英文八卦：Lady Gaga 已成怀旧艺人

歌曲：Lady GaGa-Poker Face

Six years into the supernova phase of her career, Lady Gaga is already a nostalgia 1 act. Not in the temporal sense — even in her prime she wasn’t a particularly modern artist, but one bowing at the altar of early 1980s Madonna, toying with the arena 2 camp of the 1970s or winking 3 at 1990s club land — but more in terms of place.



六年前成为超新星的Lady Gaga如今已成为怀旧艺人。然而即便在全盛时代，她也并不是一个特别现代的歌手，而是致敬20世纪80年代初的麦当娜、玩点70年代的体育场演唱会风格，以及借鉴90年代的俱乐部风情，因此她的怀旧不是从时间意义上而言，更像是一种空间概念。



For many — millions, even — she is a safe harbor, a pop Pied Piper offering succor 4 and comfort and, crucially, hope. Her fans are devoted 5 in a way that has little to do with music; the songs are the skeleton on which far more fascinating and intense bonds have formed.



对于很多人来说——甚至可以说是对成百上千万的人来说——她是一个安全港，是流行乐界的花衣风笛手，向人们提供帮助和安慰，最重要的是，提供希望。歌迷们对她的忠诚在某种程度上几乎与音乐无关;歌曲只是骨架，其上附着着更迷人、更热烈的联系。



But there is a gap, a seemingly wide one, between the fervor 6 Lady Gaga generates and her viability 7 as a recording 8 artist. She released “Artpop” (Streamline/Interscope), her third major label album, last November, to general indifference 9.



但是Lady Gaga所制造的热潮与她身为录音乐手的能力之间有着一道似乎颇为宽广的鸿沟。去年11月她的《流行艺术》(Artpot, Streamline/Interscope)是她在大厂牌发行的第三张专辑，受到广泛冷遇。



Even though it debuted 10 at No. 1 on the Billboard 11 album chart, it is by far her least commercially successful release and also the one with the fewest hits. (That could change but most likely won’t.) For someone with such a rabid fan base, it could be seen only as a flop 12.



尽管它爬上了“公告牌”(Billboard)专辑榜第一位，却是她迄今为止商业上最不成功的专辑，也是金曲最少的一张(这种局面有可能改变，但可能性并不大)。对于一个拥有如此狂热粉丝基础的人来说，这个结果只能算作失败。



Again, though, Lady Gaga’s music is the pretense 13, not the substance of her bond with her audience, which was clear Friday at Roseland Ballroom 14 during the first night of her seven-show run there.



尽管如此，Lady Gaga的音乐只是伪装，并不是她与观众之间的实质性联系，这从星期五晚上(此处指2013年3月28日——编注)她在罗斯兰德舞厅的演出就可以看出来，之后她还要在那里演出六场。



What she gave the faithful was easy to digest: largely bulletproof pop, swinging back and forth 15 between brooding, panting torch songs delivered at top volume and grand-scale 1980s-style digital rock with a nightclub twist.



她想传达给忠实歌迷的东西都很好理解：大量刀枪不入的流行乐，一头是充满沉思和喘息的热情歌曲，用最大音量唱出来;另一头是宏大的80年代数码摇滚，带点夜店风情。



There were songs that mull celebrity 16, but not too hard, like “Applause,” and songs that mull fantasy, but not too hard, like “Sexxx Dreams.” But, mostly, they are songs — relying on broad thematic gestures and familiar production swells 17 — that don’t exclude anyone.



有些歌对名人这个主题进行了反思，但并不强烈，比如《掌声》(Applause)，还有些歌是关于幻想，但也不强烈，比如《性梦》(Sexxx Dreams)。但它们大都是迎合所有人的歌，主要依靠和主题有关的粗俗手势，以及熟悉的夸张姿态。



Performing on her 28th birthday, she delivered a short set — a strict hour, and the stinginess was felt — at high intensity 18. Presumably, it was an abbreviated 19 and contained version of the show she’ll be bringing to arenas 20 over the next few months on her “artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball” tour.



演出正值她28岁生日，她献上了很短的一组节目——正好一个钟头，感觉有点小气，不过却非常热烈。据推测，这可能是她在接下来的几个月里要在大型场馆进行的“艺术锐舞：流行艺术舞会”巡演的短版本。



The stage setup, too, felt like an arena in miniature: a bunch of scaffolding draped in flowers; a small platform at the top left that she used for songs delivered intimately, with keyboard; and a side stage set up in a loose approximation of a New York street scene, with neon signs and an imitation subway car.



舞台设计也很像小型的大场馆演唱会：一组脚手架，上面垂挂着鲜花，顶端是一个小平台，她可以在上面一边弹键盘，一边以亲密的方式演绎歌曲;还有一个侧舞台，布置得有些像纽约街景，有霓虹灯招牌和一辆假的地铁。



When coupled with the outfit 21 changes, it was a lot to take in. But Lady Gaga grounds this sort of spectacle with her voice. She is still a fearsome singer when she chooses to be, which is to say rarely on records but often in concert.



除了她更换的行头，还有许多看点。但这些看点是建立在Lady Gaga的嗓音之上的。只要她愿意，她仍然是个令人生畏的歌手，不过在唱片中很难听出，主要表现在现场。



In this show, she opened with “Born This Way,” which was greeted with the usual messianic fervor. Seated on the top platform, she sang with the whole of her body, tensing her arm muscles when holding big notes.



演出中她的第一首歌是《生来如此》(Born This Way)，观众们报以通常的迎接救世主般的狂热。她坐在平台顶端，全身心投入地唱着，飚高音的时候胳膊上的肌肉都绷紧了。



Quickly after, she danced with a feathered colleague to “Black Jesus ? Amen Fashion.” On “Sexxx Dreams,” she pinballed back and forth between a male and female dancer.



很快，她又在身披羽毛的伴舞陪伴下跳起了舞，唱起《黑色基督?祈祷时尚》(Black Jesus ? Amen Fashion)。在唱《性梦》时，她在一对男女舞者之间轻快地跳来跳去。



Moments like that provided visual grist, but far and away the most striking moments of this high-energy show were the most stripped down ones.



这样的时刻提供了视觉上的赏心悦目，但是这场活力十足的演出中最惊人还要算那些最直白的时刻。



Midway through, on the side stage, she sang the angsty harangue 22 “Dope,” telling her fans, “My heart can fit every single one of you.”



她在侧舞台上唱起那首愤怒的长篇大论《麻醉》(Dope)时，对歌迷们说：“我的心和你们每个人一起跳动。”



She followed that with “You and I,” her Elton John homage 23, which she sang with Broadway swing backed by punchy, reverb-heavy drums and a searing guitar. After that, she swung back to broad gestures: “Just Dance” and “Poker Face,” less about Lady Gaga’s purging 24 than about the collective ecstasy 25 of the room, of which there was plenty.



在唱那首向埃尔顿·约翰(Elton John)致敬的《你和我》(You and I)的时候也是如此，她用百老汇式的摇摆乐曲风演唱，伴奏是简洁有力、混响沉重的鼓和热情的吉他。之后，她又回到宽泛的姿态：《只是跳舞》(Just Dance)和《扑克脸》(Poker Face)，不是关于Lady Gaga的净化，而是关于演出场地中的群体狂迷，这样的狂迷有很多很多。



That such passion isn’t translating to record sales as it once did means that the financial rules behind a show like this have most likely changed. Lady Gaga is, in the age of a shrinking music industry heavy on head scratching, the sort of artist whose excess badly needs a patron.



观众的热情并没有像从前那样转化为唱片销量，这意味着这样的演出后面的商业规则很可能已经改变。Lady Gaga身处这个音乐工业已经萎缩的时代，是那种非常需要赞助人的艺术家。



And indeed, one undeniable takeaway from Friday night’s show was that Citibank presents Lady Gaga. Of course, it does. There was aggressive Citibank signage throughout the room, making it look in places more like a sporting event than a concert. (Perhaps that relationship could benefit Lady Gaga’s charitable organization, which has recently been the subject of criticism over how much money it actually devotes to good works.)



事实上，周五晚上演出中一个不可否认的事实，就是花旗银行正在赞助Lady Gaga，确实如此。整个演出场地都有花旗银行的醒目标记，感觉更像体育赛事而不是演唱会。或许这种关系会对Lady Gaga的慈善机构有好处，近来它经常受到抨击，被质疑究竟真正花了多少善款做善事。



Lately, Lady Gaga has made much of her interactions with the world of high art, and certainly there is some sort of Warholian explanation for all that could be rolled out in her defense 26. Corporate 27 sponsorship isn’t the bête noire it once was, though, at this scale, it remains 28 jarring.



近来，Lady Gaga与高端艺术的世界做了不少互动，肯定会推出若干沃霍尔式的探索。公司赞助不再惹人讨厌，但这种规模的合作仍然显得不和谐。



The Lady Gaga industry has high operating costs, from the production of the songs to the clothes to the ambitious sets. She isn’t really a scalable artist. Not anymore.



Lady Gaga的产业要花费高额运营成本，从出产歌曲，到服装，再到雄心勃勃的整体。她并不是一个能伸能屈的艺术家，不再是了。