Audie Cornish (Host): Lana Del Rey’s album, Born to Die, is considered one of the most anticipated for 2012, and she’s not the only one. 2012 could be the breakout year for many other artists who have enjoyed magazine covers and 1)rapturous music reviews long before their 2)debut albums hit stores.
　　So…talk to me a little bit about why people hate Lana Del Rey so much. Who is Lana Del Rey and why do people hate her so much? Ann Powers (Music critic): Lana Del Rey is the 3)alter ego of a woman named Lizzy Grant. She’s from New York. She was a struggling singer/songwriter before she kind of hit on this character she’s created. So she became 4)controversial because, as much as people liked this song, they doubted her 5)authenticity, I guess, as if that really matters for a pop star. But they thought she was too selfcreated. And many people also doubted that she was an 6)indie artist.
　　Cornish: And, Ann, what’s interesting about that is everywhere you went online, on Twitter, on 7)random music blogs, people were talking about her so much. And 8)essentially, she’s this artist who really benefits—or is suffering—from what you’ve called the hype cycle. What exactly is the hype cycle?
　　Powers: Well, the hype cycle’s been with us for as long as pop has existed. But in the Internet age, it’s been wildly 9)accelerated. Basically, an artist puts forth a product. It is quickly absorbed by many different people online. They become the talk of the Internet. And suddenly, this complete unknown goes to, you know, center stage of the pop 10)consciousness, sometimes in a week or less. And that’s what happened with Lana Del Rey. So much talk, so little product—that’s the hype cycle.
　　Cornish: What’s the danger for the musicians involved?
　　Powers: That is something that gets talked about a lot with these new Internet 11)sensations—that they haven’t had time to 12)hone their 13)craft. In truth, some Internet sensations have been around for a while. A great example is Frank Ocean, the R&B singer. He’s someone who is a professional songwriter, redid his image and is quite 14)seasoned, and you can really hear it in his music. That’s an example of the hype cycle working—and kind of in a good way—giving someone a chance, you know, to break through.
　　


　　Cornish: At the same time, how much of this is a change from, say, the old music business model where it was DJs and singles that would sort of 15)rev up the hype cycle versus music bloggers and downloads who are the taste-makers now?
　　Powers: Well, Audie, it’s not like hype is at all new. You mentioned DJs and singles, which takes me back to, say, the dawn of rock ’n’ roll. I think this is kind of a similar time. The artists who capture our imagination are hitting 16)hot buttons. The rapper, Kreayshawn…she’s a white girl from Oakland. She adopts AfricanAmerican styles. This hits the hot button of race. So these artists…they start arguments. They raise our passions because they’re somehow getting to the deepest issues that we’re dealing with every day.
　　Cornish: And in the end, some of these artists, I hope…there’s a 17)nugget of talent there, right? Including Lana Del Rey?
　　Powers: Absolutely. We don’t talk about just air. We don’t care about things that are totally 18)hollow. And even with Lana Del Rey, she has a talent. Perhaps it’s not quite clear how she can hone that best, but it’s there. It’s hitting us on some level, and we need to respect that that’s happening.
　　奥蒂·科尼什(主持人)：拉娜·德雷的《难逃一死》被认为是2012年最值得期待的专辑之一，她的同类还有不少呢。2012年可能是许多歌手的突破之年——这些人早在自己的出道专辑还没上市之前就收到了各种热情洋溢的乐评，甚至成了杂志封面人物。
　　那么……和我说说看吧，人们怎么会这么讨厌拉娜·德雷呢。拉娜·德雷是谁，为什么大家都讨厌她？
　　安·鲍尔斯(乐评人)：拉娜·德雷的真身是一个名叫莉齐·格兰特的女孩。她来自纽约，是个事业不顺的唱作人，直到她找到拉娜这个“角色”定位才算熬出头。她的争议性来源于……尽管人们喜欢（《电子游戏》）这首歌，我想他们觉得歌手不够真实——仿佛这点对流行歌星来说真的很要紧似的。但人们认为她太自说自话了。许多人还认为她算不上独立音乐人。
　　科尼什：安，有趣的是，无论你跑到哪个网站，推特也好，随便哪个音乐播客也好，大家总是在谈论她。从本质上来说，她本人成了你所说的“炒作周期”的得益者——也是受害者。炒作周期到底是什么意思呢？
　　鲍尔斯：喔，自流行文化出现以来，炒作周期就一直存在。不过在互联网时代，这种现象的传播速度更加飞快。基本上，音乐人推出自己的作品，歌曲迅速被网上各色人等接受了，歌手便成了网络话题。你瞧，这个默默无闻的人突然之间成了流行意识的关注焦点，有时（这个过程）只需要一周甚至更短时间。拉娜·德雷就是这样走红的。各种空谈，很少作品——这就是炒作周期。
　　科尼什：这对当事人有什么害处呢？
　　鲍尔斯：针对这些网络新贵，我们经常说起这一点——他们没有时间磨砺自己的技艺。事实上，也有一些网络红人出现了好一段时间，节奏布鲁斯歌手弗兰克·奥纯就是一个很好的例子。他是一名职业作曲人，将自己的形象重新定位，很有经验，从他的音乐中可以听出来。这就是炒作周期的效果——而且起到了一定的积极作用，你知道，让艺人实现突破。
　　科尼什：与此同时，以前的炒作周期靠的是DJ和单曲，如今音乐品位的缔造者变成了音乐博主和下载曲目——这种现象与过去的音乐业界操作模式有多大差别呢？
　　鲍尔斯：哦，奥蒂，炒作并不是什么新鲜事儿。你提到了DJ和单曲，让我想起了摇滚乐诞生之初，我觉得现在有点类似那时候——成功俘获我们想象力的歌手就能击中敏感点。例如说唱歌手柯莉肖恩……她是一个来自奥克兰市的白人女孩，音乐走的却是黑人风格，这就触及了种族这一热点。因此这些歌手……他们引起了争论。他们激起了我们的热情，因为他们触及到我们每天都要面对的深层次问题。
　　科尼什：说到底，这些歌手当中的一部分人，我希望……他们还是有点才华的，对吧？拉娜·德雷也一样？
　　鲍尔斯：没错。我们不搞空谈这套。我们并不在乎完全空泛的东西。即便是拉娜·德雷也是有才华的。也许我们不太确定她能否让其打磨发光，但她确实有才，她的音乐也让我们有所共鸣。我们必须肯定这一事实。
　　Know More
　　


　　“hype”这个词本身有“不实宣传”的意思，因此“发展规律周期”（hype cycle）又可译作“炒作周期”。这个模型由高德纳咨询公司（Gartner）开发，被广泛应用于行业及技术发展预测。该曲线将新事物从产生到成熟、直至被市场广泛接受的全过程浓缩为五个阶段：技术触发期（Technology Trigger）、过热期（Peak of Inflated Expectations）、幻灭期（Trough of Disillusionment）、复苏期（Slope of Enlightenment）和生产力成熟期（Plateau of Productivity），亦即上升期、快速发展期、下降期、爬坡期和稳定应用期。