超級碗中場表演 反映美國歌壇陰盛陽衰

Given the agonizing over air pressure that has racked the N.F.L. in recent weeks, it was appropriate that the halftime entertainment at Super Bowl XLIX was Katy Perry, a queen of our deflated pop times.

鑑於最近幾周來國家橄欖球聯盟承受着極度痛苦的壓力，因此超級碗XLIX的中場娛樂由凱蒂·佩裏(Katy Perry)出演便也順理成章，因爲她是我們這個娛樂疲軟時代的女皇。

Ms. Perry is a Technicolor cipher, a singer who takes on the shapes and tones she is given with aplomb and cheer but maybe not wit. That hasn’t hampered her success — her “Teenage Dream” of 2010 (Capitol) was the first album by a female artist to land five songs atop the Billboard Hot 100, and her 2013 album “Prism” had two thunderous hits. Ms. Perry is a pop perennial, one of the few left.

佩裏是個是色彩鮮豔的小角色，她的形象和與生俱來的聲音源於自信與歡快，但或許不是源自才智。但這並沒有影響到她的成功——2010年，她的《青少年夢想》(Teenage Dream, Capitol)中有五首歌都打入“公告牌100首金曲排行榜”，這對於女性藝人來說還是第一次。2013年，她的專輯《棱鏡》(Prism) 中有兩首大受歡迎的金曲。佩裏堪稱是流行樂界僅存無幾的常青樹。

And the Super Bowl halftime show is a massive stage, one that requires the sort of pop stars that aren’t being minted regularly anymore, ones with wide cross-demographic appeal. In this environment, Ms. Perry will do.

超級碗的中場演出是個巨大的舞臺，需要的是那種現在已經不是那麼常見、能對廣泛的各種人羣都有吸引力的歌手。佩裏很適合這種環境。

During her 12 or so minutes on the University of Phoenix Stadium field on Sunday, she held her own, navigating a handful of her smashes and three wardrobe changes in a performance that resisted bad mood, spanning all of Ms. Perry’s modes: the triumphant “Roar,” the spooky “Dark Horse” (sadly without the rapper Juicy J), the chipper “California Gurls,” the beacon of pure uplift “Firework.”

星期日，在鳳凰城大學體育館，她的演出大約在12分鐘左右，其間她保持了自己的風格，唱了幾首她的代表作，中間換了三次衣服，爲這場拒絕壞心情的盛會帶來了飽滿的情緒：歡欣鼓舞的《咆哮》(Roar)、略有怪異的《黑馬》（Dark Horse，很遺憾說唱歌手Juicy J沒能加入），活潑的《加利福尼亞女孩》(California Gurls)，以及純粹歡快的代表作《焰火》(Firework)。

Ms. Perry generally doesn’t move much onstage, so she was presented in a series of setups that masked that fact — atop a pseudo-tessellated mechanical lion, among a sea of dancing chess pieces and attached to a shooting star hoisted high above the field.

佩裏在舞臺上很少跳舞，所以她設計了不少舞臺手段來掩飾這個事實——站在仿棋盤格紋的機械獅子上、站在一大堆跳舞的棋子中間、身體貼在高懸於球場之上的一顆流星上面。

And she was gifted with guest artists who provided her with strategic cover. Take “I Kissed a Girl,” a dim song about experimenting with bisexuality that was Ms. Perry’s first Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, in 2008. She sang it in duet with Lenny Kravitz, who opened the song, presumably to help the subject matter go down more easily for unprepared, unforgiving viewers.

她巧妙地找來了客座藝人幫她打掩護。《我吻了一個女孩》(I Kissed a Girl)是一首含糊的歌，嘗試了雙性戀題材，也是佩裏在2008年首次登上公告牌100首金曲排行榜頭名的歌曲。這一次，她找來蘭尼·克拉維茨(Lenny Kravitz)與她對唱，克拉維茨先唱，這可能是爲了讓那些對於這首歌的主題沒有做好準備、無法諒解的聽衆更易於接受。

After about a minute of shouty singing and guitar angst, Mr. Kravitz was gone, leaving barely a mark, having been on stage largely to soften that song and to reassure those who still require the sight of a guitar, even one not plugged into anything.

經過了一分鐘喊叫般的歌唱與焦灼的吉他演奏，克拉維茨離開了舞臺，幾乎沒留下一絲痕跡，他的到來主要是爲了緩和這首歌的氣氛，也爲了安撫那些仍然希望看到吉他的觀衆，儘管吉他上什麼線也沒有插。

Ms. Perry benefited far more from her second guest, the rapper Missy Elliott, long out of the spotlight but still easily the most modern-sounding artist on the stage. She ran a speed course through three hits — “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” “Lose Control” — and easily doubled the energy onstage.

第二位嘉賓是說唱歌手梅西·埃利奧特(Missy Elliott)，她給佩裏帶來的幫助要大得多。埃利奧特已經很久沒有出現在聚光燈下，但還是輕易成爲這個舞臺上最爲現代的聲音。她以興奮的速度帶來三首金曲《讓你興奮》(Get Ur Freak On)、《幹得好》(Work It)和《失控》(Lose Control)，輕易便令舞臺上的活力加倍。

At one point, Ms. Perry tried to dance next to Ms. Elliott, to get some refracted shine, but she was lost amid the jumpsuit-clad backup dancers marching in military lock step. Ms. Elliott herself was casually tough, and even slipped into a grin on a couple of occasions.

佩裏一度試圖與埃利奧特一同起舞，好從她身上沾點光，但當穿着緊身衣的伴舞們踢着正步走過舞臺時，佩裏的身影就被淹沒了。埃利奧特本人則隨意而強悍，有幾次甚至露出了笑容。

All in all, this was a halftime show that was notably unafraid of the feminine; in that regard, it was on par with the Beyoncé spectacular of two years ago (although vocally and performance-wise, Ms. Perry is no Beyoncé).

總的來說，這是一場完全不避諱女性氣質的中場演出；在這個意義上，和碧昂斯(Beyoncé)兩年前精彩的超級碗演出可謂旗鼓相當，儘管在聲音和演出方面，佩裏與碧昂斯完全不同。

With that Beyoncé show, this performance helped bring a definitive end to the several-year drought filled with dad rock that followed the 2004 Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake wardrobe debacle: Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Who. In that stretch, only Prince approached something like youth, or raunch, or joy.

自從2004年珍妮特·傑克遜(Janet Jackson)與賈斯汀·汀布萊克(Justin Timberlake)的行頭風波以來，若干年裏，超級碗中場演出便充斥着父親式的搖滾：保羅·麥卡特尼(Paul McCartney)、“滾石”(the Rolling Stones)、湯姆·佩蒂(Tom Petty)與“傷心人”(the Heartbreakers)、布魯斯·斯普林斯汀(Bruce Springsteen)與“E大街樂隊”(E Street Band)，還有“誰人”(the Who)，碧昂斯的演出爲此畫上了句號。

Since then, the halftime show has skewed younger and more colorful. But it is now running up against the limits of the marketplace. Last year, the slightly underfed Bruno Mars was the main attraction, a reflection of the utter dearth of viable contemporary male pop stars. Assuming that Mr. Timberlake would not be asked back, and that someone like Justin Bieber would be too much of a wild card, there may be no male singers in pop ready to step on this stage.

自從那次以後，中場演出就變得更加年輕化，更加豐富多彩。但如今，它開始碰撞市場的邊界。去年，勉強之選布魯諾·馬斯(Bruno Mars)成了最吸引人的歌星，這反映出當代流行男歌手岌岌可危的狀況。假如不邀請汀布萊克迴歸，賈斯汀·比伯(Justin Bieber)變數又太大，那麼就實在沒有流行男歌手可以登上這個舞臺了。

So let the female reign continue. Sign up Taylor Swift — nemesis of Ms. Perry, and the most competitive person in pop — for 2016, and don’t even worry about whichever teams are warring it out on the field before and after her. She’ll be the victor.

所以讓女歌手繼續獨領風騷吧，2016年，不妨簽下佩裏的勁敵、流行樂界最有競爭力的人——泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，不管屆時球場上是哪兩隻球隊在拼殺，最後的贏家肯定是她。