Day206- What’s bigger than K-pop?

What’s bigger than K-pop? 什么比K-pop更重要？Hot for trot   trot热 trot是韩国歌谣的主要节奏类型; trot就是一种韩国传统流行

What’s bigger than K-pop? 什么比K-pop更重要？

Hot for trot trot热

trot是韩国歌谣的主要节奏类型; trot就是一种韩国传统流行乐风格

Among older South Koreans, a fustier, more sentimental musical genre reigns

在年长的韩国人中，一种更过时的、更感伤的音乐流派占据主导地位

K-pop: 韩国流行音乐

Fustier 腐臭的 ; 霉湿味的 ; 【 = stale;stuffy】 过时的 ; 守旧的 【= old-fashioned】

more sentimental 情感的 ; 伤感的，充满柔情的 ; 多愁善感

Reign 占上风；盛行 【= prevail 】

Peace reigns in the house. 房子里一片宁静

Chaos and confusion reigned 充斥着混乱与迷茫

Nov 5th 2020

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.

Hoodie 兜帽上衣

Fig 无花果 Dried/fresh figs 干/新鲜无花果

Persimmon 柿子（树）

snap selfies 自拍

Air 播放

Washed-up 筋疲力尽的

Crooner 情歌手

Ballad 民谣; 情歌

在首尔的一家电影院里，八名中年妇女穿着相配的天蓝色连帽衫、发带和口罩，一边聊天一边自拍，一边分享着干无花果和柿子。他们从全国各地赶来参加根据今年早些时候播出的韩国电视节目改编的电影《Mr Trot》的首映周末。在节目中，从15000名申请者中挑选出一批衣衫褴褛、志存高远的男歌手，身着柔和的西装和半解开纽扣的丝绸衬衫，唱着古老的韩国民谣，角逐“Mr Trot”的头衔。这两位女士的连帽衫上写着“林煐岷，你是我的英雄”，她们是优胜者网上粉丝俱乐部的成员。他们并不是唯一一个沉迷其中的人：三月份，超过30%的韩国电视观众收看了该剧的最后一集。

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.

Cheesy 粗俗的；劣质的

Melodramatic 夸张的；情绪化的

Perennial 长期的；持久的

revellers 狂欢者

blare 发出 ; 响亮刺耳的声音

service stations 服务站，服务区

Up-tempo 快节奏的

Numbers 舞曲

Regale sb with sth 用某物逗某人开心

Trot，出现在20世纪初朝鲜半岛是日本殖民地的时候，融合了朝鲜传统音乐和当时日本和西方流行歌曲的元素。在韩国，它早已无处不在，但它已经很久没有被认为是酷的了。这些民谣旋律粗俗，歌词夸张，节拍重复，一直是朝鲜半岛醉酒狂欢者的最爱，也就是韩国相当于卡拉OK厅的“歌厅”。

高速公路服务站的演讲者、老年人驾驶的公共汽车和出租车的收音机里，响起了关于注定的浪漫、失落的家乡和人生悲剧的歌曲。

竞选时，竞选人和活动人士会从竞选卡车上跳起笨重的舞蹈，以取悦选民，这些节奏较快的音乐深受政党的喜爱。

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.

Throwback 返祖者；有旧时特点的人；

A lot of his work is a throwback to the fifties 他的许多作品有50年代的风格

eclipsed 遮住…的光 ; 使失色 ; 使相形见绌 ; 使丧失重要

Be eclipsed by 被..大大超过

The charts 每周排行榜

advertising campaigns 广告战，广告宣传活动

但部分原因是“Mr Trot”和它的前身“Miss Trot”的流行，Miss Trot是在去年播出的一个同样受女性选手欢迎的节目，这类节目已经从一种感伤的倒退变成了一种强大的文化力量。这些节目的明星都成了名人。2019年，韩国三大最受欢迎的音乐表演中，有两个是trot歌手，仅被世界上最大的男孩乐队BTS超过。trot歌手在流媒体和唱片销售排行榜上名列前茅。几部以trot为主题的新电视节目正试图效仿其著名前辈的成功。从咖啡到燃气锅炉的销售公司都招募了trot明星来做广告宣传。

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.

Devotee 爱好者；献身者；崇拜者

Stream 流播

If you visit their website, you can stream the whole album.

如果你浏览他们的网站，你可以通过流播在线收听整张唱片。

Something 大约

Outing 郊游

Activism 激进主义

trot的复兴在很大程度上归功于韩国另一个大型音乐流派，K-pop，以及covid-19。在首尔的电影院里，这些戴蓝帽的女性解释说，她们在经营粉丝俱乐部的过程中，受到了K-pop爱好者的鼓舞，这些爱好者不仅以热情著称，而且以组织著称。“我们在社交媒体上协调，为我们最喜欢的候选人投票，每天播放他们的歌曲，以确保他们登上排行榜，”这位50多岁的妇女说，她留着长发，戴着大眼镜，她组织了这场郊游，在流感大流行初期，她在家里无聊的时候成了trot迷。会员年龄从40岁到80岁以上不等。韩国国立教育大学（Korea National University of Education）的Son Min jung研究trot的历史和文化意义，她说这种激进主义对于喜欢trot的中年人来说是新鲜事。“如果年长的人不知道如何在手机上做正确的事情，我们会教他们。” 她说：“他们以前是被动的听众, trot一直很受欢迎，但现在它是可见的，”

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. ■

level-headed 头脑冷静的

Dispassionate 客观公正的；冷静的

Whoop 高呼

Weep 哭泣

尽管trot的粉丝们比K-pop的粉丝们老得多，但他们的头脑并不冷静。汉城的电影院里挤满了中年妇女，在漫长的两个半小时里，她们时而高声叫喊，时而哭泣，看着她们的男主角和他的同伴选手们唱歌，跳舞，换上眼花缭乱的服装。他们唯一的抱怨是，“本来应该有更多的他们聚在一起，就像兄弟一样——因为这不只是一个人赢，而是他们所有人一起赢。” 这句话也可能直接来自于一个铁杆的BTS粉丝。■