''

It was also a year when everybody, it seemed, wanted to get into the music biz. Police favorite Rodney King announced he was launching a hip-hop label. Actors Keanu Reeves, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Coster and Johnny Depp made music. And Dr. Jack Kevorkian released a jazz album, ``A Very Still Life,'' backed by the Morpheus Quintet.

Those that were in the business had to contend with more job insecurity than usual. Cost-cutting at EMI Worldwide cost the entire stateside staffs of EMI and Enclave their jobs. Top managers at PolyGram, too, were on the move, while Danny Goldberg's responsibilities swelled to include the running of Motown. At the same time, the 2-year-old Universal Records ended the year hotter than many longtime labels.

Locally, new radio formats - mostly in Spanish - blossomed. Then, there was Radio Disney KTZN-AM (710), aimed at that all-important demographic group: 7-year-olds. From the north came news of ORCA-FM, the new all-whale station live from the Vancouver Aquarium.

It was also a busy year for the Grim Reaper, as always. Among those that merged with the never-ending E-major chord in the sky: Jeff Buckley, Townes Van Zandt, Richard Berry, LaVern Baker, Tony Williams, Tommy Tedesco, Laura Nyro, Ronnie Lane, Wes Arkeen, William Burroughs, Luther Allison, Derek Taylor, Jimmy Rogers, Epic Soundtracks, Randy California, Rainer Ptacek, Kathy Acker, Nicolette Larson, Zachary Breaux, Arthur Prysock, Don Steele, Marilyn Lipsius, John Denver, Henry Vestine, Michael Hutchence, Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, Notorious B.I.G., Col. Tom Parker, Harold Melvin, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Payton, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Georg Solti, Jimmy Witherspoon, music critic Robert Palmer, Stephane Grappelli and Michael Hedges.

Events to look forward to in '98 include the March 10 release of Madonna's new album, reportedly a return to her techno-dance roots. Other stars with new releases on tap in the first quarter of the new year include Eric Clapton, Van Halen (with new singer Gary Cherone), Pearl Jam, Goldie, D.J. Shadow, Robbie Robertson and Aretha Franklin.

Here are the best albums of 1997.

1. ``OK Computer,'' Radiohead: Dark, moody and strange, this disc offered food for thought and some of the most progressive rock of the '90s.

2. ``Buena Vista Social Club,'' Ry Cooder and Cuban pals: A week of acoustic sessions in Havana resulted in a truly world music featuring some of Cuba's most beloved musicians jamming with Santa Monica's greatest guitarist.

3. ``Homogenic,'' Bjork: The pixie from Planet Dust merged techno and old-fashioned songcraft in this clever clash of musical cultures.

4. ``Portishead,'' Portishead: This chilly soundtrack to an imaginary pre-millennium spy flick took a few spins to make itself felt.

5. ``Tubthumper,'' Chumbawamba: Pure pop peppered with sampled spoken bits, dance rhythms, witty lyrics and a fabulous single.

6. ``Polydistortion,'' GusGus: Atmospheric electro weirdness by way of a multimedia arts collective based in Iceland.

7. ``Whatever and Ever Amen,'' Ben Folds Five: Piano-fueled revenge anthems consisting of great pop melodies and nasty lyrics.

8. ``If You're Feeling Sinister,'' Belle & Sebastian: Dark, modern folk-pop from a press-shy Scottish outfit that brought to mind the best of Nick Drake and Cat Stevens.

9. ``Newforms,'' Roni Size & Reprazent: This fascinating 23-track double-CD took the top music prize in Britain for pushing the drum-n-bass genre a couple of notches into the future.

10. ``Glow,'' Reef: Bluesy, guitar-driven rock from Britain of the sort the Rolling Stones used to make.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) Radiohead puts down some of the most progressive rock of the decade on its surrealistic ``OK Computer'' LP.

(2) Fueled by piano rhythms and intelligent writing, Ben Folds Five turned out a winner with ``Whatever and Ever Amen.''

(3) GusGus, a collective of artists from Iceland, has a sound best described as ``electro weirdness'' on its ``Polydistortion'' CD.