全球最红的总统歌单 奥巴马爱听什么歌
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — Some full-time music critics spend their lives curating playlists they hope become popular. President Barack Obama outdid them all last week in between briefings by senior aides and rounds of golf with friends on vacation here.
马萨诸塞州埃德加敦――一些全职乐评人一辈子都在致力于编纂音乐播放列表，希望它们能够走红。上个星期，贝拉克•奥巴马总统(Barack Obama)一举超越了他们，而他的播放列表是在听取资深助理的简报，以及来这里与朋友们打高尔夫球的间隙中做出的。
For the second year in a row, Obama released his summer vacation music and reading lists. And within a day, Obama’s playlist was the most listened-to on Spotify, other than those organized by the global music streaming service itself. That level of popularity occurs only when listeners do more than sample the songs, but actually enjoy the set, said Jonathan Prince, a Spotify spokesman.
这是奥巴马连续第二年公布自己的暑期音乐和阅读清单。不到一天时间，奥巴马的播放列表就成了Spotify上收听最多的个人列表，不算这家全球流媒体音乐服务商自己编辑的各种列表。Spotify的发言人乔纳森•普林斯(Jonathan Prince)说，听众们不仅仅是试听里面的歌曲，而是喜欢整个列表，只有这样才能解释它的受欢迎程度。
“For a playlist to hit No. 1 globally on its own out of nowhere is just bananas,” Prince said. “If he wants a job curating music when this presidential gig is over, we’d take him in a second. That’s very impressive.”
“全球排名第一的播放列表就这么突然冒出来，真是太疯狂了，”普林斯说。“如果他的总统任期结束以后想要一份展播音乐的工作，我们马上就会签下他。真是了不起。”
While Prince said that Spotify could not yet measure how Obama’s selections this year had influenced the popularity of particular artists, his picks last year led streams of the band Low Cut Connie to increase 2,906 percent overnight and those of the hip-hop duo Reflection Eternal to jump 798 percent.
普林斯说Spotify还没有估计出奥巴马今年选的歌能在多大程度上影响到具体艺人的流行程度，他只是举了去年的例子，奥巴马选择的Low Cut Connie乐队的播放量一夜之间就增长了2906%，嘻哈二人组Reflection Eternal则跃升了798%。
Obama is in the final months of his presidency, aware of the expiration date for his hold over the national conversation — especially during a fiery presidential election season. Perhaps because of the widespread disquiet over both major parties’ nominees, Obama’s own popularity has been steadily rising and is now above 50 percent. Admiration for Obama is particularly high among young adults, or those 18-29 who are so coveted by TV and radio advertisers.
奥巴马的总统任期还剩最后几个月，他知道自己掌控全国性话题的日子就快到头了——特别是在这个竞争激烈的总统大选季。或许是因为人们对两党的候选人存在着普遍的不安情绪，奥巴马本人的受欢迎程度在稳步上升，如今已经超过50%。年轻人对他尤其尊崇，这个年龄在18-29岁的人群正是电视和广播广告商努力争取的对象。
That popularity has made him unusually influential culturally, a power he and Michelle Obama, the first lady, take seriously. She was an early champion of “Hamilton,” the Broadway musical that has since become a cultural phenomenon. He interviewed Marilynne Robinson for an article in The New York Review of Books, an unusual presidential effort to bolster the career of a literary novelist.
人们对他的欢迎令他在文化上显得格外重要，他和第一夫人米歇尔•奥巴马(Michelle Obama)也一贯重视这种力量。她是如今已经成为文化现象的百老汇音乐剧《汉密尔顿》(Hamilton)的早期支持者。他则为《纽约书评》(The New York Review of Books)采访了玛丽莲•罗宾逊(Marilynne Robinson)，很少有总统会这样支持一位文学小说家。
Barack Obama got high marks from several music critics for his summer playlist choices, in part because he mostly avoided politically expedient selections. There were no songs, for instance, from wildly popular artists like Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake or Rihanna.
贝拉克•奥巴马的夏日播放列表受到了若干乐评人的高度好评，部分是因为他基本上避免了政治上讨好的选择。比如说，歌单里没有阿黛尔(Adele)、爱莉安娜•格兰德(Ariana Grande)、贾斯汀•汀布莱克(Justin Timberlake)和蕾哈娜(Rihanna)这样一些最热门的歌手的作品。
The president’s musical taste — which includes surf rock, soul, blues and hip-hop — is open-minded, even eclectic. However, there is one notable exception: Missing for the second year in a row was even a nod to country music, widely played in Southern states where Obama could benefit from more people relating to him.
总统喜欢的音乐包括冲浪摇滚、灵魂乐、布鲁斯和嘻哈乐，他的音乐品味显得很开放，甚至是兼容并包的。不过，有一个非常显眼的例外。他第二年的歌单里仍然没有南方各州广泛喜爱的乡村乐。而让南方有更多人与总统拉近距离，可以令他从中受惠。
“This is not a politician’s playlist,” said Rob Sheffield, a music columnist for Rolling Stone Magazine. “It’s a list of someone who, if they were a full-time music lover or a full-time music archivist, would be an extremely good playlist.”
“这不是一份政客的播放列表，”《滚石》(Rolling Stone)杂志的专栏作家罗布•谢菲尔德(Rob Sheffield)说，“这份列表即便出于一位全职音乐爱好者或全职音乐收藏家之手，也不失为一份极好的歌单。”
White House officials insisted that the picks were made solely by the president.
白宫发言人坚称，所有歌曲都是由总统本人独自选择的。
Among TV shows, Obama is known as a fan of “Entourage,” “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones.” His favorite books tend toward elegiac literary fiction, and Stevie Wonder is often listed as the family’s favorite performer and is often invited to entertain at private family parties.
目前已知奥巴马喜欢的电视剧包括《明星伙伴》(Entourage)、《绝命毒师》(Breaking Bad)和《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)。他喜欢的书倾向于伤感文学小说，史蒂夫•汪德(Stevie Wonder)经常被列为这家人最喜爱的歌手，也经常受邀在他们的私人家庭派对上演出。
Before playing on Aug. 5 at Obama’s 55th birthday party, singer Leon Bridges said Obama excitedly told him that he had “gotten ready” that morning by listening to Bridges’ tune “Smooth Sailin’.”
8月5日，歌手里昂•布里奇斯(Leon Bridges)在奥巴马的55岁生日派对上演唱，演出前，布里奇斯说，奥巴马兴致勃勃地告诉他，他已经“做好了准备”，那天早上一直在听布里奇斯的《平静的航行》(Smooth Sailin’)。
“I didn’t believe him,” Bridges said in a telephone interview. “I mean, he’s the president, you know?” But after “Smooth Sailin'” was listed second on Obama’s playlist, Bridges changed his mind.
“我根本不相信，”布里奇斯在电话采访中说。“我是说，他可是总统啊，你知道。”但当《平静的航行》出现在奥巴马播放列表的第二位时，布里奇斯改变了想法。
“He told me he loved how I was able to recreate the sound of soul music but do it in a raw way,” Bridges said.
“他说他喜欢我的处理方式，说我能够重塑灵魂乐的声音，但是是以一种不加修饰的方式去重塑，”布里奇斯说。
Brian Wilson, a founder of the Beach Boys and one of the most venerated American rock composers, said in an interview that he, too, was honored to have his song “Good Vibrations” among the president’s favorites.
布里安•威尔森(Brian Wilson)是“海滩男孩”(Beach Boys)乐队的一位创始人，同时也是美国最受敬仰的摇滚乐作曲家之一。他在一次采访中表示，他的《美妙感受》(Good Vibrations)能够跻身总统喜爱的歌曲之列，也让他感到与有荣焉。
“I think it’s a good tune, and it’s a good record,” Wilson said of the song, which hit No. 1 on the charts after it was released in 1966 and set a new standard for studio-recorded music.
“我觉得它的曲调不错，录音效果也很出色，”威尔森谈及这首歌时表示。该歌曲于1966年发布后占据了音乐榜榜首的位置，并为在录音棚里录制的音乐树立了新标杆。
Obama grew up in Honolulu, and Wilson said that experience most likely had led the president to Wilson’s vibe. “I think it’s all about picking up vibrations from people,” Wilson said.
奥巴马是在檀香山长大成人的，威尔森说，极有可能是那段经历，让总统受到威尔森歌中氛围的吸引。“我想整首歌描述的都是从他人那里得到的美妙感受，”威尔森说。
The president’s reading list has received a different reception. Several literary critics suggested that Obama’s decision to include “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead on his reading list may have had more political overtones than his musical selections.
总统所列书单的受欢迎程度与此大相径庭。几个文学批评家暗示，比起对歌曲的选择，奥巴马把科尔森•怀特海德(Colson Whitehead)的《地下铁路》(The Underground Railroad)加入书单的决定，或许有着更浓烈的政治色彩。
“He’s signaling that it’s an important book in the day of Black Lives Matter,” said Michael Schaub, a literary critic based in Austin, Texas.
“他在暗示，在‘黑人的命也是命’(Black Lives Matter)的时代，它是一本很重要的书，”德克萨斯州奥斯汀的文学批评家迈克尔•绍布(Michael Schaub)说。
In a phone interview, Whitehead said that he and Obama both struggle to account for, and explain, the legacies of slavery and racism.
怀特海德接受电话采访时表示，他和奥巴马都力图阐明相关责任并去解释奴隶制和种族主义遗留下来的东西。
“When he does these big addresses on race, I see him engaged in the kind of work I hope I’m doing,” Whitehead said.
“当他就种族议题发表那些重要演讲时，我明白他做的是我希望自己正在做的工作，”怀特海德说。
Both musical and literary critics described Obama’s selections as “emotional,” a description rarely applied to the man himself. A beach theme also ran through them. In addition to the Beach Boys on his playlist, Obama’s reading list included “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life,” a memoir by William Finnegan, an avid surfer.
音乐和文学批评家都以“情感强烈”来描述奥巴马的选择，而这个说法很少被用在奥巴马本人身上。海滩似乎是贯穿其选择的一个主题。除了把“海滩男孩”加入了播放列表，奥巴马还把《野蛮的日子：冲浪生活》(Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life)加入了自己的书单，该书是狂热的冲浪者威廉•芬尼根(William Finnegan)的回忆录。
Critics say the lists reflect Obama’s self-assurance. “This playlist is confident and way cool, and it is decidedly not dictated by what the radio or the media is force-feeding him,” said Dan McCarroll, president of Warner Bros. Records.
批评家们指出，音乐和阅读清单体现了奥巴马的自信。“这份播放列表充满自信，非常酷，里面的曲目绝对不是广播电台或媒体灌输给他的那些，”华纳兄弟唱片公司(Warner Bros. Records)总裁达恩•麦卡罗尔(Dan McCarroll)说。
