The Age of British Indie Rock 英伦独立摇滚世纪
Indie实际上是“independent(独立的)”一词的简称,指的是独立艺术家在没有得到唱片公司、电影公司或是其他大宗款项支持的情况下,进行的非商业化主流的艺术创造。Indie不仅包括独立音乐,还包括独立电影、独立广播等。
众多独立音乐人带着一种对主流不妥协的态度,执着地追求着心中独树一帜的理想音乐。Britpop(英式流行摇滚,英式摇滚)这种音乐形式起源于英国独立音乐时期。上世纪90年代中期,Blur(模糊)与Oasis(绿洲)两支乐队在英国独立音乐的大舞台上短兵相接,并均取得巨大成功,标志着Britpop进入其鼎盛时期。
英式发音 适合泛听
Alex Kapranos(Lead Vocalist of Franz Ferdinand): Creating something, whether it’s music or art or writing…whatever you’re doing, you are going to be affected by what’s gone before you. And to try and pretend that that’s not the case is 1)insincere and 2)artificial. (Song) I think, for me, it’s much healthier to be able to acknowledge what’s gone before and then try and do something different with it.
亚历克斯·卡普兰诺斯(弗朗茨·费迪南乐队主音):创作,无论是音乐创作、艺术创作或者写作……无论你在做什么,你都会被前人的创作所影响。试图假装没有这回事是虚伪不实的。(歌曲)我认为,对于我自己来说,承认前人的创作并尝试做出不同的风格才是大有裨益的。
Narrator: For years, the indie scene was British music’s best-kept secret, home to a generation of rock 3)misfits.
旁白:多年以来,独立音乐曾经是英国音乐最讳莫如深的秘密,也是特立于摇滚以外的一代人的摇篮。
Alex: Indie, independent music, represented almost like a membership card of the outsider gang for a lot of people, too. You know, taking on the 4)pricks, kicking against the pricks, like, kicking against that sort of, like, 5)blandness.
亚历克斯:独立音乐,也就仿佛是众多局外人的一张名片。你也知道,他们无畏伤痛、披荆斩棘,就是要拒绝温和驯顺。
Narrator: But as indie 6)morphed into Britpop, Oasis and 7)arch rivals Blur stormed the barricades of daytime radio, and the British tabloids. So complete was their triumph that, for a moment, Noel Gallagher owned British rock.
旁白:然而,随着独立音乐逐渐演变成英式流行摇滚,绿洲乐队及其对手模糊乐队以排山倒海之势袭来,连日间电台和英国小报都有他们的报道。他们的出道如此成功,使得诺埃尔·加拉格尔(绿洲乐队的词曲作者和主音吉他手)曾一度掌控了英式摇滚。
(Song)Damon Albarn had found a lyrical focus, Britishness, and how it was under attack from American consumer culture.
(歌曲)达蒙·奥尔本(模糊乐队的词曲作者和主音)早已找到了歌词的核心——英国特色,以及当时英国受美国消费文化入侵的状况。
John Harris(Rock Author and Journalist): To be a Briton was actually about these areas of England, like Essex, where he was from, sort of caught in this cultural 8)twilight zone, really, that all this American stuff was flooding over so everyone was building shopping malls, you know, 9)Bluewater and all these places, and obviously McDonald’s, KFC, and all that.
约翰·哈里斯(摇滚乐作家和记者):怎样才算是一个英国人,其实讲的就是英格兰这片地区的生活,如达蒙的家乡艾塞克斯郡,就是个文化界限不太分明的地方,真的,所有的这些美国事物的涌入使得人人都在建商城,你也知道,蓝湖购物中心等地,当然少不了麦当劳、肯德基等等。
Narrator: Indie music was no longer about being outside the mainstream, it was the mainstream.
旁白:独立音乐不再意味着主流以外,它已经成为主流。
Stephen Street(Producer of Blur): They were appealing right across the board. You know, they were appealing to all the students, they were appealing to all the guys that were working on building sites and in vans around the country. And their records were going multi-platinum, no one had heard of this before…that was the 10)domain of Celine Dion and 11)Tina Turner and Phil Collins, it was, like, unheard of. And it was suddenly upon realizing, actually, no, this kind of 12)alternative music, the stuff that we’ve always been working on and always thought was a kind of secondary if not third market, has now become the premier market, it’s what people want to listen and buy.
史蒂芬·斯特里特(模糊乐队的音乐制作人):他们红遍全国。你也知道,他们既受学生欢迎,也受各地建筑工、货运员等阶层的追捧。他们的专辑将达到多个白金的销量,这是前所未闻的……那种成功应该是属于席琳·迪翁、蒂娜·特纳和菲尔·柯林斯那样的歌星的,那是,闻所未闻的。这叫人突然醒悟,事实上,这种另类音乐——我们一直为之而努力并以为只占二三级市场的音乐——已经占据了主流市场,成为了人们喜欢听并愿意购买的音乐。
Narrator: It was Blur who won the race to number one, but the Oasis camp weren’t at all shaken. The band’s second album had been completed, and those that heard it knew that the game wasn’t over.
旁白:模糊乐队赢得了这场竞赛,荣登销量冠军,但绿洲成员们毫无惧色。绿洲乐队的第二张专辑已经完成,听过的人都明白:游戏还没有结束。
Tim Abbot(Managing Director, Creation Records): I was quite proud of it though in one way I suppose as well, you know, even though we came second, ’cause I knew we were just going to do ’em on the album, just 13)belt ’em to bits on the album, so it was like 14)far out, we’re going to sell more.
蒂姆·艾博特(独立音乐厂牌“创意唱片”常务董事): 即使我们排在第二,你也知道,某种程度上来说,我感觉自己对此还是很自豪的;因为我知道我们能通过此专辑还以颜色,给他们一击。那很不寻常,我们的销量将会更高。
Narrator: The songs of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? saw the group move away from the raw sound of their 15)debut.
旁白:专辑《(什么故事)晨光荣耀?》里面的歌曲见证着乐队摆脱了刚出道时那粗糙生硬的声音。
Steve Sutherland(Editor of NME): Well what happened with the second Oasis album was that they, that Noel began to take seriously being the voice of a generation, or the lyricist of a generation, started to write 16)anthems, 17)self-consciously write anthems…he wanted the music to be bigger.
史蒂夫·萨瑟兰(英国《NME》音乐杂志编辑):其实,事实上是因为在绿洲乐队第二张专辑中,诺埃尔开始认真对待如何说出一代人的心声,或是作为一代人的词人,开始创作有气场的歌曲,开始自觉地写这种歌曲……他希望其音乐更有气势。
Narrator: Of all the anthems on the album, one song would come to define the new Oasis.
旁白:在那专辑的歌曲中,有一首歌曲可以体现全新的绿洲乐队。
“Wonderwall” brought Oasis an entirely new fan-base, most of whom had never bought an indie record before in their life.
《迷墙》使得绿洲乐队吸引了大批新粉丝,当中的许多人以前从来都没有买过独立音乐唱片。
Noel Gallagher: The 18)squares got involved, and once the squares get involved with your music, you f**king become massive, seriously. But “Wonderwall,” it’s not, you know, it’s not an edgy tune, is it? I can’t believe how many records it sold, it was incredible. I became a millionaire four times in one week, one week.
诺埃尔·加拉格尔:连古板守旧的人都被吸引,一旦连保守的人都被你的音乐所吸引,你就很厉害了,真的。但你知道,《迷墙》并不算是先锋音乐,对吧!我简直不能相信这张碟的销量,不可思议。我在一个星期内当了四次百万富翁,一个星期内!
翻译:冯敏