“歡樂”唱響格萊美

by August Brown

過去了的2012年，“神曲”輩出。其中就有美國新生代獨立搖滾樂隊Fun.（“歡樂樂團”，又譯“奮”樂隊）的《我們正年輕》。話說此曲如同樂隊一樣，原本籍籍無名，但后來被當紅美劇《歡樂合唱團》選中翻唱，于是一夜爆紅，風光無限。

按理說，在光怪陸離的娛樂圈，天上突然掉餡餅，一夜之間丑小鴨變天鵝的“神曲”效應(yīng)不是什么新鮮事——前有憑“騎馬舞”風靡全球的“鳥叔”，后有經(jīng)“B寶”對嘴型傳唱爆紅的卡莉·杰帕森，但Fun.的神奇之處在于：誰能像他們那樣一路高歌唱進奧巴馬的總統(tǒng)就職舞會，并且以超級黑馬之勢領(lǐng)跑格萊美提名，最終斬獲年度最佳歌曲、年度最佳新人？

若說Fun.的成名靠的只是運氣，那也實在有失公允。三個小伙子在獨立搖滾的圈子中摸爬滾打多年，那些睡地板、受冷落，輾轉(zhuǎn)夜店謀生的日子又有誰記得起？是不是“曇花一現(xiàn)”，“歡樂三人組”能否一直“奮”發(fā)下去，那就唯有等時間來說話了。

Considering the powerful audience that New York trio Fun. performed for the presidents 1）inaugural ball， its set during the 2013 Grammys telecast must feel like a 2）house party gig.

“When President Obama asks you to play， theres no way you can say no，”said Nate Ruess， the groups singer， “Just before we met him I had to keep reminding myself， ‘Dont call him Obama！ I wound up going with ‘Mr. President instead.”

Those are the kinds of welcome new 3）quandaries now facing Ruess and his band. After years of 4）slogging it out on the indie rock club circuit， Ruess formed Fun. in 2008 with multi-instrumentalists Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff， and four years later the trio 5）vaulted to the top of American pop. Its second album， 2012s Some Nights， paired classic-pop melodies with modern hip-hop production styles and earned the group six Grammy nominations， including nods in all four major categories： album of the year， record of the year， song of the year and new artist.

對比起“紐約三人組”樂隊“歡樂樂團”在總統(tǒng)就職舞會上那些權(quán)貴冠蓋云集的場面，其在2013年格萊美頒獎典禮轉(zhuǎn)播節(jié)目中的表演自然感覺像家庭聚會般輕松隨意。

“當奧巴馬總統(tǒng)邀請你演唱，你找不到說‘不的理由，”樂隊主唱奈特·羅伊斯說道，“就在我們見面之前，我還一直提醒自己：‘別叫他奧巴馬！，而是要用‘總統(tǒng)先生作為代稱?！?/p>

這些都是羅伊斯和樂隊對于成名所要面對的新煩惱。在獨立搖滾圈熬了幾年之后，2008年，羅伊斯與樂器多面手安德魯·多斯特、杰克·安東諾夫組成了“歡樂樂團”。四年后，這個三人組一步一步從底層走到美國流行樂壇的頂峰。他們的第二張專輯，2012年推出的《一些夜晚》，用現(xiàn)代嘻哈形式配合演繹古典流行樂，并為他們掙得了六項格萊美的提名，包括四項主要大獎：年度專輯、年度唱片、年度歌曲以及年度新人獎。

In a field of acts with a variety of missions （Black Keys and Jack White saving rock； Frank Ocean using 6）virtuosic R&B; to express same-sex attraction）， Fun. doesnt have one， except a goal to 7）upend expectations about what makes a pop hit today.

Most pop fans likely know Fun. from its inescapable single “We Are Young，”featuring 8）Janelle Monáe. Pop radio has an overabundance of songs about 9）getting out of hand in nightclubs， but “We Are Young” is a barroom blitz 10）in reverse. Its a halftime， piano-driven ballad bleary with the coming hangover—but also the promise of connecting with someone over those many drinks. The song spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was covered on Glee and appeared in a highprofile Chevrolet ad during the 2012 Super Bowl.

In a year when several out-of-nowhere pop singles—Gotyes“Somebody That I Used to Know” and Carly Rae Jepsens “Call Me Maybe”—captured the pop 11）zeitgeist， some expected Fun. to join that cast of one-and-done singles artists. But the whole of Some Nights has proven more 12）resilient and musically progressive than anyone might have suspected based just on that single.

在這個“使命”百出的娛樂工業(yè)中（黑鍵樂隊和杰克·懷特宣稱要拯救搖滾，弗蘭克·歐申用藍調(diào)宣揚自己的同性情懷），“歡樂樂團”沒有這樣的口號，只是立志顛覆預期，告訴大眾如今的流行大熱金曲該是如何煉成。

大部分流行樂迷很可能是從那首唱得爛大街、與加奈兒·夢奈合唱的《我們正年輕》認識“歡樂樂團”的。當下播放的流行歌曲充斥了太多有關(guān)在夜店撒野的題材，但《我們正年輕》卻背道而馳，是在酒吧間的靈光一閃。歌曲是派對上的“中場休息”，是一首以鋼琴曲為主導的抒情歌曲，表現(xiàn)宿醉襲來，兩眼朦朧——但是多杯過后依然承諾與某人聯(lián)系。這首歌在“美國告示牌100熱門單曲榜”的冠軍位置上保持六周之久，并且在電視劇《歡樂合唱團》被選唱，同時在2012年美國橄欖球“超級碗”大賽期間被雪佛蘭汽車廣告采用。

過去一年，好幾首“無名小曲”的出現(xiàn)——戈季耶的《曾經(jīng)熟悉的人》、卡莉·瑞·杰帕森的《可以的話，給我打個電話》一下子成為流行樂的弄潮兒，有些人當時就期待“歡樂樂團”能像他們那樣，憑借一首“神曲”一飛沖天，功成名就。然而，專輯《一些夜晚》證明了相比于人們憑借《我們正年輕》的揣測，他們更具韌力，在音樂發(fā)展上更進取。

To make it， the band recruited producer Jeff Bhasker， a longtime collaborator with Kanye West， Alicia Keys and Beyoncé， to work closely with it in deconstructing songs written on acoustic guitars and pianos and reimagining them as small epics of electronic 13）percussion and high drama.

“The whole time we were making it，”Bhasker said， “I kept telling them， ‘Were making the Grammys album of the year—not because we just wanted to win an award but because I thought we were making something of that 14）caliber.”

Bhasker， whos also up for a Grammy for producer of the year， nonclassical， was skeptical about the project at first. Ruess dogged him for a meeting， and Bhasker intended to politely humor him for a few minutes in a New York bar between sessions with Beyoncé. “But that moment when he sang the chorus to ‘We Are Young， a 15）cappella， in that bar， it was like， ‘Wow， this voice and this song are special. Lets get in the studio tomorrow.”

Despite Bhaskers input， it was anything but inevitable that Fun. would make it work. After years fronting the modest but well-liked rock band the Format， which released two albums on major labels and a third independently， Ruess had no idea if there was going to be a market for this new sound. It was too urbane and 16）high-gloss for indie rockers and built on old-fashioned pop songwriting structures （ELO was a big influence） that hip-hop and R&B; largely avoid.

為了制作這張專輯，樂隊招來了制作人杰夫·巴斯克爾——此人長期與大牌歌手坎耶·維斯特、艾麗西亞·凱斯以及碧昂斯合作。他們緊密合作，把用木吉他和鋼琴創(chuàng)作的曲子重新打造，把整張專輯的歌曲打造成小型的史詩組曲，上演電子敲擊樂的好戲。

“我們在制作這張專輯的整個過程中，”巴斯克爾說道，“我一直和他們說，‘我們是在打造格萊美年度專輯——并不是因為我們想贏一個獎項，而是因為我覺得我們要打造出那樣水準的專輯。”

巴斯克爾——他也獲得了格萊美最佳制作人提名（流行類），一開始的時候，他對這張專輯也抱著懷疑的態(tài)度。羅伊斯苦苦地邀約一次會面機會，巴斯克爾原本打算在與碧昂斯會晤的間隙之中，和羅伊斯在紐約的一家酒吧來個幾分鐘的短暫會面，禮貌地附和他幾句就算了。“但當他開口唱《我們正年輕》的合唱部分時，在那家酒吧，清唱，當時說的就成了，‘哇，這聲音和這首歌很特別。我們明天在錄音室見吧?！?/p>

盡管有巴斯克爾的支持，但是如果沒有“歡樂樂團”本身，這事情必然不會成功。羅伊斯此前在一個不慍不火但深受喜愛的搖滾樂隊——“格式化”樂隊——擔任主唱，該樂隊簽了大公司推出了兩張專輯，然后又以獨立身份推出了第三張，羅伊斯根本不知道新樂隊會不會有市場。因為對于獨立搖滾人來說，他們的音樂不激昂，又高端，歌曲偏向舊式的流行創(chuàng)作結(jié)構(gòu)（大有“電光樂隊”的影子），而這正是嘻哈以及藍調(diào)極力避免的。

Though the band signed with the Atlantic Records imprint 17）Fueled by Ramen for Some Nights， and the label had success breaking 18）emo-rockers like Paramore and Panic！ at the Disco into the pop consciousness， Fun.s tricky album 19）posed its own challenges in becoming a radio 20）staple.

“Some Nights wasnt any attempt to 21）break into the mainstream，” said Ruess， 30. “I do think the Grammy nominations acknowledged that what we were doing was unique and original. Id never heard anything like it， 22）for better or worse. I thought Id have to be explaining our sound forever， but thats what makes it special—it just sounds like us. And its nice， after spending years playing and sleeping on floors with weird smells and no one putting our songs on the radio and wondering， ‘Why do people not get it？”

Its an aesthetic without obvious peers on mainstream radio or in the Grammys traditional 23）niches of retro-nostalgia. Ruess and Bhasker think thats what Grammy voters were responding to in making Some Nights， one of the years most 24）idiosyncratic albums， one of the most championed.

The albums success opened other avenues for Ruess writing and singing—he co-wrote the Kesha hit “Die Young，” the first single off her new album， Warrior， and appeared on Pinks “Just Give Me a Reason” from her album The Truth About Love.

盡管樂隊曾與大西洋唱片公司簽約，《一些夜晚》也刻上了“拉面燃燒包”唱片公司的痕跡——該公司成功地讓一些“感性重搖滾”歌手進入流行樂領(lǐng)域，例如“帕拉摩爾”樂隊以及“迪斯科癟三”，但“歡樂樂團”這張有意思的專輯對于成為公司主打構(gòu)成了障礙。

“《一些夜晚》并非一心進入主流市場，”30歲的羅伊斯說道，“我確實認為格萊美的提名向世人證明了我們的音樂獨立特行又原創(chuàng)新穎。從來沒聽到過這樣的音樂，喜歡也罷討厭也罷。我以前還想著，我以后要不斷解釋我們的音樂，但那正是我們音樂的獨特之處。不過現(xiàn)在不錯（人們能夠理解我們的音樂），不枉費我們多年在氣味古怪的地方表演和睡覺，而且那時沒人在電臺播放我們的歌，我們深感困惑：‘為什么人們不理解呢？”

這張專輯具有藝術(shù)價值，主流音樂中沒有明顯的同類作品，在格萊美以往表彰的復古大作中也沒見到類似作品。羅伊斯和巴斯克爾認為這就是格萊美的評委對于《一些夜晚》的回應(yīng)：年度最具特色、最成功的專輯之一。

這張專輯的成功為羅伊斯的創(chuàng)作與演唱開辟了新的道路——他與惡女凱莎共同創(chuàng)作的熱門單曲《夭亡》，是她的新專輯《勇士》的第一單曲；他還與“紅粉佳人”合唱了《只要給我一個理由》——選自她的專輯《關(guān)于愛的真相》。

25）Commensurately， the Fun. members have become genuine pop celebrities and have 26）availed themselves of the upsides—Antonoff is dating Girls producer and star Lena Dunham， and the bands music appears on the shows official soundtrack.

Yet even as Grammy and the pop world have fully embraced Fun.， the indie kid in Ruess remains a little uncertain about how this weird project turned him into a presidential 27）crooner and radiopops newest 28）savant.

“[Writing for others] is a good exercise， but I dont want to do it too much anymore，” he said. “At first it was like， ‘I can make actual money doing this？ Crazy！But I still dont understand what makes a song a hit. This is the first time in our lives that weve even been anything close to rock stars， and its such a crazy honor， especially remembering where these songs came from—me writing in the bathroom of my apartment with the 29）faucet running so I wouldnt wake up my girlfriend.”

與此同時，“歡樂樂團”的成員成為了貨真價實的音樂名人，在上層階級玩得風生水起——安東諾夫正與《衰女幫》的制作人和主演莉娜·杜漢姆交往，而樂隊的音樂就出現(xiàn)在這個電視劇的原聲帶上。

盡管格萊美以及流行樂界對“歡樂樂團”推崇備至，但是“獨立頑童”羅伊斯還是不太明白，為什么自己的古怪專輯會讓他成為總統(tǒng)就職舞會的表演者以及流行樂界中的新大師。

“（為別人寫歌）是一個不錯的鍛煉，但我不想干太多這樣的事情了，”他說，“開始就好像，‘我能夠從這首歌里真正地賺到錢？瘋了！但我還是不知道如何才能讓一首歌火起來。這是我們?nèi)松械谝淮闻c那些搖滾巨星如此接近，這對我們來說是一項瘋狂的榮耀，特別是想起這些歌是怎么來的時候——我在我的公寓的洗手間寫歌，開著水龍頭，以免吵醒我的女友?！?/p>