Longreads Best of 2019: Music Writing

Ericka Blount Danois

埃里卡·布朗特·达诺瓦

An award-winning journalist, writer, editor, and professor, Ericka Blount Danois has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vibe, Spin, The Washington Post, Wax Poetics, The Source, and Da Capo’s Best Music Writing 2012.

Ericka Blount Danois 是一位屡获殊荣的记者、作家、编辑和教授，曾为《纽约时报》、《华尔街日报》、《Vibe》、《Spin》、《华盛顿邮报》、《Wax Poetics》、《The Source》和《Da Capo 2012 年度最佳音乐写作》撰稿。

She is the author of Love, Peace, and Soul.

她是《爱、和平与灵魂》的作者。

## The Empire Strikes Back (Melissa A.

## 帝国反击战 (Melissa A.

Weber, Red Bull Music Academy)

韦伯（红牛音乐学院）

Melissa A.

梅丽莎A.

Weber’s roller-coaster ride retrospective on George Clinton, P-Funk, Funkadelic, and various offshoots of everything funky is told with a musician’s attention to detail and a storyteller’s attention to drama.

韦伯对乔治·克林顿、P-Funk、Funkadelic 以及所有放克音乐的各种分支的过山车回顾展以音乐家对细节的关注和讲故事的人对戏剧的关注来讲述。

In the end, it’s Clinton’s otherworldly genius and cultural impact that can’t be denied.

最后，不可否认的是克林顿超凡脱俗的天才和文化影响。

## How Isaac Hayes Changed Soul Music (Emily Lordi, The New Yorker)

## 艾萨克·海耶斯如何改变灵魂音乐（艾米丽·洛迪，《纽约客》）

In Emily Lordi’s insightful New Yorker feature, she illustrates how Hayes’s 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul was an exercise in Hayes commanding his own space — musically, sartorially, and physically.

在 Emily Lordi 富有洞察力的《纽约客》专题文章中，她阐释了 Hayes 1969 年的专辑《Hot Buttered Soul》是 Hayes 如何在音乐、服装和身体上掌控自己的空间的一次练习。

The album was both an act of resistance and healing during a time when Hayes was distraught over the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His insistence on being himself remade the record industry, with songs like “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” which ran for 18 minutes, and “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic,” which Lordi refers to as an “exercise in the refusal of fear and containment.”

这张专辑既是海耶斯因马丁·路德·金博士的去世而心烦意乱的时期的一种抵抗和治愈行为，他对做自己的坚持重塑了唱片业，其中的歌曲包括长达 18 分钟的《By the Time I Get to Phoenix》和《Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic》，洛尔迪将其称为“拒绝恐惧和遏制的练习”。

Ann PowersNPR music’s critic and correspondent, previously The Los Angeles Times‘ chief pop music critic, Ann Powers is the author of Good Booty and Weird Like Us, co-author of Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, and co-editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the anthology Rock She Wrote

安·鲍尔斯 (Ann Powers) NPR 音乐评论家和记者，前《洛杉矶时报》首席流行音乐评论家，安·鲍尔斯 (Ann Powers) 是《Good Booty》和《Weird Like Us》的作者，《Tori Amos: Piece By Piece》的合著者，并与 Evelyn McDonnell 共同编辑了选集《Rock She Wrote》

I’ve said it before: A golden age of music writing is scattering its fruits across the wild plains of the Internet.

我以前说过：音乐创作的黄金时代正在将其成果散布在互联网的荒野上。

Music writing is a bastard form, journalistically unnecessary, literarily unstable, and so perfectly suitable to a virus-prone, hierarchically unstable intellectual epoch like our own.

音乐写作是一种混蛋形式，在新闻上没有必要，在文学上不稳定，因此非常适合像我们这样一个病毒频发、等级不稳定的知识时代。

Trying to pick one or two great pieces from 2019, I fell into a vortex, revisiting instant classics, like The New York Times’ history-making investigative report about the Universal Studios fire that destroyed irreplaceable master recordings, and GQ’s powerful oral history of how sober musicians thrive creatively, and The Ringer’s illuminating trend piece about TikTok, and heartfelt stuff like this memoir in Texas Monthly.

试图从 2019 年挑选一两篇伟大的作品时，我陷入了漩涡，重温了当下的经典，比如《纽约时报》关于环球影城大火摧毁了不可替代的母带唱片的历史性调查报道，《GQ》关于清醒音乐家如何创造性地蓬勃发展的有力口述历史，以及《The Ringer》关于 TikTok 的启发性趋势文章，以及像《德克萨斯月刊》上的这本回忆录这样的感人肺腑的内容。

However, I had to make a choice.

然而，我必须做出选择。

I started thinking about language itself.

我开始思考语言本身。

Music is language, and music encounters language; it conveys more than words can offer, but is also often bound up with them.

音乐就是语言，音乐遇到语言；它传达的内容超出了言语所能提供的范围，但也常常与言语紧密相连。

These five pieces offer insight into this complex relationship.

这五篇文章让我们深入了解这种复杂的关系。

## I Believe I Can Lie (Kimberlé Crenshaw, The Baffler)

## 我相信我会说谎（金伯利·克伦肖，《迷惑者》）

In the wake of the edifice-toppling documentary Surviving R.

在大厦倒塌的纪录片《Surviving R.》之后。

Kelly, law professor and intersectional theorist Crenshaw analyzes the lyrics to Kelly’s answer song, “I Admit,” as an example of the “SOB (Save Our Brotha”) rhetorical strategy also employed by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas when faced with accusations of sexual harassment.

法学教授兼交叉理论家克伦肖凯利分析了凯利的回答歌曲《我承认》的歌词，作为最高法院法官克拉伦斯·托马斯在面对性骚扰指控时所采用的“SOB（拯救我们的布罗塔）”修辞策略的一个例子。

## The Poetic Consequences of K-Pop (Emily Yungmin Yoon, The Paris Review)

## 韩国流行音乐的诗意后果（Emily Yungmin Yoon，《巴黎评论》）

This deceptively modest memoir of being seen within the crowd of BTS fans speaks volumes about how pop can literally speak for its audience.

这本看似谦虚的回忆录是在 BTS 粉丝的人群中看到的，充分说明了流行音乐如何真正为观众说话。

## Who’s Billie Eilish?

## 比莉·艾利什是谁？

(Meaghan Garvey, The Fader)

（梅根·加维，《推子》）

On the surface, this appears to be just another profile of an up-and-coming pop star, but this recounting of time spent at home with the teenage oracle of Gen Z goes deeper.

从表面上看，这似乎只是一位崭露头角的流行歌星的另一个侧面，但这部对 Z 世代青少年神谕者在家中度过的时光的叙述却更加深入。

Author Meaghan Garvey really listens to her Eilish and her family, and she does the work of letting the singer’s words — in conversation, but also in her journals, which Garvey reads — change her perspective on her art.

作者梅根·加维（Meaghan Garvey）真正倾听了艾利什（Eilish）和家人的心声，她努力让这位歌手的话语——在谈话中，以及在加维阅读的她的日记中——改变了她对艺术的看法。

## A Secret Ingredient in Songs of Summer (Reggie Ugwu, The New York Times)

## 夏日之歌中的秘密成分（Reggie Ugwu，纽约时报）

Over three years of listening, Ugwu identified a three-beat pattern (“boom-ch-boom-chk”) that always got him dancing: rhythm, the basic grammar of pop.

经过三年的聆听，Ugwu 发现了一种总是让他跳舞的三拍模式（“boom-ch-boom-chk”）：节奏，流行音乐的基本语法。

This multimedia read follows it from Jamaica to Africa and the U.S., identifying an opportunistic cross-pollination, as he writes, that only benefits our playlists.

这篇多媒体读物跟随它从牙买加到非洲和美国，正如他所写，确定了一种机会主义的异花授粉，这只对我们的播放列表有利。

## Arizona (John Edgar Wideman, The New Yorker)

## 亚利桑那州（约翰·埃德加·维德曼，《纽约客》）

Trying to find the linguistic key to a 1980s quiet storm classic by R&B lifer Freddie Jackson — “How do you offer a space with your voice that feels real enough for a listener to enter” — the 78-year-old novelist goes to a remarkably raw and poetic place in this piece of short fiction, as he contemplates pleasure, mortality, morality, and the imprisonment of his teenage son for murder the year after the song was released.

这位 78 岁的小说家试图找到 1980 年代 R&B 生活歌手弗雷迪·杰克逊 (Freddie Jackson) 的《安静的风暴》经典之作的语言关键——“你如何提供一个空间，让你的声音感觉足够真实，让听众进入”——这位 78 岁的小说家在这部短篇小说中进入了一个非常原始和诗意的地方，他思考快乐、死亡、道德，以及歌曲发行后一年他十几岁的儿子因谋杀而入狱。

Michael A.

迈克尔·A.

Gonzales

冈萨雷斯

The Blacklist book columnist for Catapult, cultural critic Michael A.

Catapult 的黑名单书籍专栏作家、文化评论家 Michael A.

Gonzales has written articles, essays, and reviews for publications including The Paris Review, Pitchfork, Wax Poetics, Mass Appeal, Complex, Longreads, and The Wire U.K.

冈萨雷斯为《巴黎评论》、《Pitchfork》、《Wax Poetics》、《Mass Appeal》、《Complex》、《Longreads》和《The Wire U.K.》等出版物撰写文章、论文和评论。

## How Isaac Hayes Changed Soul Music (Emily Lordi, The New Yorker)

## 艾萨克·海耶斯如何改变灵魂音乐（艾米丽·洛迪，《纽约客》）

While pop-cult fans know the late Stax Records singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes as the soundtrack innovator who delivered the 1972 classic “Theme from Shaft,” and the voice of the comical Chef on South Park, there was much more to him than funk and laughs.

虽然流行音乐迷们都知道已故 Stax Records 歌手兼作曲家艾萨克·海耶斯 (Isaac Hayes) 是配乐创新者，他创作了 1972 年的经典歌曲《Theme from Shaft》，并为《南方公园》中滑稽的厨师配音，但对他来说，除了惊悚和笑声之外，还有更多的东西。

In Emily Lordi’s wonderful New Yorker feature “How Isaac Hayes Changed Soul Music,” she shows us a different side of bald-headed dude who was a friend of Martin Luther King and became very distraught when the civil rights leader was slain in 1968 within blocks of Stax.

在艾米丽·洛迪 (Emily Lordi) 的精彩《纽约客》专题片《艾萨克·海耶斯如何改变灵魂音乐》中，她向我们展示了一个光头家伙的另一面，他是马丁·路德·金的朋友，当这位民权领袖于 1968 年在斯塔克斯街区被杀时，他变得非常心烦意乱。

After mourning for months, Hayes put his anger and grief into making the 1969 psychedelic soul masterwork Hot Buttered Soul.

哀悼数月后，海耶斯将愤怒和悲伤投入到了 1969 年的迷幻灵魂杰作《Hot Buttered Soul》中。

Lordi’s essay presents a stellar portrait of a soul music modernizer.

洛迪的文章描绘了一位灵魂乐现代化者的精彩肖像。

## For Black Women, Love Is a Dangerous Thing—“Bitter” Showed Me How to Do It Anyway (Tari Ngangura, Catapult)

## 对于黑人女性来说，爱情是一件危险的事情——“苦涩”告诉我如何去做（Tari Ngangura，Catapult）

One of the coolest things about original essay sites like Catapult and Longreads are the abundance of music related pieces that double as personal essays.

像 Catapult 和 Longreads 这样的原创论文网站最酷的事情之一就是大量与音乐相关的文章，同时也是个人论文。

In August, writer Tari Ngangura, published her piece For Black Women, Love Is a Dangerous Thing—“Bitter” Showed Me How to Do It Anyway, that began as a coming of age in 1999, the same year she bought and embraced Meshell Ndegeocello’s brilliant Bitter album.

8 月，作家塔里·恩甘古拉（Tari Ngangura）发表了她的作品《对于黑人女性来说，爱情是一件危险的事情——“苦”向我展示了如何做到这一点》，该作品始于 1999 年，同年她购买并接受了 Meshell Ndegeocello 精彩的 Bitter 专辑。

In the two decades since its release, the disc has served as a soundtrack and solace through various of Ngangura’s relationships.

自发行以来的二十年里，这张唱片一直为恩甘古拉的各种人际关系提供了配乐和安慰。

Her writing is poetic, probing and precise, and made this Bitter aficionado quite blissful.

她的写作充满诗意、探究性和精确性，让这位苦涩爱好者感到非常幸福。

Tom MaxwellJournalist, Longreads Shelved columnist, and musician

汤姆·麦克斯韦 (Tom Maxwell) 记者、Longreads Shelfed 专栏作家和音乐家

## The Ryan Adams Allegations Are the Tip of an Indie-Music Iceberg (Laura Snapes, The Guardian)

## 瑞恩·亚当斯的指控只是独立音乐冰山一角（劳拉·斯内普斯，《卫报》）

Two music stories from earlier this year are standouts to me.

今年早些时候的两个音乐故事对我来说很突出。

First is a piece by The Guardian’s deputy music editor Laura Snapes, published on Valentine’s Day.

首先是《卫报》音乐副编辑劳拉·斯内普斯在情人节发表的一首作品。

“The Ryan Adams Allegations Are The Tip Of An Indie-Music Iceberg” is not the most wieldy of titles, but the writing is crisp and incisive.

《瑞恩·亚当斯的指控是独立音乐冰山一角》并不是最实用的标题，但文笔清晰而深刻。

Snapes speaks of a chronic indie rock condition, which reinforces and promotes misogyny even as it feigns enlightenment.

斯内普斯谈到了一种慢性的独立摇滚状况，这种状况强化并助长了厌女症，尽管它假装是启蒙运动。

“The industry has been slower to reckon with its abusers post-#MeToo than other art forms,” Snapes writes, “partly because it is built on a generally permissive culture of excess and blurred lines between work and leisure — but also because the myth of the unbridled male genius remains at its core.” Go read it.

斯内普斯写道：“在#MeToo运动之后，这个行业比其他艺术形式更慢地应对滥用者。”斯内普斯写道，“部分原因是它建立在普遍放任的文化之上，工作与休闲之间界限模糊，但也因为不受约束的男性天才的神话仍然是其核心。”去读吧。

Practically every line is a pull quote.

实际上每一行都是一个引述。

## Before & After ‘The B-52’s’ (Christopher Wiengarten, The New York Times)

## “B-52”之前和之后（Christopher Wiengarten，纽约时报）

On July 15, Christopher Wiengarten gave us an entire weekend’s worth of reading and listening, thanks to “Before & After ‘The B-52s’.” The Times has done this type of thing before, like with 2014s dazzling, multi-media longread “The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie.” But this new one is pure Technicolor.

7 月 15 日，克里斯托弗·维恩加滕 (Christopher Wiengarten) 为我们提供了整个周末的阅读和聆听时间，感谢“‘B-52’之前和之后”。 《泰晤士报》以前就做过这样的事情，比如 2014 年令人眼花缭乱的多媒体长读物《吉希和埃尔维之歌》。但这款新产品是纯彩色的。

I freely admit my own biases here ― not just because I’m helping the Bs write their first official biography — but because I’m a sucker for context, precedent, and insight.

我在这里坦率地承认自己的偏见——不仅仅是因为我正在帮助 B 们写他们的第一本官方传记——而是因为我很喜欢背景、先例和洞察力。

Wiengarten shows us, not just what might have been the musical parents for any given B-52s song, but what those songs subsequently inspired.

维恩加滕不仅向我们展示了任何一首 B-52 歌曲的音乐根源，而且还向我们展示了这些歌曲随后的灵感来源。

Great music often leads to great music, and these stepping stones always lead to a life better-lived.

伟大的音乐往往会带来伟大的音乐，而这些垫脚石总是会带来更好的生活。

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