流行音樂的流行密碼

相信不少同學(xué)喜歡聽流行音樂吧？為什么有些曲子能膾炙人口、經(jīng)久不衰，有些曲子卻只是曇花一現(xiàn)、轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝？音樂指揮Charles Hazlewood帶我們走訪眾多音樂人，一起探討偉大流行曲誕生的秘密——

學(xué)習(xí)小提示：本文為英式發(fā)音，但被訪者之間有口音差別，喜歡英音的同學(xué)模仿時(shí)需留意。另外，文中出現(xiàn)了不少音樂用語，我們用不同顏色做標(biāo)記，大家不妨收集起來歸類記憶哦。

A great pop song tells a human story. It demands our attention and sticks in the memory. A pop song can make us want to sing and dance， or transport us to another time and place.

Martin Fly (Songwriter): Pop’s almost like a…it’s a different country; it’s a different place; it’s an imaginary place where everything’s perfect.

What does it take to create a hit song?

A Killer Tune

Steve Levine (Arranger): With a pop record， there are so many 1)defining things that you have to get right， because essentially it’s going to land on a radio producer’s desk， and if you don’t hit him “bang” in a few seconds…gonna go down the pile to the next one.

The best songwriters and producers have mastered the art of 2)hooking listeners， finding 3)subtle but effective ways of 4)seducing us. The most fundamental of these is a killer tune.

When it comes to melody， most pop composers agree simplicity is best.

Nick Ingman (Arranger): They are mostly simple and of very limited range[音域]. That’s partly to do with the skill of the performer. It’s also partly to do with 5)Joe Public’s， you know， 6)accessibility to that material. They don’t want something that’s too complicated.

Richard Niles (Conductor): The human mind works in a certain way. We don’t like to be bored and we don’t like to be constantly 7)assaulted with information， so to get the balance right is a 8)recipe for success.

Something that’s really important for a pop song to be successful is that it instantly grabs your attention. And something ABBA注 are great at is the memorable melody， the memorable motif[樂旨] which just sticks in your mind. Now this is called a “hook，” because

9)literally it hooks into your brain.

Allan Moore (Professor of pop): There are two different kinds of hook. One is a sort of a memory 10)shorthand. So we hear a small 11)snippet of a song and we think， “Ah， yes， that’s the song it comes from.” The other type of thing that we call a hook is， I think， what actually 12)reels you in， what actually makes you sit up and take notice.

John Harris (Music critic): It’s almost like a doorbell ringing or a car horn or something.

Moore: It can be a particular sound quality. It can be a particular note.

Harris: I mean， there’s something 13)relentless about them. They sort of crush you into 14)submission， but you’re quite pleased to sort of give in.

The Golden Three Minutes

Levine: There are certain rules that you need to stick to. There’s no point in having a 15-minute guitar solo[獨(dú)奏] at the front of a pop record. No one is ever going to play it. You need to come in fairly quickly and state the message.

Guv Chambers (Songwriter/producer): One of the first things…when you’ve started writing something and you’ve put it onto pro tools， computer， one of the first things you say is: “How long is it?”

John Altman (Arranger): You know you’re going to have your intro[即introduction，前奏]， a couple of verses[唱詞，主歌]， the chorus[合唱，副歌]， another verse， maybe a bridge[過門，間奏]，

a chorus and then out， and there’s your three minutes.

Chambers: If it is longer than four minutes， it’s probably saying...it’s not saying clearly enough and it’s…there’s too much fat in there and you’ve got to take that fat out.

’Cause the world hasn’t got time to listen to a four-minute song.

Story-telling Lyrics

Niles: A lyric needs to speak in language that everyone can understand. But that is not to say that it has to use the same language that everybody else uses.

Fly: And sometimes it’s the most simple， 15)emotive， obvious things that you can put into a song that make them work.

Some lyrics succeed because they tell us something powerful about our life and times.

Fly: With lyrics， somebody kind of sneaks in through the back door and has a way of saying something. It really kind of…it might sum up that kind of three months while the record’s out; it might sum up that year.

Levine: Pop music often becomes the soundtrack to people’s lives， and， so， when you hear that song， it’s like a photograph. It immediately gives you those images straight back again.

But some of the most memorable lyrical lines don’t actually seem to mean anything at all.

Niles: Sometimes a song just needs that break from constantly listening to somebody’s words， and that’s the genius thing about a chant[有節(jié)奏的重復(fù)曲子] like that. That…it， it starts out by annoying you. But then it gets into your brain and you kinda want to go with it. And you know， when we sing along as， as ordinary human beings to songs， a lot of times we don’t know the lyrics but we…we like the melodies， so we…that’s what we sing “na， na， na， na， na，” you know.

Perfect Arrangement

Niles: The producer/arranger do[es] one job， which is to put the picture in a frame. There are at least maybe 30 or 40 16)viable pop ways to arrange any 17)decent song， all of which will work. But which will work best? And which really will connect to the most people?

Throughout pop history， arrangers have taken 18)vital creative decisions that have been 19)crucial to a song’s success.

Altman: There is a sort of code of， of what instruments are and what they do that you can sort of 20)fall back on as an arranger or a composer.

And choosing the right instrument can gift a song with its signature sound. Many memorable hooks have been created by arrangers， not songwriters.

Plus：The Power of Difference

When you have a fundamental set of principals of rules to the structure of a…

of a basic song， there’s nothing more enjoyable than breaking them. And a classic example of that lies in Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

Fly: It’s kind of 21)nonsensical， isn’t it? And yet it makes a lot of sense. It makes all the sense in the world.

Altman: That is not a classically structured pop song. So there are always 22)maverick songs that， that suddenly leap out from the pack.

What makes Bohemian Rhapsody such a successful song is it does 23)genuinely break all the 24)preceding rules. It 25)rips up the blueprint and creates its own new structure， which is a kind of anti-structure in itself， because you never quite know what’s going to happen next.

一首優(yōu)秀的流行曲講述的是人類的故事。它吸引我們的注意力，長期駐留在人們的記憶中。流行曲讓我們想隨之歌唱起舞，也能將我們帶到另一個(gè)時(shí)空。

馬丁·弗萊(作曲家)：流行曲就像……那是一個(gè)不一樣的國度，一個(gè)不一樣的地方，一個(gè)盡善盡美的幻想之地。

那么，創(chuàng)作一首大熱單曲到底需要什么元素呢？

“必殺調(diào)”

史蒂夫·萊文(音樂編排)：對(duì)一張流行專輯來說，有許多明確的要求你一定要做到，因?yàn)殛P(guān)鍵在于，這張專輯會(huì)放到電臺(tái)監(jiān)制的桌子上，如果你不能在幾秒鐘里讓他怦然心動(dòng)，他就會(huì)在唱片堆里找下一張專輯。

優(yōu)秀的作曲家和音樂制作人善于引起聽眾的注意，他們會(huì)用微妙但有效的辦法吸引我們。最基本的方法就是一段“必殺調(diào)”。

說起旋律，大多數(shù)流行樂作曲家都同意“簡單就是美”這種說法。

尼克·英格曼(音樂編排)：這些曲子大多很簡單，音域也不廣。造成這樣的原因部分是歌手的技藝，部分是一般人對(duì)曲子的接受度，人們不喜歡太復(fù)雜的音樂。

理查德·奈爾斯(指揮)：人類的大腦有特定的運(yùn)作方式。我們既不喜歡沉悶無聊，又不喜歡被不斷涌入的資訊弄得煩擾不堪；因此，在這兩者之間找到平衡就是成功秘笈。

一首流行曲之所以成功，其中很重要的一點(diǎn)就是它能馬上抓住你的注意力。而“阿巴合唱團(tuán)”之所以偉大，就在于他們的旋律讓人記憶猶新，那令人難忘的樂旨會(huì)一直留在你的腦中。這種旋律叫做“引子”，正如其字面含義那樣，它能在你的腦子里生根。

艾倫·摩爾(流行樂教授)：引子有兩種。一種類似于速記。我們聽見一首曲子的片段就會(huì)想：“啊，沒錯(cuò)，那旋律就是從這首曲子里來的?！绷硗庖环N我們稱之為“引子”的旋律，我想，能把你帶進(jìn)其中，讓你不禁坐起來，用心聆聽。

約翰·哈里斯(樂評(píng)人)：那差不多就像門鈴響了，或是汽車在鳴喇叭之類。

摩爾：可以是某種音質(zhì)，也可以是某個(gè)音符。

哈里斯：我的意思是，這種旋律會(huì)無情地沖擊著聽眾，有點(diǎn)兒逼你屈服的味道，但你也樂在其中，甘愿被它折服。

黃金三分鐘

萊文：（在音樂創(chuàng)作中，）有些規(guī)矩你一定要遵守。在唱片開頭來一段15分鐘的吉他獨(dú)奏沒有任何意義。沒有人會(huì)這樣做。你必須迅速進(jìn)入正題，開篇明義。

格夫·錢伯斯(作曲家/制作人)：首先要做的一件事是……當(dāng)你開始作曲，準(zhǔn)備將它放到專業(yè)機(jī)器或者電腦上進(jìn)行制作時(shí)，你首先要做的一件事就是問問

自己：“這曲子有多長？”

約翰·奧爾特曼(音樂編排)：你知道自己要安排一段前奏、幾段主歌、副歌、另一段主歌，或許還有過門、副歌，然后結(jié)束——這就是你的三分鐘。

錢伯斯：如果曲子超過四分鐘，那大概就是……也就是說曲子沒表達(dá)清楚，

它……里面有多余脂肪，你得把這些多余脂肪拿掉，因?yàn)槿藗儧]有時(shí)間聽四分鐘長的曲子。

會(huì)講故事的歌詞

奈爾斯：歌詞要使用人人都能聽懂的語言，但這并不意味著歌詞非得用人人都在用的語言方式。

弗萊：有些時(shí)候，正是那些最簡單、最真摯、最顯而易見的東西，填上這樣的歌詞，曲子就能成功。

有些歌詞能成功是因?yàn)樗鼈兒苡辛Φ仃U述了我們的時(shí)代和生活。

弗萊：在歌詞當(dāng)中，仿佛有人悄悄從后門溜了進(jìn)來，對(duì)你講出一些道理。那確實(shí)有點(diǎn)兒……它或許總結(jié)了唱片發(fā)行后三個(gè)月的生活百態(tài)，又或許總結(jié)了那整整一年。

萊文：流行曲常常會(huì)成為人們生活的背景音樂。所以，當(dāng)你聽見那首歌，它就像一張老照片，馬上將昔日的情景呈現(xiàn)在你眼前。

然而，某些最讓人難忘的歌詞似乎根本沒有任何含義。

奈爾斯：有時(shí)，一首成功的曲子需要的不過是讓聽眾免于一直聽別人說話，那正是這種重復(fù)調(diào)調(diào)的天才之處。那樣……一開始，它讓你感到不勝其煩；但這旋律漸漸潛入你的腦子，你不禁想跟著它唱起來。你知道，我們這些人跟著哼歌時(shí)，很多時(shí)候我們根本不知道歌詞但……我們就是喜歡這個(gè)旋律，所以我們……這就是我們跟著唱“啦啦啦啦啦”的原因，你知道。

完美編曲

奈爾斯：音樂制作人（音樂編排）要做的事情就是將圖片用合適的相框裝裱起來。任何一首不錯(cuò)的曲子都有至少三四十種可行的流行樂編排方式，全都能編出好音樂。但（問題在于）到底哪一種方式最合適？哪一種方式能引起最多人的共鳴？

在流行樂史上，音樂編排的重大創(chuàng)意決定對(duì)一首歌曲的成功與否至關(guān)

重要。

奧爾特曼：音樂編排有一套類似于密碼的東西，例如用什么樂器，不同樂器有什么效果等，這樣你編曲或者作曲時(shí)就有理可依。

選擇合適的樂器可以賦予歌曲標(biāo)志性的聲音。許多人們記憶猶新的引子并不是作曲家的杰作，而是音樂編排的功勞。

加分：與眾不同的威力

當(dāng)你掌握了一套基礎(chǔ)的歌曲結(jié)構(gòu)定律之后，沒有什么比打破框框更讓人快樂了。而這種做法的一個(gè)典型例子就是皇后樂隊(duì)的《波西米亞狂想曲》。

弗萊：這有點(diǎn)荒誕不經(jīng)，對(duì)吧？但它也很有道理，它能說明世上一切問題。

奧爾特曼：它不是一首具有典型結(jié)構(gòu)的流行曲。所以，總是有那么一些與眾不同的歌曲……它們會(huì)忽然突圍而出。

《波西米亞狂想曲》如此成功的原因就在于它真正打破了所有之前提及的規(guī)則定律。它毀掉了原有的藍(lán)圖，創(chuàng)造出樂曲本身的新結(jié)構(gòu)——也就是反結(jié)構(gòu)，因?yàn)槟阌肋h(yuǎn)不知道下一刻會(huì)聽到什么。

以下為本文涉及的部分經(jīng)典流行曲，感興趣的同學(xué)不妨在網(wǎng)上找來聽聽，回頭再聽一遍講解，兩相對(duì)照能加深對(duì)文章的理解哦!

Push the Button – The Sugababes

Valerie – The Zutons

I Can’t Get Next To You – The Temptations

Dry Your Eyes – The Streets

Town Called Malice – The Jam

Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Can’t Get You Outta My Head – Kylie Minogue

Golden Brown – The Stranglers

Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty

Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen