Madonna's Ray of Light 20 years on: still the peak of empowered pop

麦当娜专辑《光芒万丈》历经20余年 仍是流行音乐的巅峰之作

As drag queens¹ assemble² to stage a Ray of Light cabaret³, why does Madonna’s 1998 album inspire such love? A combination of millennial angst and human emotion – that was then destroyed by Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

很多变装皇后会聚在一起进行《光芒万丈》的歌曲表演，为什么麦当娜1998发行的这张专辑让人们如此喜爱？ 这张专辑流露出千禧年的焦虑，也极富情感，而后却被布兰妮·斯皮尔斯（Britney Spears）和克里斯蒂娜·阿奎莱拉（Christina Aguilera）超越。

1. Assemble 集合，收集

When people assemble or when someone assembles them, they come together in a group, usually for a particular purpose such as a meeting.

2. Cabaret: （有歌舞表演的）卡巴莱餐馆，夜总会

Cabaret is live entertainment consisting of dancing, singing, or comedy acts that are performed in the evening in restaurants or nightclubs.

3. Drag queen: 变装皇后/人妖

克里斯蒂娜·阿奎莱拉是布兰妮·斯皮尔斯的乐坛对手，乐坛称克里斯蒂娜·阿奎莱拉是麦当娜的接班人。

The year is young, but Grammy chieftain Neil Portnow's suggestion that female artists need to “step up” ⁴will take some beating ⁵for tone-deafness⁶. To help today's heroines unseat ⁷the likes of Bruno Mars⁸, he might look to the 1999 ceremony.

虽然可能为时尚早，但是格莱美主席尼尔·波特诺（Neil Portnow）建议女性艺术家需要追赶上来，这一建议对音盲而言很难达成。为了帮助今天的女歌手摆脱布鲁诺·马尔斯（Bruno Mars）的同化影响，他可能会回看1999年的颁奖仪式。

4. Step up 加强，强化

5. Tone-deaf 音调失调，盲音，不能辨别音调

6. Take some beating：难以提高/超越（水平已经很高了）

7.Unseat 摆脱

8. 布鲁诺·马尔斯创作型歌手、唱片制作人,曾狂揽7项格莱美大奖

The 41st edition of the awards properly reflected the female energy coursing through⁹ late 90s mainstream music. Only one out of 10 nominees for the record and album of the year categories was male-fronted, while Shania Twain, Sheryl Crow and Shirley Manson were all in their mid-30s; The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill ran out eventual winner in the album bracket. Madonna, snubbed ¹⁰in any meaningful category for so long, also finally got her dues. She took home three for Ray of Light and its title track. But, if anything, the album's stock was modest then compared to now.

第41届格莱美的奖项设置恰好反映了90年代末期主流音乐的女性能量。只有十分之一的唱片和年度专辑提名者为男性，而且仙妮亚·唐恩（Shania Twain），谢里尔·克罗(Sheryl Crow)和雪莉·曼森(Shirley Manson)都是35岁左右; 最终劳伦·希尔（Lauryn Hill）的专辑《Miseducation》胜出。很长时间以来，麦当娜在任何类别的评选中都受到冷落，但是她的付出也终于得到了回报。《光芒万丈》及其（专辑同名）主打歌捧回了三个奖项。但是，如果有任何不同的话，当时那张专辑的股票应该比现在稳定。

*本段所提及的歌手均为第41届格莱美获奖者。

9. Course  through 穿过，贯穿　

10.Snub 冷落

Ray of Light is probably Madonna’s most widely acknowledged classic. It is held as a high-water mark of pop-as-art, a work that still rings out as believable and true from a star who adopts and discards phases, passions and philosophies at pace. That era of Madge inspired half a catwalk's ¹¹worth of memorable looks (she was variously a geisha¹², a gothic witch, a gap-year student and a raven-haired mother reborn over rushing skylines), with such a superabundance¹³ of hits that Sky Fits Heaven ¹⁴was withheld ¹⁵ as a single so as not to cannibalise the title track’s success.

《光芒万丈》可能是麦当娜最广为人知的经典之作。它被认为是流行艺术的高水准标志，也是一部可信、真实且广为传唱的作品，它曾被一个明星接受和放弃，同时这部作品也倾注了激情和哲学。麦当娜时代的灵感催生了当时T台演员半数左右的难忘装扮，（她是百变的艺妓、一个哥特式女巫、一名休学的学生，也是在天际线上重生有着一头乌黑长发的母亲）。尽管有如此多的荣耀，为了不盖过主题曲的成功光环，《Sky Fits Heaven》就退为了一首单曲。

11. Geisha 艺妓 歌妓

12. Catwalk步行小道，时装表演台

13. Superabundance 过多，多余

14. Withheld withhold过去式：保留、扣留、抑制

15.《Sky Fits Heaven》是麦当娜1998年发行的一首英文歌曲，该英文歌曲收录于专辑《Ray of Light》中。

Last week saw an outpouring of celebratory 20th-anniversary articles; later this week, London gay club the Glory is throwing a two-stage celebration of everything Ray of Light. Even for a cabaret haunt¹⁶, the amount of effort being poured into one-time-only tribute costumes speaks to the devotion of this period

就在上周，庆祝《光芒万丈》20周年的纪念文章发表；随后在本周，伦敦的一家叫做Glory的同性恋俱乐部举行了一个庆典，该庆典分为两个部分来演奏这张专辑。即便是这样一家常去的舞厅，他们对于仅穿一次的服装所付出的心血也体现出对这段音乐时期的致意。

16. Haunt: vt,出没于…；萦绕于…；经常去…n, 栖息地；常去的地方

Sky Fits Heaven是麦当娜1998年发行的一首英文歌曲，该英文歌曲收录于专辑《Ray of Light》中。

The album sold well in the US but didn't exactly shatter the charts. By the end of 1998, it had sold just shy of 2.7m copies, ranking 18th in the Billboard end-of-year rundown. It's consistently strong front-to-back, but only Frozen ¹⁷could reasonably be regarded as a contender for her greatest-ever song. Why does Ray of Light merit the obsession?

 这张专辑在美国销量很好，但并非销量冠军。到1998年底，它已经卖出了270万张，在排行榜上排名第18位。在它前后发行专辑的阵容始终强劲，但只有《冷若冰霜》（《Frozen》）才能被合理地视为《光芒万丈》，这首最伟大歌曲有史以来的竞争者。那么《光芒万丈》到底为什么如此让人着迷？

17《冷若冰霜》（Frozen）是由麦当娜·西科尼填词、演唱，帕特里克·伦纳德谱曲的一首歌曲，该歌曲作为推广专辑的首支主打单曲，被收录在麦当娜·西科尼的第七张录音室专辑《Ray of Light》，由华纳兄弟唱片公司发行于1998年2月23日 。

本文节选自英国卫报

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/27/madonna-ray-of-light-20-years-on

Ray of Light 选段

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXCDxvnsOQg

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