21st Century
Autorobots in the movie "Transformers" and the GM models they're based on.
General Motors Corp.
General Motors bankrupcy
| |
NO company– or at least no company`s products — has been as celebrated in American popular culture as General Motors.
没有哪个公司，或哪个产品，能像“通用汽车”那样在美国大众文化中享有盛誉。
For generations, GM vehicles have inspired artistic metaphors of freedom, speed, youth, romance, power and sex.
历经数代，通用汽车一直被看作是自由、速度、青春、浪漫、力量与性感的化身。
So, it`s probably safe to say that General Motors` bankruptcy filing won`t damage its image polished by movies, TV shows and, especially, popular music.
正因如此，或许可以说：通用申请破产，这并不会损害它之前在电影、电视剧、特别是流行音乐中塑造的形象。
GM`s cars have been instant signifiers of status and attitude, not just on the road but on TV and in the movies.
通用出产的各种汽车不仅驰骋在公路上，而且频频出现在电视、电影和流行音乐中，长久以来它们已成为地位和生活姿态的代表。
General Motors` marketing identified each of its brands very well. So, a mere brief appearance of one of its cars in a movie could establish a character`s personality.
受益于通用营销策略中对旗下各品牌精准的市场定位，因此，哪怕仅仅是在电影中短暂地亮个相，开什么型号的通用汽车已足以塑造出片中人物的性格。
Heroes, for example, tend to drive muscle cars. Actor Burt Reynolds showed his image as a good old boy by driving a powerful black Pontiac Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit. The Trans Am`s cousin, the Chevrolet Camaro, got the nod in the 2007 blockbuster Transformers.
例如，英雄式主角喜欢开大尺寸、大马力和高油耗的“肌肉车”。在1977年的电影《熊和强盗》中，伯特－雷诺兹驾驶一辆黑色庞蒂克Trans Am，成功地塑造了一位良家老男孩形象。2007年，Trans-Am的表亲Chevrolet Camaro则化身电影《变形金刚》中的“大黄蜂”。
Rock music has been inseparable from cars since rock `n` roll`s beginning. It`s more than a coincidence that the development of rock and "car culture" took off at the same time, says Paul Grushkin, author of Rockin` Down the Highway: The Cars and People that Made Rock Roll.
而说到摇滚音乐，自产生之日起，它就与汽车密不可分。《摇滚下的高速公路：汽车和人民》一书作者保罗－格鲁什金认为，摇滚音乐与汽车文化同时起步，这绝非偶然。
It started right after World War II. Rising household prosperity, the growth of suburbs and superhighways, and a growing youth population all met the no-limits spirit of the car industry, Grushkin says. "People look back on the cars of that time and can`t believe how audacious it was that someone would drive something like (those cars) down the street. You had unlimited horsepower."
格鲁什金说，二战结束后，家庭财富的增加、郊区住宅和高速公路的兴起以及年轻人口的增长都正好与汽车工业的无极限精神相吻合：“人们回头看那个时代的车，都难以想象你开着这种东西上路会是多么大胆的事情。那时，你拥有无限的马力。”
So, there came a burst of "teen" car songs from the likes of rock bands "Jan and Dean" and "the Beach Boys". Baby boomer Bruce Springsteen idealized domestic cars, along with youth, in many songs, including "Thunder Road" and "Racing in the Streets".
紧接着，像摇滚乐队"Jan and Dean"和 "the Beach Boys"创作了一大批“青少年”汽车歌曲。而“婴儿潮”时期出生的布鲁斯－斯普林斯汀和其他年轻人一起，用大量歌曲诗化了国产车的形象，《雷鸣道》和《街头赛车》就是在那时涌现的。
Prince`s "Little Red Corvette" proved so popular that Chevy`s ad agency, Campbell-Ewald, used it in a Corvette ad campaign in 2002. As Bill Ludwig, the agency`s chief creative officer, explained in an interview with AutoWorld: "Frankly, no other brand has inspired popular culture like Chevy. The Corvette and rock `n` roll were both born in America, 50 years ago. Coincidence? I think not."
此外，Prince的《小红克尔维特》也大受欢迎。2002年，该曲被雪佛兰的广告代理商Campbell-Ewald选为广告歌，公司首席创意官Bill Ludwig在接受美国《汽车世界》杂志采访时曾说：“说实话，雪佛兰对大众文化的影响无人能及。克尔维特车型和摇滚乐于50年前在美国同时诞生，这纯属巧合么？我觉得不是。”
GM`s Cadillac division also has inspired countless musical tributes as a symbol of luxury and excessiveness during the same period. You can start with songwriter Buddy Holly singing "Not Fade Away": "My love is bigger than a Cadillac".
在当时，作为奢华的象征，通用旗下的卡迪拉克汽车同样引得无数音乐家纷纷向它致敬。以创作歌手Buddy Holly为例，他所演唱的《真爱永存》中有这样一句歌词：“我对你的爱胜过卡迪拉克。”
Black artists share a special history with the Cadillac. For decades, it was the status symbol in African American communities. References to Cadillacs abound in hip-hop, owing to the near-mythic status of the brand among rappers. In fact, rap`s fetishizing of the Cadillac may have helped bring the brand back from the brink in the 1990s. It put a halo of coolness on a car associated with elderly buyers.
另外，对黑人艺术家来说，卡迪拉克更是意义非凡。几十年来，在非洲裔美国人中，卡迪拉克都是身份地位的象征。由于它在说唱歌手群体中近乎传奇的地位，很多hip-hop音乐中都有卡迪拉克的影子。事实上，从90年代起，这种迷恋和崇拜给原本以中老年顾客为主的卡迪拉克蒙上了一层潮流光环，促使这个老品牌焕发新生。
Unfortunately for GM, that has hardly been enough.
然而不幸的是，对于通用汽车而言，所有这些仍不足以将它从金融危机中拯救出来。
"The sadness is that the technology has passed GM and Ford by," Grushkin says. "Not enough people want to buy an American product at this point. But for pure absolute nostalgia, it`s American product all the way."
作家保罗－格鲁什金说：“悲哀的是，先进的技术并没能拯救通用和福特。在这个节骨眼上，想买美国汽车的人并不够多。不过，要是仅从怀旧的角度来看，不管怎么说，“通用”始终是美国产品的代名词。” |
|
