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Forgoing the single life
放棄單曲
Pop stars are all about albums
流行音樂歌星都是發專輯的
Contradictory though it may seem in the streaming era.
雖然這在流媒體時代可能看起來有些矛盾。
To Billie Eilish, things like cassettes and CDS probably seem charmingly retro.
對比莉·艾利什來說，磁帶和CD之類的東西可能有一種迷人的復古魅力。
Born in 2001, the musician was six years old when Spotify launched; today she is the fourth-most popular artist on the platform.
這位音樂人出生于2001年，Spotify推出時她才六歲，如今她已是該平臺上受歡迎度第四的音樂人。
Ms Eilish has only ever known 21st-century listening habits.
艾利什只了解21世紀的聽歌習慣。
And yet she has emerged as an unlikely champion of a time-worn format: the album.
然而，她卻出人意料地成為了一種過時形式——專輯——的倡導者。
She declared that her new record, "Hit Me Hard and Soft", released in May, was a“cohesive" piece of work, "ideally listened to in its entirety from beginning to end".
她宣稱，她于5月發行的新唱片《溫柔重擊》是一部“連貫”的作品，“最好是從頭到尾完整地聽完”。
No singles were released in advance as amuse-bouches for famished fans.
沒有單曲作為開胃小菜提前發布給饑餓的粉絲。
She is not the only hitmaker emphasising the album rather than its component parts.
她不是唯一一個強調專輯而非組成專輯的歌曲的熱門音樂創作者。
Ariana Grande advertised "Eternal Sunshine", released in March, with just one single, stressing that she wanted listeners to "experience the album in full this time".
愛莉安娜·格蘭德為3月發行的專輯《永恒陽光》只用了一首單曲進行宣傳，她強調說，希望聽眾“這次能完整地體驗專輯”。
Dua Lipa's debut album in 2017 was preceded by six singles; she scaled back for her latest record.
杜阿·利帕在2017年發行首張專輯之前推出了六首單曲，發布最新的唱片之前她縮減了單曲數量。
And Taylor Swift has issued four successive sets of new material with no advance singles.
而泰勒·斯威夫特已經連續發行了四張新專輯，之前都沒有推出單曲。
Two of these were "surprise releases", announced just ahead of their arrival, which again emphasises the primacy of the album format.
其中兩張專輯是“驚喜發行”，即在快要上架前才宣布，這再次強調了專輯形式的首要地位。
For decades after the birth of recorded music in the 1920s, the single was the only thing that mattered, mostly because it was the only thing there was: early gramophone records could hold just a few minutes of music on each side.
自20世紀20年代唱片音樂誕生后的幾十年里，單曲是唯一重要的東西，主要是因為當時只有單曲：早期的留聲機唱片每面只能容納幾分鐘的音樂。
As technology improved, playing times increased, and groups such as the Beatles came to see LPs ("long play") as statements of ambition.
隨著技術的改進，播放時間延長，披頭士等樂隊開始將LP（“長時間播放唱片”）視為宣稱雄心的一種方式。
From the mid-1960s onwards, albums became something to be appreciated as complete works of art.
從20世紀60年代中期開始，專輯成為了一種可以被作為完整藝術作品而欣賞的東西。
In 1988 Prince released his "Lovesexy" album on CD as one continuous track, with the explicit goal of making it impossible to cherry-pick songs.
1988年，王子以CD形式發行了他的專輯《愛與性感》，CD中只有一個連續的音軌，目的非常清晰，就是讓人們無法挑著聽歌。
No doubt Ms Eilish and co want to prove their serious musical chops.
毫無疑問，艾利什等人想要證明他們的音樂是嚴肅且高質量的。
Pop music is still often regarded as ephemeral, because it relies on catchy tracks that can dominate airwaves and charts.
流行音樂仍然常常被視為是不能長久流傳的，因為它依賴洗腦的旋律才能在廣播和榜單上占據首位。
Singles account for around 65% of a hit rock album's total "consumption" (including streaming as well as physical purchases).
單曲約占熱門搖滾專輯總“消費量”（包括流媒體和實體專輯購買）的65%。
For a pop album that figure rises to 85%.
對于流行音樂專輯來說，這一數字上升到了85%。
This crop of pop stars has discovered that a deluge can be better than a drip-feed.
這批流行歌星已經發現，推出一批歌曲可能比涓涓細流地推出單曲更好。
Stars can encourage fans to buy their record on vinyl and stream the album, too.
歌星可以鼓勵粉絲購買他們的黑膠唱片，同時也可以在流媒體上播放專輯。
As a result, "The artist and their label partner earn twice," says Chris Cooke of CMU, a music-industry website.
結果就是，音樂行業網站CMU的克里斯·庫克表示：“歌手及其合作的唱片公司能賺兩次錢。”
And, by releasing the songs all at once, artists enjoy the kind of chart dominance that sporadic singles do not provide.
而且，通過一次性發布所有歌曲，音樂人們享受了那種零散的單曲所不能提供的排行榜統治地位。
Ms Eilish currently has three tracks in the Billboard top 20.
艾利什目前有三首歌曲進入了公告牌榜單前20名。
After the release of "The Tortured Poets Department", Ms Swift claimed the top 14 spots.
在《苦難詩社》專輯發行后，斯威夫特占據了前14名。
Singles are still useful for pop's aspiring princesses, but not the queens.
對于流行樂壇有志取得成功的公主們來說，單曲仍然有用，但對于歌壇天后們來說就不是了。
