Lady Gaga已成懷舊藝人

Lady Gaga已成懷舊藝人

Six years into the supernova phase of her career, Lady Gaga is already a nostalgia 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 camp of the 1970s or winking at 1990s club land — but more in terms of place.

六年前成為超新星的Lady Gaga如今已成為懷舊藝人。然而即便在全盛時代，她也并不是一個特別現(xiàn)代的歌手，而是致敬20世紀80年代初的麥當(dāng)娜、玩點70年代的體育場演唱會風(fēng)格，以及借鑒90年代的俱樂部風(fēng)情，因此她的懷舊不是從時間意義上而言，更像是一種空間概念。

For many — millions, even — she is a safe harbor, a pop Pied Piper offering succor and comfort and, crucially, hope. Her fans are devoted 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.

對于很多人來說——甚至可以說是對成百上千萬的人來說——她是一個安全港，是流行樂界的花衣風(fēng)笛手，向人們提供幫助和安慰，最重要的是，提供希望。歌迷們對她的忠誠在某種程度上幾乎與音樂無關(guān);歌曲只是骨架，其上附著著更迷人、更熱烈的聯(lián)系。

Lady Gaga performing at Roseland Ballroom on Friday.

Lady Gaga在羅斯蘭德舞廳演出。

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

但是Lady Gaga所制造的熱潮與她身為錄音樂手的能力之間有著一道似乎頗為寬廣的鴻溝。去年11月她的《流行藝術(shù)》(Artpot, Streamline/Interscope)是她在大廠牌發(fā)行的第三張專輯，受到廣泛冷遇。

Even though it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 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.

盡管它爬上了“公告牌”(Billboard)專輯榜第一位，卻是她迄今為止商業(yè)上最不成功的專輯，也是金曲最少的一張(這種局面有可能改變，但可能性并不大)。對于一個擁有如此狂熱粉絲基礎(chǔ)的人來說，這個結(jié)果只能算作失敗。

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

盡管如此，Lady Gaga的音樂只是偽裝，并不是她與觀眾之間的實質(zhì)性聯(lián)系，這從星期五晚上(此處指2013年3月28日——編注)她在羅斯蘭德舞廳的演出就可以看出來，之后她還要在那里演出六場。

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

她想傳達給忠實歌迷的東西都很好理解：大量刀槍不入的流行樂，一頭是充滿沉思和喘息的熱情歌曲，用最大音量唱出來;另一頭是宏大的80年代數(shù)碼搖滾，帶點夜店風(fēng)情。

There were songs that mull celebrity, 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 — that don’t exclude anyone.

有些歌對名人這個主題進行了反思，但并不強烈，比如《掌聲》(Applause)，還有些歌是關(guān)于幻想，但也不強烈，比如《性夢》(Sexxx Dreams)。但它們大都是迎合所有人的歌，主要依靠和主題有關(guān)的粗俗手勢，以及熟悉的夸張姿態(tài)。

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

演出正值她28歲生日，她獻上了很短的一組節(jié)目——正好一個鐘頭，感覺有點小氣，不過卻非常熱烈。據(jù)推測，這可能是她在接下來的幾個月里要在大型場館進行的“藝術(shù)銳舞：流行藝術(shù)舞會”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.

舞臺設(shè)計也很像小型的大場館演唱會：一組腳手架，上面垂掛著鮮花，頂端是一個小平臺，她可以在上面一邊彈鍵盤，一邊以親密的方式演繹歌曲;還有一個側(cè)舞臺，布置得有些像紐約街景，有霓虹燈招牌和一輛假的地鐵。

When coupled with the outfit 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.

除了她更換的行頭，還有許多看點。但這些看點是建立在Lady Gaga的嗓音之上的。只要她愿意，她仍然是個令人生畏的歌手，不過在唱片中很難聽出，主要表現(xiàn)在現(xiàn)場。

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《生來如此》(Born This Way)，觀眾們報以通常的迎接救世主般的狂熱。她坐在平臺頂端，全身心投入地唱著，飚高音的時候胳膊上的肌肉都繃緊了。

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†祈禱時尚》(Black Jesus † Amen Fashion)。在唱《性夢》時，她在一對男女舞者之間輕快地跳來跳去。

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.

這樣的時刻提供了視覺上的賞心悅目，但是這場活力十足的演出中最驚人還要算那些最直白的時刻。

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

她在側(cè)舞臺上唱起那首憤怒的長篇大論《麻醉》(Dope)時，對歌迷們說：“我的心和你們每個人一起跳動。”

She followed that with “You and I,” her Elton John homage, 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 than about the collective ecstasy of the room, of which there was plenty.

在唱那首向埃爾頓·約翰(Elton John)致敬的《你和我》(You and I)的時候也是如此，她用百老匯式的搖擺樂曲風(fēng)演唱，伴奏是簡潔有力、混響沉重的鼓和熱情的吉他。之后，她又回到寬泛的姿態(tài)：《只是跳舞》(Just Dance)和《撲克臉》(Poker Face)，不是關(guān)于Lady Gaga的凈化，而是關(guān)于演出場地中的群體狂迷，這樣的狂迷有很多很多。

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.

觀眾的熱情并沒有像從前那樣轉(zhuǎn)化為唱片銷量，這意味著這樣的演出后面的商業(yè)規(guī)則很可能已經(jīng)改變。Lady Gaga身處這個音樂工業(yè)已經(jīng)萎縮的時代，是那種非常需要贊助人的藝術(shù)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.)

事實上，周五晚上演出中一個不可否認的事實，就是花旗銀行正在贊助Lady Gaga，確實如此。整個演出場地都有花旗銀行的醒目標記，感覺更像體育賽事而不是演唱會。或許這種關(guān)系會對Lady Gaga的慈善機構(gòu)有好處，近來它經(jīng)常受到抨擊，被質(zhì)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. Corporate sponsorship isn’t the bête noire it once was, though, at this scale, it remains jarring.

近來，Lady Gaga與高端藝術(shù)的世界做了不少互動，肯定會推出若干沃霍爾式的探索。公司贊助不再惹人討厭，但這種規(guī)模的合作仍然顯得不和諧。

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的產(chǎn)業(yè)要花費高額運營成本，從出產(chǎn)歌曲，到服裝，再到雄心勃勃的整體。她并不是一個能伸能屈的藝術(shù)家，不再是了。