美国国家公共电台 NPR Instrument-Makers Learn A Long-Overdue Lesson: It Isn't Just Men Playing Guitar

Instrument-Makers² Learn A Long-Overdue Lesson: It Isn't Just Men Playing Guitar

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Pop and hip-hop dominate today's music charts, so it's not surprising there have been a number of articles proclaiming the death of guitar rock. But as Allyson McCabe reports, rock and guitars are still plenty popular, and some guitar makers are starting to recognize that players come in all shapes, sizes and genders⁴.

ALLYSON MCCABE, BYLINE⁵: When Sadie Dupuis started playing guitar in her early teens, she didn't think of herself as a female guitarist.

SADIE DUPUIS: I knew that I was the only girl in my high school who played, but it wasn't really until I started touring as an adult and seeing how few women were on bills that it started to really matter to me that I was a woman who could play technically⁶ challenging parts.

MCCABE: And she does in the band Speedy Ortiz.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEEDY ORTIZ SONG, "LEAN IN WHEN I SUFFER")

MCCABE: But on the band's current tour, Dupuis says she still deals with gendered expectations.

DUPUIS: A guy walked up to me after our set up, and he said, you know, you're actually really good for a guh (ph) - guitarist and he, like, caught himself before he told me that I was actually really good for a girl.

MCCABE: When leading guitar maker¹ Fender conducted a consumer survey in 2015, it was surprised to discover that women made up half of first-time guitar buyers. Andy Mooney is Fender's CEO.

ANDY MOONEY: That was a big surprise to us because I think if you asked most people in the company or in the industry what the gender³ mix was, they would have said maybe 70-30 or maybe even 80-20 male to female.

MCCABE: Mooney acknowledges that outdated⁷ assumptions may have contributed to sales declines over the last decade. The nation's largest instrument retailer⁸, Guitar Center, is facing more than a billion dollars in debt. Guitar maker Gibson filed for bankruptcy⁹ earlier this year and privately¹⁰ held Fender's debt is estimated at $100 million.

MOONEY: There was probably a misconception in the industry that everybody who bought a guitar for the first time wanted to be a long-haired guitar god. That's a very small percentage of the total universe - less than 10 percent.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MCCABE: In the 19th century, women often performed parlor¹¹ music on small, gut-stringed guitars. In the 20th, some even took to the concert stage, including classical guitarists Luise Walker and Ida Presti...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MCCABE: ...Electric jazz guitarist Mary Osborne...

(SOUNDBITE OF MARY OSBORNE'S "HOW HIGH THE MOON")

MCCABE: ...And Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who helped pioneer rock 'n' roll.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UP ABOVE MY HEAD")

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE: Let's do that again (playing guitar).

MCCABE: But female guitarists have historically been seen as novelties or not seen at all. When Tish Ciravolo bought her first bass¹² guitar in the mid-1980s, she says the sales man was only interested in talking with her boyfriend.

TISH CIRAVOLO: We walk in and the guy behind the counter that's the sales guy and my boyfriend both kind of have a conversation about how I want to learn how to play bass and what bass would be really good for me. So they decide what bass I should buy.

MCCABE: Nevertheless, Ciravolo remained dedicated¹³ to the instrument. One day, her young daughter drew a picture of a daisy. Ciravolo saw a guitar for girls, and she launched Daisy Rock. In 2001, she took a few of her instruments to the National Association of Music Merchants' annual trade show.

CIRAVOLO: I was on the NAMM show floor in a sea of black guitars showing a cute pink Daisy, and a thousand people in four days came by and said that'll never work - every guy. That'll never work. Girls don't come into music stores.

MCCABE: But they did. They saw Miley Cyrus play a Daisy Rock on "Hannah Montana." Taylor Swift and Adam Levine play Daisy Rocks, too. Ciravolo expanded her line, eventually selling over a half million guitars to date. Others tried to follow suit, but ads in magazines like Guitar World didn't show women actually playing guitars.

FABI REYNA: When I was 13, I would go to the music magazine section, and their covers were always these naked or bikini-wearing models, not players.

MCCABE: That's guitarist Fabi Reyna. Five years ago, right after her 20th birthday, Reyna founded a DIY magazine called She Shreds¹⁴. Two years ago, her readers successfully campaigned Guitar World to stop using bikini-clad models to hawk¹⁵ guitars. She Shreds' circulation has grown to 40,000, and close to half its readers are male.

REYNA: You know, She Shreds has existed simply because we have promoted visibility. We are for women, but we're about women for everybody.

MCCABE: That change in attitude is reflected in Fender's 2015 survey data, which indicates that first-time players are diverse with respect to gender and genre¹⁶. CEO Andy Mooney says they don't seem to need that guy behind the music store counter anymore.

MOONEY: We estimate now that about 50 percent of total units sold in North America are sold consumer direct in some shape or form.

MCCABE: To reach potential customers online, Fender has grown its social network and invested heavily in digital ads like this one featuring the all-female band Warpaint.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

THERESA WAYMAN: We all pretty much stay on the same instruments.

EMILY KOKAL: They're kind of our best friends in this outfit¹⁷.

MCCABE: But the future of guitar rock isn't dependent on sales alone says Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sadie Dupuis. She doesn't reject the female guitarist label. Instead, she seeks to transform it into a positive.

DUPUIS: And I really try to make my stage presentation pretty - I don't know - princess feminine because I do think that even when people who aren't men get interested in rock music, sometimes they only see masculine presentation as, like, the way that you're allowed in. And I don't think that should be the case at all.

MCCABE: While the industry and society catch up, Dupuis says it's important to show fans that guitars and rock are for everyone. For NPR News, I'm Allyson McCabe.

1 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

2 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

4 genders   

n.性某些语言的（阳性、阴性和中性，不同的性有不同的词尾等）( gender的名词复数 )；性别；某些语言的（名词、代词和形容词）性的区分

参考例句：

• There are three genders in German: masculine, feminine and neuter. 德语中有叁性：阳性、阴性和中性。 来自辞典例句
• Japan was fourth among the genders of foreign students. 日本在二十个留美学生输送地中列第四位。 来自互联网

5 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。

6 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

7 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

8 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

9 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

10 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

11 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

12 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

13 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

14 shreds   

v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件）

参考例句：

• Peel the carrots and cut them into shreds. 将胡罗卜削皮，切成丝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I want to take this diary and rip it into shreds. 我真想一赌气扯了这日记。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

15 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

16 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

17 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。