The Pop Revolution流行音樂革命

Even if the word “pop” disappears from the English vocabulary, the influence of pop will remain. Pop has become part of British—and American—history.

“流行音樂”這個詞即使從詞匯中消失，它的影響將仍然存在。流行音樂已經成為英國——以及美國——歷史的一個組成部分。

There has always been a close cultural link, or tie, between Britain and English—speaking America, not only in literature but also in the popular arts, especially music. Before the Second World War the Americans exported jazz and the blues. During the 1950s they exported rock ’n’ roll, and star singers like Elvis Presley were idolized by young Britons and Americans alike.

在英國和說英語的美國之間，不僅在文學方面，而且在流行藝術，特別是音樂方面，一直有著密切的接觸或聯系。第二次世界大戰前，美國的爵士音樂和布魯士樂曾流傳到國外。在五十年代，他們又輸出了搖滾樂。像普雷斯利這樣的歌星，在英美兩國同樣受到年輕人的崇拜。

Then in the early 1960s a new sound was heard, very different from anything which had so far come from the American side of the Atlantic. This was the Liverpool, or Merseyside, “beat”. Situated on the River Mersey in the north—eastern corner of the industrial Black Country, Liverpool was not a place which anyone visited for fun. Until the 1960s it was known only as one of Britain’s largest ports. Then, almost overnight, it became world famous as the birthplace of the new pop culture which, in a few years, swept across Britain and America, and across most of the countries of the western world.

后來，在六十年代初期，人們聽到一種新的聲音。它和過去從大西洋彼岸的美國傳來的聲音很不相同。這是利物浦或默西塞德郡的“節拍”。利物浦位于工業區黑鄉東北角和默西河畔，并不是一個游覽勝地。在19世紀60年代以前，利物浦都只不過是以英國最大的港口而被人們所熟知，但是，一夜之間，利物浦以新流行文化的搖籃而世界聞名，這股流行文化風在短短的幾年內，橫掃英美，在西方世界的大多數國家流行起來。