流量小生吳亦凡最近為中國流行音樂在歐美市場留下印記添加了濃墨重彩的一筆。
在吳亦凡粉絲不懈的打榜努力下，11月份，歐美巨星Ariana Grande發布新歌后，卻沒能如同往常一樣衝上美國iTunes冠軍，冠軍位置被來自中國的偶像吳亦凡牢牢佔據，除了冠軍，吳還佔據了整個前十榜單的前七名。
對歐美流行樂不熟悉的小夥伴可以來圍觀下漂亮小姐姐Ariana Grande的MV。
那吳亦凡的歌又如何呢？
以下是Global Times關於這個事件的一個小評論，配有中文翻譯喲！
China’s obsessed fan economy is manipulating music charts
Chinese-Canadian rapper Kris Wu dominated the top of the charts on iTunes recently, beating pop-singers Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga with seven songs in the Top-10. On China's microblogging site Sina Weibo, Wu's proud fans are celebrating how their idol broke yet another sales record, this time an international one. But on Twitter, most international netizens have no idea who Kris Wu even is.
11月2日起，加拿大籍華人歌手吳亦凡在美國iTunes排行榜上異軍突起，在榜單前十名中歷史性地佔據七席，力壓「A妹」愛莉安娜•格蘭德和Lady Gaga等歌手。在微博上，吳亦凡的粉絲驕傲地宣告自己愛豆的國際影響力。但是在Twitter上，大多數西方樂迷甚至連吳亦凡是誰都沒有聽說過。
It turns out that the majority of those who have downloaded Wu's songs are Chinese fans who made multiple purchases per person just to support their idol, thereby tricking iTunes algorithms into bumping the songs into the top tier.
很快人們就發現，吳亦凡歌曲大都是他的中國粉絲刷出來的。一位粉絲表示，為了讓吳亦凡在美國iTunes上一鳴驚人，他們會重複購買多張專輯來刷榜。
For Western audiences and hard-core hip-hop aficionados, Wu's music fails to impress. A review in the UK's Guardian calls the artist "creatively shackled" and gave his new album a mere two out of five stars. On global music platforms such as Spotify and YouTube, his songs are far from popular.
然而，對於西方聽眾和真正的嘻哈愛好者，吳亦凡的音樂並沒有給他們留下深刻印象。英國《衛報》的一篇評論只給專輯打了兩顆星，並稱吳亦凡的音樂有種被「束縛」的感覺。在除iTunes之外的其他音樂平臺上，他的歌曲也是反響平平。
Wu's controversial iTunes domination is, sadly, yet another example of China's overly obsessed "fan economy" disrupting the music industry. This fan economy has created a veritable mirage in the past few years, leading others into believing that the Chinese music industry is booming.
吳亦凡霸榜是中國粉絲經濟的一個縮影。這種粉絲經濟造就了中國音樂行業的虛假繁榮，讓人產生一種中國音樂產業蒸蒸日上的錯覺，擾亂了音樂行業的發展。
If you only look at the numbers, revenue of digital music by Chinese mainland artists is "soaring." Last month, a new album by local pop idol Zhang Yixing was downloaded 185,000 times within the first 49 seconds it was released, raking in 10 million yuan ($1.44 million) in sales in just 11 minutes, breaking a new sales record.
如果光看數據的話，中國的音樂行業仿佛正在蓬勃發展。上個月，張藝興的新專輯在發行後49秒內銷量就超過了18萬5000張，11分鐘後銷售額突破1000萬元，創下了多項銷售記錄。
Chinese idol singers are also dominating China's social media, where it's common for a single social media post by an average idol to receive hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and comments. A tweet made by Wang Junkai of boy band TFBoys was reposted over 100 million times in 2016, which earned him a Guinness World Records title.
在中國的社交媒體上，年輕偶像們的轉發數據也十分驚人。只要是「愛豆」發的微博，動不動就會有幾十萬甚至幾百萬的轉發、評論和點讚。TFBoys成員王俊凱的一條微博甚至因為轉發過億，創造了金氏世界紀錄。
But for the initiated, it is very easy to see just how grossly inflated and manipulated these numbers are. Today's Chinese music fans splurge all of their income on their idols. One rabid fan will buy dozens and even hundreds of their idols' albums just to help them achieve ranking on the music charts. They register multiple accounts on social media sites and repost tweets dozens of times per day, so that their idol can appear on "trending" lists.
但只要稍加審視，就可以看出這些銷量和微博數據站不住腳，它們大都是靠粉絲給「愛豆」花錢刷榜衝銷量達到的。年輕又狂熱的粉絲們將自己的收入用於購買偶像的專輯，有時候為了讓愛豆在榜上佔據一席之地，他們不惜一個人購買多張專輯。此外，他們還會每人註冊多個微博帳號，用來給偶像刷話題、刷熱搜。
Like a virtual army, they are mobilized and united. As they do this, they receive a gratifying and satisfying sense of participation and control in the success of their idol.
粉絲就像一支軍隊一樣，永遠團結一心、充滿動員組織能力。當他們為自己的愛豆刷榜的時候，仿佛親身參與並造就了愛豆的成功，這讓他們充滿了參與感和滿足感。
Sadly, China's fan economy is no substitute for the dearth of good music in today's China. Just like Kris Wu's songs fail to impress anyone who is not a hardcore fan, it's quite difficult for ordinary Chinese people to get into idol music. This is in stark contrast to the late 1990s and early 2000s, considered the golden age of Chinese pop music, when iconic singers like Jacky Cheung, Jay Chou and Faye Wong were blasting from radios.
可悲的是，發達的粉絲經濟無法掩蓋中國缺少好音樂的事實。就好像吳亦凡的歌曲無法打動那些不是他粉絲的人一樣，今天的偶像音樂也無法打動普通中國人。這和90年代末、00年代初的中國流行音樂黃金年代相比，簡直就是天壤之別。那時，大街小巷都在播放張學友、周杰倫、王菲等歌手的歌曲。
These artists may not have sold as many records as idols today, but their music was so adored by the masses that their lyrics were on everyone's lips. We all knew, appreciated and loved each singer for their songs, not by their tweets or fake sales rankings.
這些歌手的銷量可能不及今天的偶像，但是他們的音樂深受普羅大眾的愛戴，那些經典曲目幾乎每個人都會哼唱幾句。我們因為他們的歌曲而認識、欣賞並喜愛他們，而不是因為他們的哪條微博或者哪個虛假銷售數據。
When fans become so powerful that they can single-handedly manipulate sales statistics, the music industry as a whole becomes corrupted. Because modern producers and their boardroom-created idols no longer try to think about how to create good music, they now live inside a commercial bubble where making music is the lowest priority.
當粉絲強大到能夠操控銷售數據的時候，他們也擾亂了音樂行業。在粉絲創造的商業泡沫中，歌曲本身反而成了最不重要的東西。音樂製作人和他們包裝出來的偶像也不用動腦筋去研究怎麼創作好的歌曲。
Meanwhile, true artists and musicians with actual talent and skill find it impossible to get their songs heard simply because they lack delicate looks or large followings on social media. And for that, we the audience are the biggest losers.
與此同時，那些真正有天賦和才能的音樂人在這種市場環境下，卻因為外形條件不足或缺乏粉絲基礎被埋沒。到頭來，最大的輸家還是我們這些喜愛音樂的聽眾。
原文/ 翻譯：ZY
圖：Chen Xia
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