英國難再造流行巨星之揭秘

江蘇徐州七中 彭向梅

文章來源：The Guardian

難詞掃障

1.hype（Para.3）v.夸張地宣傳（某事物）The meeting washypedup in the media as an important event.媒體大肆宣傳這次會議是一項重要的活動。

2.subscription（Para.6）n.訂閱；捐款The classic newspaper business is both asubscriptionservice and advertising supported.傳統的新聞報刊業同時提供了訂閱服務和廣告服務。

3.self-contained（Para.10）adj.獨立的；自足的；設備齊全的He seems completelyself-containedand he doesn't miss you when you're not there.他似乎完全獨立了，你不在的時候他也不想念你。

4.high-profile（Para.11）adj.高調的；備受矚目的；知名度高的He is ahigh-profilecriminal defence lawyer.他是一位備受關注的刑事辯護律師。

原文復現

Three years ago British artists made up half the global top 10.Now the biggest new stars barely make a mark overseas.What is behind this sea change—and is there a way back?

Has the UK music business lost its powerful magic for creating pop superstars?The UK music industry will celebrate the first National Album Day on Saturday，but top-selling new albums by British pop artists are dissatisfactory in 2018.

It's not that there is ascarcityof new music in the UK because the albums by Paul Mc-Cartney，Years&Years，Florence+the Machine，James Bay andhypednew artists Anne-Marie and Jorja Smith have all made it into the top five.But none of them have sold well enough to make the Official Charts Company's Top 10releasesof the year so far.Only two UK albums released in 2018 made the list：Staying at Tamara'sby George Ezra andTranquility Base Hotel&Casinoby Arctic Monkeys.

Ed Sheeran is the most popular UK artist in Billboard's Artist 100 chart.He came in at No.13.The next Briton is breakout R&B star Ella Mai at No.21，followed by Dua Lipa at No.56.However，there are no British albums in the Top 20 of the American album chart.

Industry experts suggest some reasons for the decline of the economy，from thedominanceof streaming services to the end of traditional marketing strategies.

Since 2013，streaming services have overtaken CDs and downloads as the most popular way ofconsumingmusic，withsubscriptionservices rising from a 9.9%share of UK recorded music revenues to 48%in 2017.

Streaming services are song-focused rather than artist-focused，which makes it harder for artistsworking in album formatstobreak through，says Hannah Neaves，who leads marketing and artist development at Tap，a famous management company.

Before streaming's dominance，artists could quickly get success such as the singer Adele and Sheeran.But now，“You have to be prepared to spend three years getting to a position that previously would have taken you nine months，” says Neaves.“All the biggest playlists are American and it's very difficult to get British acts on them，which canmake agreatdifferenceto your competition.”

Besides，hip-hop is the most popular style on both sides of the Atlantic，but the UK's music offering has not historically translated well overseas.Now despite the international natureof streaming，there is an increased demand for domestic music，because people could have a better understanding of their own music combined with their culture.

If there isn't good translation of music to help toconveycultural background，you can't get great success in other countries even if you develop well at home.The style is veryselfcontained，so when we are trying to sell someone overseas，it's very hard tocompete withwhat already catching the attention.

The music industry is now in its key pre-Christmas fourth quarter，traditionally a time forhigh-profilereleases.A “super-deluxe （超級豪華）” edition of Dua Lipa's first album arrives next week and new albums by leading acts.Jess Glynne， Muse， Mumford and Sons and Rita Ora could change the UK's declining fortunes.

Part 1 整體感知

本文是一篇說明文。幾年前，英國的音樂在其他國家頗受歡迎，音樂專輯銷量領先，但現在英國的音樂市場逐漸縮小，音樂產業日漸式微。雖然英國音樂界于周六（10月13日）慶祝首個全國唱片日，但流行歌手們的新專輯在2018年的銷量卻并不令人滿意。并不是說英國缺少新音樂，而是，自2013年以來，流媒體服務已經取代了CD和下載成為最流行的音樂消費方式，加之英國的音樂在海外沒有得到很好的翻譯，所以銷量在日益減少。希望在圣誕節前第四季度的關鍵時期，Jess Glynne，Muse等歌手發布的新專輯會改變英國音樂產業衰落的命運。

篇章結構梳理：

Part 2 語言學習

Ⅰ.熱詞積累（考綱內詞匯，包括短語）

Ⅱ.詞匯拓展

詞綴dis-的用法

① 表示“不……”，用作否定意義

e.g.dis+n.

disorder無秩序（dis+order順序→沒有順序）

disproof反證；反駁（dis+proof證實→不證實→反證）

disarm解除武裝（dis+arm武裝→去掉武裝）

dis+v.

dislike不喜歡（dis+like喜愛→不喜愛）

disappear消失（dis+appear出現→不出現→消失）

discover發現（dis+cover遮蓋→不遮蓋→發現）

dis+adj.

dishonest不誠實的（dis+honest誠實的→不誠實的）

② 表示“分開；分離”

dismiss解散；開除（dis+miss懷念→開除）

discard丟棄；拋棄（dis+card梳理→丟棄）

Ⅲ.難句分析

Now despite the international nature of streaming，there is an increased demand for domestic music，because people could have a better understanding of their own music combined with their culture.

翻譯：

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句，句子開頭由despite引導的介詞短語，“盡管……”；there is an increased demand for domestic music，可顛倒語序，翻譯成“對于國內音樂的需求增加了”；后面是because引導的原因狀語從句，其中combined是現在分詞作后置定語。

Part 3 視角拓展

1.What's the streaming according to the text?

2.With the development of the streaming service，what influence does the technology have on the UK music business?Can you offer more effective solutions?