In much the same way that "Fleetwood Mac" loomed over pop in the mid '70s and "Sgt. Pepper" charted rock's course in the late '60s, Pete Townshend's "Empty Glass" promises to define the mainstream rock sound of the next few years.

Emphasis on "mainstream": For all Townshend's influence on the "new" rock community (and its influence on Townshend here), "Empty Glass" is not an exercise in rock futurism, nor a radical departure from Townshend's earlier songwriting, singing or production values.

The album is, however, an amalgam of rock's recent past and near future, incorporating elements of new wave, power pop, art-rock and the quasi-orchestrations of the electronic tone poetry bands (among which can be counted The Who, Townshend's band).

That kind of mix-and-match has been attempted by a lot of people (both performers and producers) lately, but not until now has anyone accomplished such a seamless interweaving of contrasting, often contradictory styles.

THE MOVERS and shakers of the music industry, it is said, have reached a consensus on "the sound of the '80s." It is (or soon will be) a rather austere sound, given to relatively short, straightforward, overtly rocking tunes played by three-to-five-piece bands, recorded with the same clean, letter-perfect production values inherited from the more complex, eclectic studio ventures of the '70s.

That is what you will be hearing — to the exclusion of most everything else — on the radio in the foreseeable future. "Empty Glass" is the standard to which other examples of this sound will be compared.

(Meanwhile, off the air and outside the coliseums, the next sound will evolve in an atmosphere of merry chaos. Elders like Townshend and studio session people like Danny Kortchmar or Richard Perry will psych it out, refine it for the mass trade and trot it out when today's "new" turns intolerably old. To be continued, around 1982.)

IF ONE SOUND has to dominate pop, we could do a lot worse than this. "Empty Glass" has the same high-strung, going on infuriated, energy of the currently hottest new-wavers (The Clash, The Police, etc.) with none of their excesses.

Townshend has retained — indeed, improved upon — his gift for crafting hot, tight little songs, but still leaving ample room for instrumental solos, mood-setting effects, melodies that challenge a rocker's vocal skills, arrangements that grow or intensify between the beginning and the end.

"I Am an Animal" and the title track typify Townshend's ability to accommodate all those musical and production values in close proximity. A lesser musician might take twice as long, and twice as many sidemen, to reach the same end.

Although all 10 tracks of the disc have the potential to settle onto a radio playlist and stay there for months, "Rough Boys," "Jools and Jim," "Cat's in the Cupboard" and "Let My Love Open the Door" seem the early favorites for broadcast saturation.

As in most of his solo ventures, Townshend's guitars, synthesizers and vocals (front and back) take near-complete charge of the band arrangements, with the sidemen providing sonic density and filling in the very few blanks. He uses four drummers this time (including Kenney Jones), perhaps accounting for the relatively high profile of the instrument in the backup.