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The Old Pop Music Is Over. Introducing a Playbook for Pop 2.0.

What pop means changes depending on what angle you’re looking from. It can be a descriptor of audience size, indicating something that’s popular, or it can be a genre tag, specifying a sound. But for much of the past three decades, these two definitions have effectively been one and the same.
「流行音樂」一詞的定義取決於從什麼角度去看它。它可以是界定受眾多寡的符號，顯示某樣東西是否熱門，也可以是一張類型標籤，用來指特定的音樂類型。然而卅年來在頗長的時間裡，這兩個定義幾乎合為一體。

You know the sort: Katy Perry’s confetti cheer, Justin Timberlake’s feather-light chirps, Lady Gaga’s exorbitant theater, Taylor Swift’s guileless guile. Music that strives for gloss, pep, ecstasy, spectacle. Often an expression of whiteness, too. A one-size-fits-all solution.
你絕對熟悉那種音樂，凱蒂佩芮五彩碎紙般的奔放歡呼，賈斯汀輕如羽毛的滑音尖唱，女神卡卡隆重奢華的戲劇效果，和泰勒絲看似無邪的使壞。那種試圖營造光鮮亮麗、活力充沛、極度狂喜，和壯觀場面的樂曲。這種音樂往往也以白人為主要受眾。一體適用的解決之道。

For a time, in the 1980s, this kind of pop music — think of Michael Jackson and Madonna — was effectively monoculture, which is why the two meanings of pop have been so tightly tethered and so difficult to disentangle.
一九八○年代有段時間，這一種流行樂——想想麥可傑克森和瑪丹娜就好——基本上完全同質。這也是流行樂兩種意義緊密相連、難捨難分的原因。

But in the past couple of years, this framework has been almost completely dismantled, owing in large part to the widespread adoption of streaming. What were once regarded merely as pop subgenres — K-pop, Latin trap, melodic hip-hop and more — have become the center of the conversation.
然而在過去這幾年裡，這個框架幾乎完全被打破，這與串流音樂廣為普及大有關係。過往僅被視為次類型的南韓流行歌、拉丁曲風、旋律嘻哈等樂種，儼然成了舞台上的主角。

This is not an arbitrary agglomeration of styles. This is Pop 2.0 — music that comes from several different scenes but works with its own distinct set of rules. It is the first time in decades that the playbook for pop success has been updated, and it has profoundly reshaped the sound of America.
這可不是武斷的類別區分。這是全新一代的流行樂。音樂來自不同文化背景，卻自有一套清楚的運作規矩。這是數十年來流行音樂的致勝攻略首度更新，而這也大大重塑了美國樂壇。

Previously, when artists from hip-hop, country or hard rock were said to be going pop, that implied they were sacrificing something essential about themselves in exchange for something plastic and transitory. Pop was a softening. A compromise.
在過去，外界若說某一嘻哈、鄉村，或硬式搖滾樂手轉向流行樂風，往往暗指他們犧牲了自己的核心特質，換取更人工化而短暫的東西。流行樂過去是軟化、妥協的同義詞。

Now, thanks to the largely frictionless internet, and the evolution in how Billboard calculates its charts — accounting for streaming data in addition to sales and radio play — these styles top the charts in unfiltered fashion. Hip-hop almost completely dominates streaming. Latin trap and reggaeton thrive on YouTube.
K-pop, the dominant sound of young South Korea, has become a live-concert blockbuster and outrageously popular online worldwide.
而現在，由於網路幾乎暢行無阻，告示牌也改變了排行榜的計算方式——除唱片銷售和電台點播數字外，也計入串流量。上述的幾種音樂直截了當地名列前茅。嘻哈樂幾乎獨霸串流樂。拉美和雷鬼音樂在Youtube上隨處可見。南韓流行樂——來自南韓新生代的主流聲音，不僅橫掃全球演唱會票房，在網路上更是紅到不行。

All of that has made for Billboard charts that look vastly different than they did a decade ago and sets the template for how all of pop music will sound moving forward.
凡此種種，都使現在的告示牌排行榜和十年前看來大不相同，也替整體流行樂的前行之路定好了調。
Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/335845/web/#2L-14007387L

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Australia wins AI ’Eurovision Song Contest’

Dutch broadcaster VPRO decided to organise an AI Song Contest after the country won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. The aim was to research the creative abilities of AI and the impact it has on us, as well as the influence it could have on the music industry, according to the official Eurovision website.
荷蘭廣播公司VPRO決定舉辦一場AI歌曲大賽，在這個國家贏得2019年歐洲歌唱大賽後。歐洲歌唱大賽官方網站指出，（比賽的）目標是研究AI的創意能力、對我們的衝擊，以及它對音樂產業的影響。

Thirteen teams entered the contest, with Australia beating out Sweden, Belgium, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands to take home the title, giving fans a taste of Eurovision after 2020 contest was cancelled due to COVID-19.
共有13組人馬參賽，最後由澳洲擊敗瑞典、比利時、英國、法國、德國、瑞士與荷蘭等對手，將冠軍頭銜帶回家，在2020年歐洲歌唱大賽因為2019冠狀病毒流行病（COVID-19）疫情取消後，讓歌迷一嚐大賽的滋味。

The winning song, titled Beautiful the World, includes audio samples of koalas, kookaburras and Tasmanian devils, and was made by music-tech collective Uncanny Valley as a response to the Black Summer bushfires.
獲勝曲的題目為「Beautiful the World」，含有無尾熊、笑翠鳥與袋獾的聲音樣本，由音樂技術團體「恐怖谷」製作，回應黑暗夏日的叢林大火。

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Slow music: Chord change in Germany of 639-year organ piece

Hundreds of fans attended a special kind of musical happening on Sept. 5 at a church in Germany: a chord change in an organ piece that is supposed to last for an entirety of 639 years. The performance of the ORGAN2/ASLSP, or As Slow As Possible, composition began in September 2001 at the St. Burchardi Church in the eastern town of Halberstadt and is supposed to end in 2640 if all goes well.
數百名樂迷在九月五日齊聚德國一間教堂，參加一場特別的音樂活動：預計持續演奏整整六百三十九年的一首管風琴作品，在當天改變了和弦。這首名為
《ORGAN2/ASLSP》，又名《愈慢愈好》的作品，從二○○一年九月開始在德國東部小鎮哈柏斯塔的聖布爾夏迪教堂演奏。如果一切順利，演奏將會於二六四○年結束。

The music piece by the American composer John Cage is played on a special organ inside the medieval church. The last sound has been the same one for the last six years and 11 months, and therefore the chord change on Saturday last week was a big event among fans of the John Cage Organ Project.
這首樂曲是由美國作曲家約翰‧凱吉所作，在這座中世紀教堂內由一台特製管風琴演奏。在過去六年又十一個月之間，這首樂曲一直持續著相同的聲音，也因此上週六轉換和弦，對「約翰‧凱吉管風琴計畫」的樂迷而言堪稱一大盛事。

A chord change means that the sound of the organ pipes changes either because new sounds are added or existing sounds end. On Sept. 5, two new organ pipes were added. Organizers say the performance is “one of the slowest realizations of an organ musical piece.”
轉換和弦意味著管風琴音管的聲音改變，變化來自於新聲音加入，或是原本持續的聲音停止。在九月五號當天，管風琴裝上了兩根新的音管。主辦單位則表示，這場演出是「實現一部最慢的管風琴音樂作品。」

A compressor in the basement creates energy to blow air into the organ to create a continuous sound. When a chord change happens, it’s done manually. On Sept. 5, soprano singer Johanna Vargas and organist Julian Lembke changed the chord. The new sound reminded some listeners of the metallic buzz inside a big ship’s engine room.
教堂地下室有一台壓縮機製造出動能，將氣體吹入管風琴，創造出持續不斷的聲音。當和弦改變時，這個任務則是以手動完成。當天，女高音喬安娜‧瓦加斯以及管風琴演奏家朱利安‧藍布克一起改變和弦。新的聲音讓某些聽眾聯想到大船引擎室裡帶有金屬感的嗡嗡聲。

The next chord change is planned for Feb. 5, 2022, the German news agency DPA reported. When the piece officially started on Sept. 5, 2001, it began without any sound. It was only on Feb. 5, 2003, the day of the first chord change, that the first organ pipe chords could actually be heard inside the church.
根據德國新聞媒體《德新社》報導，下一次的和弦改變預計於二○二二年二月五日進行。這首樂曲最初在二○○一年九月五日正式開演，開始時沒有聲音。一直到二○○三年二月五日，也就是第一次改變和弦那天，第一個管風琴和弦才真正能在教堂中聽到。

Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912 and died in New York in 1992. He’s known not only as a composer, but also as a music theorist, artist and philosopher.
約翰‧凱吉於一九一二年生於洛杉磯，一九九二年於紐約逝世。他不只是以作曲家的身分聞名，同時也是一位音樂理論家、藝術家和哲學家。

The St. Burchardi church has a long, checkered history. It was built around 1050, and was used for more than 600 years as a Cistercian monastery. It was partially destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War, later rebuilt, at some point secularized and over the centuries also served as a barn, a distillery and a pigsty, the John Cage Organ Project said on its website.
聖布爾夏迪教堂有著悠久而興衰無常的歷史。教堂大約是在一○五○年間建造，六百多年來被用作天主教熙篤會的修道院。根據「約翰‧凱吉管風琴計畫」網站的介紹，該教堂在三十年戰爭期間部分遭到摧毀，後來經過重建，從某個時間點開始作為世俗用途。好幾個世紀以來，建築被用來作為穀倉、釀酒廠、豬舍。

Chord changes usually draw several thousand visitors to Halberstadt, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of guests allowed into the church was limited this year.
和弦改變通常會吸引數千名觀眾前往哈柏斯塔朝聖，然而因為武漢肺炎（新冠病毒，COVID-19）全球大流行，今年獲准進入教堂躬逢其盛的觀眾人數受到限制。
Source article: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/09/13/2003743299

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Paul McCartney's Tip to Michael Jackson Pays Off

It is one of the twice-told tales of the music business: Decades ago, Michael Jackson received some sound investment advice from Paul McCartney.
這是個音樂事業圈中人盡皆知的故事：數十年前，麥可傑克森從保羅麥卡尼那兒獲得一些很好的投資建議。

Back in the early 1980s, McCartney showed his friend a notebook full of songs he owned, by artists like Buddy Holly. The real money, McCartney suggested, was in music publishing, the side of the business that deals with the songwriting rights for big catalogs of songs. As McCartney himself has told it, Jackson perked up and said, "I'm gonna buy your songs."
He did. And it was the smartest deal Jackson ever made.
早在1980年代初期，麥卡尼向朋友出示一本筆記簿，上面盡是他所擁有，出自巴迪霍利等眾多歌手的歌曲曲目。麥卡尼當時表示，真正能賺大錢的是音樂出版，亦即這行業裡處理大規模歌曲曲目創作權的一方。正如麥卡尼本人所說的，傑克森興奮地說：「我會買下你的歌。」
他的確買了，而這也是傑克森一生之中所做過的最聰明的交易。

In 1985, Jackson bought the ATV catalog, which included 251 Beatles songs, along with a few thousand others, for $47.5 million. It proved to be Jackson's most valuable asset, helping to finance a lavish lifestyle even as Jackson's own musical career reached a low point in the years before his death in 2009.
傑克森在1985年時以4750萬美元買下了聯合電視台（ATV）所擁有歌曲的版權，包含251首披頭四的歌曲，以及幾千首其他歌曲。後來證明這是傑克森手中最有價值的資產，儘管傑克森在2009年過世前的最後幾年裡，自身的音樂事業陷入了低潮，這筆資產仍然支撐著他奢華的生活。

Now those songs have helped provide a windfall for his estate. On Monday, Sony said it had agreed to pay $750 million for the Jackson estate's share of what is now Sony/ATV — a collection of more than 1 million songs, with hits by Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, chestnuts like "Moon River" and "Mona Lisa," and of course the Beatles songs.
Sony's buyout caps an extraordinary turnaround in Jackson's finances that began after his death. Jackson died more than $500 million in debt, having drawn on his share of Sony/ATV as a lifeline through a $270 million loan in 2006, years after his last hit but shortly after he was acquitted of child molestation in a trial that damaged his public image around the world.
如今，這些歌曲為他的遺產管理委員會增添了一筆意外之財。索尼周一說，已同意支付7.5億美元買下傑克森遺產管理委員會所擁有的Sony/ATV股權。Sony/ATV手中擁有超過1萬首歌曲，有泰勒絲跟女神卡卡的熱門歌曲、老歌如「月河」和「蒙娜麗莎」，當然還有披頭四的歌曲。
索尼的這項收購使得傑克森死後開始的財務狀況有了不尋常的轉變。傑克森去世時負債超過5億美元，曾利用他的Sony/ATV股權當成救命索，在2006年時貸款了2.7億美元。當時距他上次推出轟動歌曲已過數年，但離他在一場猥褻兒童審判中被判無罪的時間點並不久，而那一場審判也損壞了他在全球各地的公眾形象。

The Jackson estate has long since paid off most of Jackson's personal debts. But the latest deal will allow it to clear its last obligation, a $250 million debt that was tied to Jackson's holdings in Sony/ATV.
The deal for the song catalog could now push those earnings above $1 billion, a big return for a financial move that began as a simple conversation between two music legends.
傑克森的遺產管理委員會早已還清他大部分的個人債務。不過，這個最新交易將讓他償清最後債務，一筆與傑克森在Sony/ATV中股份相關的2.5億美元債務。
這筆歌曲版權交易現在可能會將獲利數字推高至10億美元以上，而這對以兩位音樂傳奇人物之間簡單對話為起頭的財務行動來說，是個很大的回報。

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