“欢乐”唱响格莱美

by August Brown

过去了的2012年，“神曲”辈出。其中就有美国新生代独立摇滚乐队Fun.（“欢乐乐团”，又译“奋”乐队）的《我们正年轻》。话说此曲如同乐队一样，原本籍籍无名，但后来被当红美剧《欢乐合唱团》选中翻唱，于是一夜爆红，风光无限。

按理说，在光怪陆离的娱乐圈，天上突然掉馅饼，一夜之间丑小鸭变天鹅的“神曲”效应不是什么新鲜事——前有凭“骑马舞”风靡全球的“鸟叔”，后有经“B宝”对嘴型传唱爆红的卡莉·杰帕森，但Fun.的神奇之处在于：谁能像他们那样一路高歌唱进奥巴马的总统就职舞会，并且以超级黑马之势领跑格莱美提名，最终斩获年度最佳歌曲、年度最佳新人？

若说Fun.的成名靠的只是运气，那也实在有失公允。三个小伙子在独立摇滚的圈子中摸爬滚打多年，那些睡地板、受冷落，辗转夜店谋生的日子又有谁记得起？是不是“昙花一现”，“欢乐三人组”能否一直“奋”发下去，那就唯有等时间来说话了。

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.

对比起“纽约三人组”乐队“欢乐乐团”在总统就职舞会上那些权贵冠盖云集的场面，其在2013年格莱美颁奖典礼转播节目中的表演自然感觉像家庭聚会般轻松随意。

“当奥巴马总统邀请你演唱，你找不到说‘不的理由，”乐队主唱奈特·罗伊斯说道，“就在我们见面之前，我还一直提醒自己：‘别叫他奥巴马！，而是要用‘总统先生作为代称。”

这些都是罗伊斯和乐队对于成名所要面对的新烦恼。在独立摇滚圈熬了几年之后，2008年，罗伊斯与乐器多面手安德鲁·多斯特、杰克·安东诺夫组成了“欢乐乐团”。四年后，这个三人组一步一步从底层走到美国流行乐坛的顶峰。他们的第二张专辑，2012年推出的《一些夜晚》，用现代嘻哈形式配合演绎古典流行乐，并为他们挣得了六项格莱美的提名，包括四项主要大奖：年度专辑、年度唱片、年度歌曲以及年度新人奖。

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.

在这个“使命”百出的娱乐工业中（黑键乐队和杰克·怀特宣称要拯救摇滚，弗兰克·欧申用蓝调宣扬自己的同性情怀），“欢乐乐团”没有这样的口号，只是立志颠覆预期，告诉大众如今的流行大热金曲该是如何炼成。

大部分流行乐迷很可能是从那首唱得烂大街、与加奈儿·梦奈合唱的《我们正年轻》认识“欢乐乐团”的。当下播放的流行歌曲充斥了太多有关在夜店撒野的题材，但《我们正年轻》却背道而驰，是在酒吧间的灵光一闪。歌曲是派对上的“中场休息”，是一首以钢琴曲为主导的抒情歌曲，表现宿醉袭来，两眼朦胧——但是多杯过后依然承诺与某人联系。这首歌在“美国告示牌100热门单曲榜”的冠军位置上保持六周之久，并且在电视剧《欢乐合唱团》被选唱，同时在2012年美国橄榄球“超级碗”大赛期间被雪佛兰汽车广告采用。

过去一年，好几首“无名小曲”的出现——戈季耶的《曾经熟悉的人》、卡莉·瑞·杰帕森的《可以的话，给我打个电话》一下子成为流行乐的弄潮儿，有些人当时就期待“欢乐乐团”能像他们那样，凭借一首“神曲”一飞冲天，功成名就。然而，专辑《一些夜晚》证明了相比于人们凭借《我们正年轻》的揣测，他们更具韧力，在音乐发展上更进取。

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.

为了制作这张专辑，乐队招来了制作人杰夫·巴斯克尔——此人长期与大牌歌手坎耶·维斯特、艾丽西亚·凯斯以及碧昂斯合作。他们紧密合作，把用木吉他和钢琴创作的曲子重新打造，把整张专辑的歌曲打造成小型的史诗组曲，上演电子敲击乐的好戏。

“我们在制作这张专辑的整个过程中，”巴斯克尔说道，“我一直和他们说，‘我们是在打造格莱美年度专辑——并不是因为我们想赢一个奖项，而是因为我觉得我们要打造出那样水准的专辑。”

巴斯克尔——他也获得了格莱美最佳制作人提名（流行类），一开始的时候，他对这张专辑也抱着怀疑的态度。罗伊斯苦苦地邀约一次会面机会，巴斯克尔原本打算在与碧昂斯会晤的间隙之中，和罗伊斯在纽约的一家酒吧来个几分钟的短暂会面，礼貌地附和他几句就算了。“但当他开口唱《我们正年轻》的合唱部分时，在那家酒吧，清唱，当时说的就成了，‘哇，这声音和这首歌很特别。我们明天在录音室见吧。”

尽管有巴斯克尔的支持，但是如果没有“欢乐乐团”本身，这事情必然不会成功。罗伊斯此前在一个不愠不火但深受喜爱的摇滚乐队——“格式化”乐队——担任主唱，该乐队签了大公司推出了两张专辑，然后又以独立身份推出了第三张，罗伊斯根本不知道新乐队会不会有市场。因为对于独立摇滚人来说，他们的音乐不激昂，又高端，歌曲偏向旧式的流行创作结构（大有“电光乐队”的影子），而这正是嘻哈以及蓝调极力避免的。

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.

尽管乐队曾与大西洋唱片公司签约，《一些夜晚》也刻上了“拉面燃烧包”唱片公司的痕迹——该公司成功地让一些“感性重摇滚”歌手进入流行乐领域，例如“帕拉摩尔”乐队以及“迪斯科瘪三”，但“欢乐乐团”这张有意思的专辑对于成为公司主打构成了障碍。

“《一些夜晚》并非一心进入主流市场，”30岁的罗伊斯说道，“我确实认为格莱美的提名向世人证明了我们的音乐独立特行又原创新颖。从来没听到过这样的音乐，喜欢也罢讨厌也罢。我以前还想着，我以后要不断解释我们的音乐，但那正是我们音乐的独特之处。不过现在不错（人们能够理解我们的音乐），不枉费我们多年在气味古怪的地方表演和睡觉，而且那时没人在电台播放我们的歌，我们深感困惑：‘为什么人们不理解呢？”

这张专辑具有艺术价值，主流音乐中没有明显的同类作品，在格莱美以往表彰的复古大作中也没见到类似作品。罗伊斯和巴斯克尔认为这就是格莱美的评委对于《一些夜晚》的回应：年度最具特色、最成功的专辑之一。

这张专辑的成功为罗伊斯的创作与演唱开辟了新的道路——他与恶女凯莎共同创作的热门单曲《夭亡》，是她的新专辑《勇士》的第一单曲；他还与“红粉佳人”合唱了《只要给我一个理由》——选自她的专辑《关于爱的真相》。

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.”

与此同时，“欢乐乐团”的成员成为了货真价实的音乐名人，在上层阶级玩得风生水起——安东诺夫正与《衰女帮》的制作人和主演莉娜·杜汉姆交往，而乐队的音乐就出现在这个电视剧的原声带上。

尽管格莱美以及流行乐界对“欢乐乐团”推崇备至，但是“独立顽童”罗伊斯还是不太明白，为什么自己的古怪专辑会让他成为总统就职舞会的表演者以及流行乐界中的新大师。

“（为别人写歌）是一个不错的锻炼，但我不想干太多这样的事情了，”他说，“开始就好像，‘我能够从这首歌里真正地赚到钱？疯了！但我还是不知道如何才能让一首歌火起来。这是我们人生中第一次与那些摇滚巨星如此接近，这对我们来说是一项疯狂的荣耀，特别是想起这些歌是怎么来的时候——我在我的公寓的洗手间写歌，开着水龙头，以免吵醒我的女友。”