美国国家公共电台 NPR At 'Triple A' Radio Stations, A Blurred Line Between Discovery And Promotion

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

A commercial radio format¹ that started in the 1990s can still help launch a mainstream² success. That format is called AAA - shorthand for adult album alternative. It has helped launch the careers of artists including Norah Jones, Adele and Arcade³ Fire. We're going to hear now how the format's unique ability to break stars is raising questions about where music discovery ends and promotion⁴ begins. Allyson McCabe begins her report with M. Ward⁵, an artist who has benefited from AAA.

ALLYSON MCCABE, BYLINE⁶: M. Ward's music is a mix of several genres⁷, including folk, country, blues⁸ and rock.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHINESE TRANSLATION")

M WARD: (Singing) I sailed a wild, wild sea, climbed up the tall, tall mountain.

MCCABE: Ward says he discovered music through radio.

WARD: I grew up right outside of Los Angeles, and so we got every kind of station that you can imagine, all these different music genres.

MCCABE: Ward says he owes a lot of his success to AAA - a format that harkens back to the radio he grew up with. Trina Tombrink, who is now vice⁹ president of promotion and artist development at Sony's RED music division, describes the early days of AAA this way.

TRINA TOMBRINK: A word that comes to mind is crunchy. A lot of people used to say it's the Birkenstock format, the stoner format. It wasn't as hit-oriented back then. You could actually get a record played that wasn't necessarily your traditional radio hit.

MCCABE: Yet AAA helped break artists who went onto the mainstream, from Dave Matthews to The Black Keys to Lorde.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROYALS")

LORDE: (Singing) And we'll never be royals, royals. It don't run in our blood.

MCCABE: "Royals" was already a hit in Lorde's native New Zealand, but Tombrink used AAA to test market the song in the U.S.

TOMBRINK: There was always the plan that we would cross it to pop. And we also knew that there were at least two other songs on the album that were even more pop friendly.

MCCABE: "Royals" debuted¹⁰ on Billboard¹¹'s AAA chart within a week of its U.S. release. Less than a month later, the song crossed over to the Hot 100, eventually reaching number one. Radio consultant¹² Paul Marszalek says this kind of leap can make a huge difference in an artist's career.

PAUL MARSZALEK: The entire universe of the AAA audience is in the low millions. You start going to the top 40, and you're now into tens of millions.

MCCABE: And yet because it's positioned as a tastemaker, AAA gets a lot of attention from record labels, says Sony's Tombrink.

TOMBRINK: There's probably more music serviced to AAA than I would think any other format.

MCCABE: There are now more than 100 AAA stations nationwide, evenly split between commercial and noncommercial. Kevin Rutherford, a chart manager at Billboard, keeps an eye on what they're playing and how often. He says he counts all plays equally, no matter the size of the market or the time of day.

KEVIN RUTHERFORD: So even if a song gets played once in Akron, gets played once in Los Angeles, it has the same weight - doesn't matter whether it's 3 a.m. or 3 p.m.

MARSZALEK: It can be a consensus¹³ by a lot of stations or it can be a couple of stations playing it really, really heavy. That's where you sort of open the door to potential shenanigans.

MCCABE: Consultant Paul Marszalek says playing a song in the middle of the night to rack up spins that will push it up the chart is rare. But anyone with access to the monitoring data he sees can tell when a song is getting a boost.

MARSZALEK: What you can immediately see here is several stations that are not playing it any time that the sun is up. There is no audience or very little audience, a lot of overnight spins, not a great reputation, and now I know that I've got a record here that's the equivalent of something that fell off the back of a truck.

MCCABE: Noncommercial stations are less likely to do that, says Jim McGuinn, program director at Minnesota Public Radio's KCMP The Current.

JIM MCGUINN: The noncommercial stations are much more freewheeling, much more willing to take chances and play a wider variety of sounds and styles and dig a little deeper into albums and artists.

MCCABE: But they can't afford to ignore the competition. NPR has just launched Slingshot, an effort among 18 noncommercial AAA stations to collectively raise the profile of artists they deem worthy¹⁴ of support. And everyone's looking over their shoulders at which musicians are trending online. Mat Bates, program director at San Francisco's commercial KFOG, says he has to pay attention to what's popular.

MAT BATES: We aim to mirror the interests of our audience rather than dictate¹⁵ to them what they should be interested in.

MCCABE: Radio has always tread the line between new music discovery and label-driven promotion. But there are those who still cling to the idea that AAA should be more than an alternative top 40, like musician M. Ward.

WARD: My vision of music is wrapped up in those memories of you switched the dial and it becomes something else entirely¹⁶.

MCCABE: For NPR News, I'm Allyson McCabe.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RADIO CAMPAIGN")

WARD: (Singing) And now I'm calling out your name on this radio campaign...

1 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

2 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

3 arcade   

n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道

参考例句：

• At this time of the morning,the arcade was almost empty.在早晨的这个时候，拱廊街上几乎空无一人。
• In our shopping arcade,you can find different kinds of souvenir.在我们的拱廊市场，你可以发现许多的纪念品。

4 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

5 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

8 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

11 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

12 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

13 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

14 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

15 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？

16 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。