【雅思课外精读】韩国全民Trot风潮再起：追星的阿姨们有多疯狂？

　　【经济学人精读】韩国全民Trot风潮再起：追星的阿姨们有多疯狂？   原文译文*注：本文摘自11月5日《经济学人》

　　Hot for trotTrot风再起What’s bigger than K-pop?韩国流行乐之外是什么？Among older South Koreans, a fustier, more sentimental musical genre reigns在年长的韩国人中，过时，多愁善感的音乐风格占主导地位

　　1. AT A CINEMA in Seoul eight middle-aged women in matching sky-blue hoodies, hair bands and face masks are sharing dried figs and persimmons as they chat and snap selfies. They have travelled from all over the country for the opening weekend of “Mr Trot”, a film based on a South Korean television show that aired earlier this year. In the show, a mix of washed-up and aspiring male crooners chosen from 15,000 applicants dress up in pastel suits and semi-unbuttoned silk shirts and sing old South Korean ballads to compete for the title of “Mr Trot”. The women, whose hoodies read “Lim Young-woong, you are my hero”, are members of an online fan club for the winner. They are not alone in their obsession: more than 30% of South Korean television-viewers tuned into the show’s final episode in March.

　　在首尔的一家电影院里，8名中年妇女身穿天蓝色连帽衫、戴着发带和口罩，一边聊天一边自拍，一起吃着无花果干和柿子干。他们从全国各地赶来参加电影《Mr. Trot》的首映周末，这部电影是根据今年早些时候播出的一部根据韩国电视节目改编的。在节目中，从1.5万名申请者中挑选出来的一群精力充沛而又充满抱负的男歌手，穿着粉色西装和半开的真丝衬衫，唱着古老的韩国民谣，争夺“Mr.Trot”的头衔。这些女人的连帽衫上写着“林英雄，你是我的英雄”，她们是获胜者网上粉丝俱乐部的成员。他们并不是唯一迷于此的人：超过30%的韩国电视观众在3月份收看了该剧的最后一集。

　　2. Trot, which emerged in the early 20th century when the Korean peninsula was a Japanese colony, blends traditional Korean music with elements of the Japanese and Western popular songs of the era. It has long been ubiquitous in South Korea, but it has been a long time since it was considered cool—if it ever was. The ballads, with their cheesy melodies, melodramatic lyrics and repetitive beats are perennial favourites with drunken revellers in noraebang, or “singing rooms”, the South Korean equivalent of karaoke parlours. Songs about doomed romance, lost hometowns and the general tragedy of life blare from speakers at motorway service stations and from the radios of buses and taxis driven by older men. The more up-tempo numbers are beloved of political parties at election time, when candidates and activists regale voters with clunky dancing set to trot blasting from campaign lorries.

　　快步舞出现于20世纪初，当时朝鲜半岛还是日本殖民地，快步舞融合了韩国传统音乐和当时日本以及西方流行歌曲的元素。长期以来，它一直无处不在，但是，它已经很久不被韩国人喜爱了。Trot旋律俗套，歌词夸张，节奏重复，深受卡拉OK厅里那些醉醺醺的狂欢者们的喜爱。高速服务站的喇叭里，老年男子驾驶的公共汽车和出租车收音机里都充斥着这些音乐，它们讲述的是禁忌的爱情，失落的家乡以及生活的悲剧。在竞选期间，当候选人和活动家们在竞选卡车上笨重地跳起这些舞蹈让选民们尽情享受的时候，音乐节奏越快，这些音乐越受政治家们的喜爱。

　　3. But partly thanks to the popularity of “Mr Trot” and its predecessor “Miss Trot”, a similarly popular programme with female contestants that aired last year, the genre has gone from a sentimental throwback to a potent cultural force. The shows’ stars have become celebrities. In 2019 two of the three most popular music acts in South Korea were trot singers, eclipsed only by BTS, the world’s biggest boy band. Trot singers top the charts for streaming and record sales. Several new trot-themed television shows are trying to emulate the success of their famous predecessors. Companies selling everything from coffee to gas boilers have recruited trot stars to front advertising campaigns.

　　由于“Mr. Trot”和“Miss Trot（该节目去年播出，深受女性参赛者的喜爱）”的流行，这类节目已经由情感回归转化为一股强大的文化力量，这些节目的明星都成了名。2019年，韩国最受欢迎的三个音乐团体中有两个是快步歌手，他们仅次于世界上最大的男孩乐队BTS。快步歌手在流媒体和唱片销售排行榜上高居榜首。一些快步风格的新电视节目打算复制前辈们的成功。销售咖啡，燃气锅炉等各种产品的公司都聘请了快步明星来进行广告宣传。

　　4. The trot renaissance owes a lot to South Korea’s other big musical genre, K-pop, as well as to covid-19. At the cinema in Seoul, the blue-hooded women explain that in running their fan club, they have been inspired by devotees of K-pop, who are notable not just for their ardour, but for their organisation. “We co-ordinate on social media to vote for our favourite candidates and stream their songs every day to make sure they make the charts,” says the 50-something woman with long hair and big glasses who has organised the outing and who became a trot fan while bored at home during the early days of the pandemic. Members’ age ranges from 40 to over 80. “If someone older doesn’t know how to do the right thing on their phone, we teach them.” This sort of activism is new for the middle-aged people who tend to listen to trot, says Son Min-jung of Korea National University of Education, who studies the history and cultural significance of the genre. “They used to be passive listeners—trot has always been popular, but now it’s visible,” she says.

　　快步音乐复兴很大程度上要归功于韩国流行音乐以及新冠疫情。在首尔的一家电影院，这些戴着蓝色头巾的女性解释说，在经营他们的粉丝俱乐部方面，她们深受韩国流行乐粉丝的启发，这些粉丝以其热情和组织而出名。 一名50多岁的女人说，“我们在社交媒体上组织人们为我们的最喜欢的选手投票。”她留着长发，戴着大眼镜，组织了此次首映。新冠期间，在家无聊的日子里，她成了一名trot迷。粉丝俱乐部成员年龄从40岁到80多岁不等。“如果年纪大一些的人不知道怎么用手机，我们就教他们。”韩国教育大学研究快步舞的历史和文化意义的Son Min-jung表示，对于喜欢快步的中年人来说，这些东西是新的。“他们过去是被动的听众——快步舞一直很流行，但现在这是触手可及的，”她说。

　　5. And even though trot fans are much older than K-pop groupies, they are no more level-headed or dispassionate. The cinema in Seoul is full of middle-aged women who alternatively whoop and weep as their hero and his fellow contestants sing, dance and change into a dazzling array of costumes for two and a half plodding hours. Their only complaint is that “there could have been more about them hanging out together, just like brothers—because it’s not just about one of them winning, but all of them together.” That remark, too, could have come straight from a hardened BTS fan.

　　尽管快步粉丝比韩国流行乐粉丝要大得多，但是他们也一点都不冷静。首尔的电影院里挤满了中年妇女，她们时而欢呼，时而哭泣，看着她们的偶像和队友们唱歌、跳舞，然后换上令人眼花缭乱的服装，唱跳两个半小时。他们唯一的抱怨是，“节目中可以多放一些他们一起出去玩的镜头，就像是兄弟一样。因为重点并不是他们中谁赢了，而是他们所有人走到了一起。”这句话简直和BTS的铁杆粉丝说的一模一样。