经济学人精读节选100篇Forgoing the single life 放弃单身生活-英语外刊社

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经济学人精读节选100篇Forgoing the single life 放弃单身生活

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本期选文来源：The Economist|June 8th 2024 ，需要经济学人原版PDF|全文中英翻译|MP3|大家下拉至文末下载|也可以自助开通本站会员后加入专属QQ社群或下拉至文末获取全文文档PDF中英翻译PDF,MOBI,EPUB,AZW3,MP3🎵等多种格式。

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经济学人精读节选100篇Forgoing the single life 放弃单身生活插图2

经济学人精读节选100篇Contradictory though it may seem in the streaming era尽管在流媒体时代看起来很矛盾

【1】TO BILLIE EILISH, things like cassettes and CDs probably seem charmingly retro. Born in 2001, the musician was six years old when Spotify launched; today she is the fourth-most popular artist on the platform. Ms Eilishhas only ever known 21st-century listening habits. And yet she has emerged as an unlikely champion of a time-worn format: the album. She declared that her new record, “Hit Me Hard and Soft”, released in May, was a “cohesive” piece of work, “ideally listened to in its entirety from beginning to end”. No singles were released in advance as amuse-bouchesfor famished fans.

单词解析：cassettes：n.暗盒；盒式磁带；磁带盒；胶片盒；卡式磁带

例句：For recording or playing cassettes.
录制或播放盒式磁带的。

对 BILLIE EILISH 来说，磁带和 CD 之类的东西可能看起来很迷人。这位音乐家出生于 2001 年，Spotify 推出时才六岁;如今，她是该平台上第四大最受欢迎的艺术家。Eilish 女士只知道 21 世纪的聆听习惯。然而，她已经成为一种过时格式的不太可能的拥护者：专辑。她宣称，她的新唱片《Hit Me Hard and Soft》于5月发行，是一部“有凝聚力”的作品，“理想情况下，从头到尾都能完整地听完”。没有提前发行单曲作为饥饿粉丝的娱乐节目。

【3】She is not the only hitmaker emphasising the album rather than its component parts. Ariana Grande advertised “Eternal Sunshine”, released in March, with just one single, stressing that she wanted listeners to “experience the album in full this time”. Dua Lipa’s debut album in 2017 was preceded by six singles; she scaled back for her latest record. And Taylor Swifthas issued four successive sets of new material with no advance singles. Two of these were “surprise releases”, announced just ahead of their arrival, which again emphasises the primacy of the album format.

单词解析：hitmaker：n.<非正式>热门制造者；热门曲制作人；热门曲歌手（同 hit-maker）

例句：The Alejandro hitmaker strode along in shiny black pointed-toe pumps and carried a little black purse.
雷迪嘎嘎脚上踩着一双漆皮黑色高跟鞋，手上拎着一个小小的黑色女士包。

她不是唯一一个强调专辑而不是其组成部分的热门制作人。阿丽亚娜·格兰德（Ariana Grande）为3月发行的《永恒的阳光》（Eternal Sunshine）做广告，只有一首单曲，强调她希望听众“这次能完整地体验这张专辑”。Dua Lipa 在 2017 年的首张专辑之前有六首单曲;她缩减了她的最新记录。泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）已经连续发行了四套新材料，没有预售单曲。其中两张是“惊喜发行”，在他们到来之前宣布，这再次强调了专辑格式的首要地位。

【4】For decades after the birth of recorded music in the 1920s, the single was the only thing that mattered, mostly because it was the only thing there was: early gramophone records could hold just a few minutes of music on each side. As technology improved, playing times increased, and groups such as the Beatlescame to see LPs (“long play”) as statements of ambition. From the mid-1960s onwards, albums became something to be appreciated as complete works of art. In 1988 Princereleased his “Lovesexy” album on CD as one continuous track, with the explicit goal of making it impossible to cherry-pick songs.

单词解析：explicit：adj.明确的；详述的；直言的, 坦率的；一目了然的

例句：The reasons for the decision should be made explicit.
应该直截了当给出决定的理由。

在 1920 年代录制音乐诞生后的几十年里，单曲是唯一重要的东西，主要是因为它是唯一的东西：早期的留声机唱片每面只能容纳几分钟的音乐。随着技术的进步，演奏时间的增加，披头士乐队等团体开始将 LP（“长期演奏”）视为雄心壮志的宣言。从 1960 年代中期开始，专辑成为值得欣赏的完整艺术作品。1988年，普林斯将他的“Lovesexy”专辑作为一首连续的曲目发行了CD，其明确目标是使人们无法挑选歌曲。

【5】No doubt Ms Eilish and co want to prove their serious musical chops. Pop music is still often regarded as ephemeral, because it relies on catchy tracks that can dominate airwaves and charts. Singles account for around 65% of a hit rock album’s total “consumption” (including streaming as well as physical purchases). For a pop album that figure rises to 85%.

单词解析：chops：v. 切碎；砍；剁碎；劈；(大幅度地)削减，降低；终止；取消；向下猛击n.砍；剁；猪(或羊等)排；劈；掌劈

例句：Do you big me? Zebra chops people.
你大我啊？班马劈友。

毫无疑问，Eilish女士和同事们想证明他们严肃的音乐能力。流行音乐仍然经常被认为是短暂的，因为它依赖于可以主导电波和排行榜的朗朗上口的曲目。单曲约占热门摇滚专辑总“消费”（包括流媒体和实体购买）的 65%。对于一张流行专辑来说，这个数字上升到85%。

【6】This crop of pop stars has discovered that a deluge can be better than a drip-feed. Stars can encourage fans to buy their record on vinyl and stream the album, too. As a result, “The artist and their label partner earn twice,” says Chris Cooke of CMU, a music-industry website. And, by releasing the songs all at once, artists enjoy the kind of chart dominance that sporadic singles do not provide. Ms Eilish currently has three tracks in the Billboard top 20. After the release of “The Tortured Poets Department”, Ms Swift claimed the top 14 spots. Singles are still useful for pop’s aspiring princesses, but not the queens.

单词解析：sporadic：adj.零星的；断断续续的；偶尔发生的；阵发性的；间或出现的

例句：The sound of sporadic shooting could still be heard.
仍能听见零星的枪声。

这批流行歌星发现，洪水比滴灌更好。明星们可以鼓励歌迷购买他们的黑胶唱片并播放专辑。结果，“艺术家和他们的唱片公司合作伙伴赚了两倍，”音乐产业网站CMU的克里斯·库克（Chris Cooke）说。而且，通过一次性发布所有歌曲，艺术家可以享受到零星单曲无法提供的那种排行榜主导地位。Eilish 女士目前在 Billboard 前 20 名中有三首曲目。在《受折磨的诗人部》发行后，斯威夫特女士占据了前14名。单身人士对流行音乐有抱负的公主仍然有用，但对皇后来说却没有用。

长难句分析：

1）原文：This crop of pop stars has discovered that a deluge can be better than a drip-feed.

2）解析：

This crop (of pop stars) has discovered | that a deluge can be better [than a]drip-feed.