Business Notes MARKETING

America has perpetrated countless pop fads on Europe, so now the Continent is getting its revenge. They call it lambada, the trendiest dance since the hustle. A torrid thigh-to-thigh two-step that swept across Europe last year after being imported from Brazil by French music promoter Jean Karakos, lambada and its Afro-Latin sound have hit America in a hurricane of hype. World Beat, an album by the lambada band Kaoma, has sold 600,000 copies. Two hurriedly produced lambada movies opened this month; five more such flicks are on the way. The commercialization has just begun. Retailers, including Bullock's in Los Angeles and Macy's in New York City, are peddling skimpy lambada skirts and tops. Still to come: videos, books, towels, bandannas and T shirts -- not to mention lambada cocktails. Dance aficionados question lambada's staying power, but promoters are dancing all the way to the bank.