樂壇大戰 坎耶卡戴珊夫婦手撕斯威夫特

Sunday night’s episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” played less like a breezy record of the reality-star demimonde than a military-strategy documentary.

星期日晚上的那集《與卡戴珊姐妹同行》(Keeping Up With the Kardashians)不像是真人秀明星姐妹的歡快記錄，倒更像是軍事戰略紀錄片。

Early in the episode, Kim Kardashian West was called to action by her husband, Kanye West, after audio of him angrily referring to Taylor Swift as “fake” leaked in February. Over and over again, she reiterated how she felt that Mr. West was portrayed unfairly in public, by Ms. Swift and others. As the episode goes on, Ms. Kardashian West’s ire rises — clearly, she is plotting her moves.

坎耶·韋斯特(Kanye West)憤怒地聲稱泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)“虛僞”的音頻在2月泄露出去了。在這一集剛開始不久，他召喚妻子金·卡戴珊·韋斯特(Kim Kardashian West)行動起來。她一次又一次地重申，她覺得斯威夫特和其他人公開描繪的自己夫君的形象缺乏公正。隨着這一集展開，卡戴珊·韋斯特的憤怒不斷高漲——顯然，她在策劃自己的行動。

At the end, she seeks advice from her mother and manager, Kris Jenner. Ms. Jenner suggests calling Ms. Swift to smooth things over. Ms. Kardashian West says no, thanks.

到這一集最終，她向母親和經紀人克里斯·詹納(Kris Jenner)徵求意見。詹納建議給斯威夫特打電話平息事件。卡戴珊·韋斯特說不，謝謝。

Just as the episode ended on the East Coast, Ms. Kardashian West released on Snapchat several video clips of a phone conversation between Mr. West and Ms. Swift in which he appears to get her support — mostly enthusiastic, perhaps slightly hesitant — for provocative lyrics that refer to her on his song “Famous,” from his album “The Life of Pablo,” released in February.

這一集在東海岸剛剛播放完畢，卡戴珊·韋斯特在Snapchat上放出了若干韋斯特與斯威夫特之間通電話的視頻。通話中，斯威夫特似乎同意他在2月發行的專輯《帕布羅的生活》(The Life of Pablo)中的歌曲《出名》(Famous)裏那些影射她的挑釁性歌詞――她顯得很熱情，或許稍帶點猶豫。

Not long after, Ms. Swift released a statement on Instagram stating that she had not approved of the song and that Mr. West had not delivered on a promise to play her the final version before its release. “While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard,” she wrote.

之後不久，斯威夫特在Inatagram上發表聲明，說她沒有批准那首歌曲，韋斯特也沒有履行承諾，在這首歌發行前沒有把最後版本放給她聽。“我的確希望在電話中對坎耶表示支持，但你無法‘批准’一首你根本沒聽過的歌，”她寫道。

These are the latest salvos in the running squabble between Ms. Swift and Mr. West, a gripping but unfortunate beef that puts two of the leading pop stars of the day at loggerheads.

斯威夫特和韋斯特之間早就爭吵不斷，此事是最新的進展。這是一場吸引人但卻非常不幸的矛盾，讓當今兩大流行歌星針鋒相對。

The first phase of their disagreement dates from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when he crashed her acceptance speech for best female video, in a show of support for Beyoncé, whom she had beaten. They didn’t publicly reconcile until the 2015 Grammys, and the road since has been bumpy. On “Famous,” he rapped, in familiar hyperbolic style, that they “might still have sex,” and that he was responsible for her success. Shortly thereafter, she lashed out at him (without using his name) from the Grammy stage. The video for “Famous,” released last month, features a Swift look-alike, along with other celebrity look-alikes, topless in bed with Mr. West and Ms. Kardashian West, an eyebrow-raising jolt of beatific pop-art erotica.

他們的不和最早始於2009年MTV視頻音樂獎，他打斷她接受最佳女藝人視頻的獲獎致辭，以此向被她擊敗的碧昂斯(Beyoncé)表示支持。兩人直到2015的格萊美獎上才公開和解，之後也非一帆風順。在《出名》裏，他用人們熟悉的誇張風格說唱道，他們“仍有可能做愛”，而且她的成功是他的功勞。不久後，她在格萊美獎的舞臺上抨擊他（沒有指名道姓）。上月發行的《出名》的音樂視頻裏，有一個長得很像斯威夫特的女人，還有幾個很像其他名人的人，都沒有穿上衣，在牀上和韋斯特與卡戴珊·韋斯特一起，構成一幅驚人的流行藝術色情極樂圖。

Ms. Swift and Mr. West couldn’t be more different: Ms. Swift is a covert operator, Mr. West a namer of names. Ms. Swift is as careful a crafter of narrative, both in song and in life, as anyone in pop. Mr. West shoots from the hip; it’s the source of much of his charm.

斯威夫特和韋斯特實在太不一樣了：斯威夫特是個行事隱祕的人，韋斯特是個喜歡指名道姓的人。斯威夫特是小心謹慎的敘事大師，寫歌時和生活中都是如此。韋斯特說話從來不走腦子，這也是他魅力的主要來源。

Throughout this battle, each has accused the other of dishonesty. There is a fundamental layer of falseness and contrivance to all public images: Celebrity culture relies on that layer not being disrupted. Part of the power of the video Ms. Kardashian West released is it appeared to show that Ms. Swift’s public presentation and private machinations were at odds. The Ms. Swift in those video clips is self-aware — “I’m, like, this close to overexposure,” she said — in a way she often isn’t in public, and she is also willing to disrupt her image in unexpected ways.

在這場戰役中，兩人都指責對方不誠實。所有公衆人物都有一個虛僞和做作的基本層面，明星文化就建立在這個層面不被打破的基礎上。卡戴珊·韋斯特放出的視頻之所以有力量，部分是因爲它表明斯威夫特公開的表現和私下的作風是不一致的。在這些視頻片段裏，斯威夫特顯得很自知——“這個有點過度了吧，”她說——她在公開場合通常不是這樣子，她也經常樂於以意想不到的形式打破自己的形象。

But her stern response to the song’s release served as a reassertion of the old order. It also extended a narrative in which Mr. West, who is black, is painted as the predator and Ms. Swift, who is white, as the prey, a story with uncomfortable racial overtones.

但是她對這首歌的嚴厲迴應是對舊秩序的重新確認。它還提供了這樣一種敘事，黑人韋斯特被描繪成加害者，白人斯威夫特被描繪成受害者，這個故事帶有令人不舒服的種族色彩。

In the excerpts, though, Mr. West is solicitous and warm. “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,” he says, enunciating each word of the lyric carefully, with Ms. Swift on speakerphone. Rhythmically, it sounds like perhaps he’s workshopping one of two options with her. Later, he says: “I want things that make you feel good. I don’t want to do rap that makes people feel bad.” (The clips are short and choppy, and clearly excerpts. On Twitter in February, Mr. West said the call with Ms. Swift had been an hour long.)

不過，在這些視頻裏，韋斯特顯得體貼溫暖。“我覺得我和泰勒仍然有可能做愛，”在給斯威夫特的電話裏，他對着電話清晰謹慎地讀出歌詞中的每個字。他讀得非常有節奏，聽上去好像在和她研究歌詞的兩個版本。後來他說：“我希望能讓你感覺好。我不做那些讓別人感覺糟糕的說唱。”（這些視頻短而雜亂，顯然經過剪輯。2月，韋斯特在Twitter上說，兩人之間的通話長達一小時）。

“I just really appreciate it,” Ms. Swift said. “I never would have expected you to tell me about a line in your song.”

“我真的很感激，”斯威夫特在電話中說。“我從沒想到你會告訴我你歌裏的一句詞。”

“Relationships,” Mr. West tells her, “are more important than punch lines.”

“友好關係比精彩的歌詞更重要，”韋斯特對她說。

Seeking permission for a lyric is an extraordinary step, especially for Mr. West, whose loose tongue is his greatest asset. Ms. Swift, by contrast, has generally avoided identifying the subjects of her songs, though after the 2009 V.M.A.s, she released the rather patronizing “Innocent” — including the words “Who you are is not what you did/You’re still an innocent” — which she described in a 2010 interview with MTV as not a song about Mr. West but one “to” him. (Her song “Dear John” is widely believed to be about John Mayer, to whom Ms. Swift was romantically linked. It is one of the most effective and ruthless eviscerations of a fellow celebrity in pop history, and it seems unlikely that Ms. Swift ran it past Mr. Mayer for approval.)

爲一句歌詞而徵求許可是一種非同尋常的事，特別是對於韋斯特這樣的人，口無遮攔是他最大的資產。斯威夫特就正相反，她一般避免指明歌曲中的主人公，儘管2009年的MTV視頻音樂獎之後，她發行了顯得有點屈尊俯就的《清白》(Innocent)，歌詞中寫道“昨天做出的事不代表今天的你/你還是那個清白的人”。2010年，她在接受MTV臺的採訪時說，這首歌不是在說韋斯特，而是“送給”他的。（她的歌《親愛的約翰》[Dear John]被廣泛認爲寫的是與她有浪漫關係的約翰·梅耶[John Mayer]。那首歌有效而無情地達到了與另一位明星一刀兩斷的目的，堪稱流行音樂史之最，而且斯威夫特事先也不大可能就這首歌徵求過梅耶的同意。）

Given the seemingly genial nature of the conversation between Ms. Swift and Mr. West, what agitated Ms. Swift remains unclear. The release of video clips of the call is a clear violation of trust and raises possible legal issues. (The legality of recording phone calls varies from state to state; a representative for Mr. West did not respond to an inquiry about where the rapper had been at the time of the call.) In an interview with GQ released last month, Ms. Kardashian West mentioned that Ms. Swift’s legal team knew about the recorded conversation “and then they sent an attorney’s letter like, ‘Don’t you dare do anything with that footage,’ and asking us to destroy it.”

鑑於斯威夫特與韋斯特之間的談話顯得友好愉快，她到底被什麼激怒了，目前還不清楚。放出通話的視頻剪輯這種行爲，顯然是違背了雙方的信任，可能引發法律問題（關於對電話進行錄音的合法性，各州規定不一；被問到韋斯特在打那個電話時身在什麼地方，韋斯特的代表給出迴應）。上個月的《GQ》發表了卡戴珊·韋斯特的採訪，她提到斯威夫特的法律團隊知道了這段錄下來的對話，“他們發來一封律師函，寫着‘警告你們不要拿這段話做任何事’之類，還讓我們毀掉它。”

The statement issued by Ms. Swift’s representative when Mr. West’s “Famous” came out said that Ms. Swift had “cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message,” but that does not appear to be in line with what she expresses in these video clips. The statement also said, “Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous.’” The video clips on Ms. Kardashian West’s Snapchat do not show Mr. West asking about that line.

當韋斯特的《出名》發佈後，斯威夫特的代表發表聲明說，斯威夫特曾經“就他發行這樣一首帶有強烈仇視女性信息的歌曲，對他提出過告誡，”但是這好像和她在那些視頻中表達的情緒不一致。那份聲明還寫道，“泰勒根本不知道有一句歌詞是，‘我讓那個婊子出了名’。”卡戴珊·韋斯特在Snapchat上發佈的視頻剪輯裏也沒有顯示韋斯特就這句歌詞向斯威夫特徵求意見。

And so, if this conflagration turns on the interpretation of that epithet, then what may be at play is a contextual misread, or perhaps a clash of value systems. Mr. West comes from the world of hip-hop, where use of that term to refer to women can be so pervasive as to dull its pejorative meaning. In 2012, Mr. West unveiled the song “Perfect Bitch” — it was about Ms. Kardashian West, then his girlfriend. But though it has become a catchall term, it still carries undeniable historical baggage. Perhaps Ms. Swift didn’t like hearing herself referred to in that fashion, regardless of the context. Maybe she was concerned about her young female fan base and the word’s effect on them. Maybe she simply got cold feet.

因此，如果這場風波集中於對那個字眼的解讀，那麼這其中可能有涉及上下文背景的誤讀，也或許是價值體系的衝突。韋斯特來自嘻哈音樂世界，他們太常使用這個字眼來指女人了，以至於它已經失去了原本的貶義。2012年，韋斯特推出歌曲《完美的婊子》(Perfect Bitch)，是寫給卡戴珊·韋斯特的，她當時還是他的女友。但是，儘管它已經成爲一個籠統的詞，它仍然帶有不可否認的歷史涵義。或許不管上下文如何，斯威夫特都不喜歡被這樣稱呼。或許她擔心自己的年輕女性粉絲，不希望這個詞影響她們。或許她只是反悔了。

Whatever the case, both sides have opted for public escalation over private reconciliation. Mr. West and Ms. Kardashian West are armed with selectively edited documentation optimized for social media distribution. They are primed for battle. Meanwhile, Ms. Swift and her team increasingly transmit an air of fatigue. After Ms. Kardashian West’s GQ interview, Ms. Swift’s representative released a statement that concluded, “Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, will not just leave her alone.”

不管怎樣，兩邊都選擇了公開地升級矛盾，而不是私下和解。韋斯特和卡戴珊·韋斯特有精心剪輯的記錄，非常適合社交媒體傳播。他們也慣於戰鬥。另一方面，斯威夫特和她的團隊越來越流露出厭倦。卡戴珊·韋斯特在《GQ》的訪談面世後，斯威夫特的代表發表聲明，結尾處說，“泰勒不理解爲什麼坎耶·韋斯特，如今又是金·卡戴珊，總是不肯放過她。”

And Ms. Swift’s latest reply concludes with a similar sentiment, though this time from her directly: “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”

斯威夫特的最新迴應中也有類似情緒，不過這次是她本人直接發言：“我非常希望自己能被排除在這段故事之外，自從2009年起，我從來沒有要求成爲它的一部分。”

But this bespeaks a misunderstanding of how public storytelling unfolds. It is crowdsourced, not written from the top down. In the past, Ms. Swift’s refusal to name the subjects of her songs or any of her personal antagonists also robbed them of their opportunities to respond, keeping the narrative tidy. But that’s not an option when the two main characters are equally famous. Ms. Swift’s revulsion only amplifies the situation: The farther from Mr. West she tries to pull, the more tightly they are bound.

但是這說明了一種對公衆敘事演進方式的誤解。公衆敘事是以一種集體創作，而不是一人寫完大家看。過去，斯威夫特拒絕說出她歌曲裏的主人公是誰，也不說出她的敵人的名字，這也就剝奪了他們反駁的機會，讓她的敘事保持嚴謹。但是如果故事裏的兩個主人公有同樣的知名度，就不能這麼做了。斯威夫特的強烈拒斥只是把事態放大：她越是想遠離韋斯特，這兩個人就越是緊緊地綁在一起。