http://tinyurl.com/kk3ulw After 'King of Pop,' an empty throne by Shaun Tandon Shaun Tandon Sun Jul 5, 1:03 am ET LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The tributes to Michael Jackson have been vast, global -- and may never happen for a musician again. In an age of iPods and "American Idol," the concept of a pop superstar has irrevocably changed. 对老大的致敬盛大且全球都在举行 而这盛况可能不会再发生於往後的明星上 在ipod和American Idol的年代 「超级巨星」的概念已经产生无法逆转的改变了 To be sure, there are plenty of living musicians -- Bono, Mick Jagger, Madonna and Paul McCartney come to mind -- whose deaths would be mourned by fans around the world. 没错，现在还有很多活着的歌星 波诺、米克杰格、娜姊、保罗麦卡尼 他们若死了也会被全球的歌迷哀悼 But music insiders wonder whether anyone will ever have the sheer hold on global pop culture as Jackson, who sold 750 million albums, virtually defined the music video and whose death made front pages in all but a dozen countries. 但乐界内部的人士怀疑 是否还有人能像老大那样深深影响全球的流行文化 卖了7亿5000万张专辑 定义了音乐录影带 死後还占领了多数国家的头版版面 "Michael Jackson is not just the King of Pop, but the Last King of Pop," said the Scottish songwriter and author Nick Currie, who performs under the stage name Momus. 苏格兰的音乐创作者Nick Currie说 「MJ不只是流行乐之王，更是最後的流行乐之王。」 Momus pointed to the rise of digital culture, which has fragmented music consumers into small, targeted audiences. Momus (Nick Currie) 指出 数位文化的崛起 让音乐消费族群变得很小 "Then there's the question of the sheer rarity of Jackson's combination of talents, his neurotic work drive and his eccentricity. Lightning like that takes a long time to strike twice," Momus told AFP. 「接着就是老大那个结合天份、神经质与奇特的珍品的问题了 就像经过很长的时间被雷打到两次」 Scott Plagenhoef, editor-in-chief of Pitchfork, the influential Chicago-based online music magazine, said the music industry was already floundering before Michael Jackson but was propped up by his seminal 1982 "Thriller" album and the advent of compact discs and music videos. 在芝加哥有影响力的线上音乐杂志的总编辑Scott Plagenhoef 说音乐产业在MJ之前一片狼藉 但在1982年Thriller专辑的唱片与mv後注入了生机 "But now with things like cable and satellite television, DVDs and video-games, there are just so many entertainment options," Plagenhoef said. "Music doesn't seem to have that central hold on youth and pop culture." Plagenhoef说 但现在有有线电视、卫星电视、DVD与电玩游戏 在娱乐上有太多的选择 音乐在年轻族群与流行文化中 似乎不再占有主要地位 Websites such as Pitchfork now link fans with musicians, who can achieve fame -- at least for a niche -- without as much of the hand-shaking and self-promotion bemoaned by generations of embittered songwriters. 像Pitchfork网站就连结了歌迷与音乐家 歌迷不需要花太多心力，也不需要创作者苦苦自我推销 就可以查询到相关资讯了 The hugely popular television series "American Idol" -- along with the British original "Pop Idol" and dozens of international spinoffs -- has taken the democratization of music to a new level, letting the public vote on a star. 很受欢迎的节目「美国偶像」 以及全世界各式选秀节目 已经让音乐大众化到一个新的境界 让民众能自己选出明星 "There is way less mystery and mystique with pop stars than there was in Michael Jackson's time," Plagenhoef said. Plagenhoef说 和MJ的时代相比 流行乐的明星已经少了很多神秘的氛围了 But Jerry Del Colliano, a professor of the music industry at the University of Southern California, said the world will always produce stars -- it just may be trickier to find a way to define them. 但一位音乐产业的教授Jerry Del Colliano说 世界总是会制造出明星 只是以比较微妙难以掌握的方式来定义什麽是明星 While no one will match Jackson's 750 million album sales figure, such a yardstick is irrelevant when fans can download music for free, he said. 然而他说 现在音乐可以免费下载 衡量畅销的基准已经不同 没有人可以再像mj那样卖出7.5亿张的专辑了 "If the Michael Jackson of 'Thriller' came back from the dead, he would not be able to sell CDs because that's over," Del Colliano said. 那个教授说 如果老大的thriller死後再重出 他不能再以cd的型态发行 因为卖cd的时代已经over了 "Records are dead, CDs are dead and legal downloads are dying," he said. "But let's push that aside -- would there be another Michael Jackson? Absolutely." 他说 唱片死了 cd死了 音乐合法下载也要死了 但把这些问题先放一旁 我们还会有另一个Michael Jackson吗？当然！ Del Colliano predicted that a future superstar would emerge from the world of social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. 教授预测 未来的超级巨星将从一些社交网站（如Facebook或MySpace）浮现 "It reminds me of the Olympics. We always say we can't do any better," Del Colliano said. "But there will always be an icon who has musical talent above all the rest of them, even if we change how it's delivered." 「这让我想到奥林匹克，我们总是说我们不可能更好 但总是会有有音乐天份比其他人好的歌星 甚至即使我们改变了明星产生的方式」 Momus, however, believes that social networking may have the opposite effect. 可是，前面那个Momus 却相信社交网站可能会产生反效果 He said the world may be headed back to what celebrated sociologist Pierre Bourdieu found in 1960s France -- white-collar workers preferred high-brow classical music, while manual laborers listened to cheap pop. Momus说 世界搞不好会回到社会学家布迪厄在60年代法国发现的那样 当时白种工人偏好比较高雅的音乐 而做苦工的听便宜廉价的音乐 "A few decades later, postmodern consumer culture had leveled that, at least superficially: now, people with college degrees spoke about Michael Jackson 'intelligently,' people from lower class backgrounds spoke about him 'passionately.' But everybody spoke about him," Momus said. 「数十年後，後现代的消费文化已经到了这个层度： 现在，大学学历的人智识画的谈论老大 学历比较低的则用热情来谈论老大 但无论如何大家都在谈他」 But social networking is now limiting interaction among groups with different tastes, Momus said. 但社交往站却可能限制不同族群之间的往来 限制了不同品味的交流 "I think we'll see different classes embracing different cultures again. Things will settle back into the kind of cultural landscape Bourdieu described," he said. 「我认为我们将看到不同的阶层再次遭遇不同的文化 事情将会变成如布迪厄所说的那样」 大致上就大意很简略的翻译 呃呃 翻错请指正呀 --

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