14 of Pitchfork's top 20 albums of the 1990s came out on major labels. The rest were on 4AD, Sub Pop and Matador, which are just huge independent labels distributed by major labels. Sorry, elitists, sometimes big companies and money are right. The Talking Heads, OK Computer , My Bloody Valentine, Paul's Boutique , and Prince couldn't have done it without the company dollar. But for every Ricky Martin pelvis disaster, there's a thousand Mathletes.
Successful pastiche is all about restraint.
On Mellow Gold , Beck spat and spilled too much and too often, and the record suffered from clutter. There was a pinch of Mathlete in those old lo-fi tactics. Genius needs money. The Beatles couldn't have made Sgt. Pepper's if they had to tour and work second jobs.