艾德·希蘭：鄰家男孩的成功之路

Nice guys finish last， so the saying goes. There is one man， though， whose recent chart success seems to challenge that maxim. Official figures show that Ed Sheeran， who has persisted with his scruffy image and simple songwriting， was the biggest-selling artist of 2014 with his second album， X. He is Britains biggest export since Downton Abbey.

Sheeran， already the most searchedfor male celebrity on Google， may well see his career scale further heights in 2015， with two Grammy nominations and three nights at Wembley Stadium in July—two of which are sold out. Performing with only a backing band， loop pedal and an acoustic guitar， he is about to pull off the biggest busk of all time.

So how did Sheeran， a relatively normal bloke， making relatively normal music， manage to become Britains top-selling artist？

Niceness alone， of course， doesnt account for his blockbuster success with the album X；it sold 1.7m copies in 2014 in Britain， one of only two releases to beat the 1m mark， and has had over 430m streams worldwide since its release in June—more than any other artist globally. Perhaps its more thanks to Sheerans skills in balancing his guise as the bastion of shabby student authenticity with the role of mercurial businessman—not to mention a fierce sense of underdog ambition.

A bit of luck helps， too. The initial spark for Sheerans stratospheric success can be traced back to two chance events. The first occurred during an impromptu LA trip in 2010， which led to a friendship with the actor and musician Jamie Foxx. Foxx saw Sheeran play and ended up providing him with exposure in the U.S. on his radio show， The Foxxhole. That same year， Sheerans music was noticed by the web mogul Jamal Edwards， whose online channel SB.TV has shone a light on the wealth of talent emerging from the UK grime scene. The SB.TV connections led to Sheeran collaborating with established grime artists including Wiley， JME and Sway， while he simultaneously worked the grind of indie venues in London， performing 300 shows in 2010 alone.

With opportunities opening in both the U.S. and UK， Sheeran was able to establish fans on both sides of the Atlantic—an accomplishment many musicians are unable to crack throughout the duration of their career.

George Ergatoudis， head of music for Radio 1 and 1Xtra， believes Sheerans ability to straddle a multitude of modern genres makes him stand out. “He switches between folk music and black music in a unique way…no one else channels Eminem and Damien Rice simultaneously like he can，” he says.

Such careful cultural curation appeals to a range of ages， genres and genders， and allows Sheeran to be playlisted on Radio 1， Radio 2 and BBC 1Xtra. The latter channel named him the most powerful artist on its annual Power List—a choice that triggered controversy， given 1Xtras description as the “black music network.”

As well as catering to the indie crowd and pop audiences—the singer has toured with Taylor Swift—Sheerans honeyed vocals and dalliance with rap styles have also helped increase his trajectory in the U.S.， where hip hop and R&B; is a far more lucrative business than in Britain. This year he collaborated with rapper The Game and appeared on the cover of the influential rap magazine Vibe.

Although much rap music can be about bragging， intrinsic to Sheerans aesthetic is his ability to appear everyday. Material on his debut album， +， had an obsession with promoting his allegiance to reality， and his Twitter feed is a constant source of disarming truths， such as“doing the Victoria secrets fashion show tonight and Im eating a Greggs sausage roll in the dressing room.”

Eric Clarke， professor of music at Oxford University， thinks this is a potent attribute for an artist in 2014. “His boy-next-door [image]—not very good looks but a perfectly nice guy—and the song Thinking Out Loud， with its reflections on getting older and fidelity and love in a fairly conventional context， is a slight counter-blast to fast-living celebrity culture.”

A far more straight forward explanation for Sheerans global impact lies within his songs. Fiona Bevan， the singer-songwriter who co-wrote One Directions Little Things with Sheeran， pins the copyable nature of his songs on the youth markets current captivation with him.

She says： “Because of the fact that Ed plays solo guitar， and you can hear the acoustic guitar part on the records， the songs are accessible to people to learn to play at home. All his songs are so well written that you can strip away all the production and the songs still stand in their own right. I think the YouTube generation gravitates towards this clear， seemingly simple songwriting when they want to cover their favourite songs， and share them with their networks—so theres this incredible surge in awareness from fans on YouTube making their own versions and spreading them far and wide.”

To others， Sheerans ascent is baffling， perhaps even offensive to those who hoped that the voice of a new generation might be more revolutionary. In 2012， the influential journalist Caitlin Moran tweeted： “If my kids ever tell me they like Ed Sheeran， Ill put them in a sack and throw them in a canal.”Sheerans response was to sidestep a potential social media spat by sending her “l(fā)ots of hugs” via Twitter， prompting regret and a grovelling offer of drinks on the part of Moran， which just goes to show that you should never underestimate the potency of being nice.

常言道：人善被人欺。然而，有一個人最近在榜單上取得的成績似乎要打破這個說法。官方數(shù)據(jù)顯示，艾德·希蘭于2014發(fā)行的第二張專輯《X》是年度唱片銷量之最，他雖然總是以一副不修邊幅的形象示人，但其歌曲創(chuàng)作風(fēng)格則以簡單為主。這位英國歌手在國際上的名氣比得上盛極一時的英劇《唐頓莊園》。

作為谷歌搜索次數(shù)最多的男性名人，兩項格萊美獎項提名得主，希蘭有望在2015年把職業(yè)生涯推上一個新的高度。他將在今年7月份在溫布利體育館開三場演唱會——其中兩場門票已經(jīng)售罄。演唱會只用到一個配樂樂隊，一個腳踏循環(huán)錄音器，和一個原聲吉他，他將要舉行一場最大型的“街頭表演秀”。

希蘭這個相對普通的家伙，做著相對普通的音樂，是怎樣成為英國銷量最高的歌手的呢？

當(dāng)然，僅僅是友善的個性并不足以令他的唱片《X》轟動一時；在2014年，這張專輯在英國賣出了170萬張——去年只有兩張唱片的銷量超過了一百萬，去年六月發(fā)布以來，全球播放次數(shù)已超過了4300萬次——這比全世界任何一個歌手都要多?；蛟S這得益于他平衡偽裝和真實的能力，一副典型的窮學(xué)生模樣，但事實上他是個精打細(xì)算的商人——更不用提他那份向上爬的強(qiáng)烈野心。

這其中還有運(yùn)氣的幫忙。希蘭取得巨大成功的起因可追溯到曾經(jīng)的兩次機(jī)遇。第一次是2010年在洛杉磯的一次即興表演，這次表演讓他與演員兼音樂人杰米·?？怂钩蔀榱伺笥选８？怂箍催^希蘭表演后決定讓他上自己的電臺節(jié)目《The Foxxhole》。同年，網(wǎng)絡(luò)大亨賈馬爾·愛德華茲開始留意希蘭的音樂，賈馬爾的在線頻道SB.TV已經(jīng)挖掘了許多草根出身的天才。與SB.TV的合作讓希蘭可以與一些已經(jīng)成名的草根歌手合作，如：懷利、JME和Sway，同時，他還忙于在倫敦獨(dú)立音樂界走場表演，光2010年就有300場演出。

希蘭在英美兩國都獲得發(fā)展機(jī)會，能在大西洋兩岸建立人氣——這是很多音樂人在其整個職業(yè)生涯都做不到的。

電臺Radio1和1Xtra的音樂總監(jiān)喬治·埃格托迪斯相信希蘭有能力融合多種現(xiàn)代音樂元素，使其脫穎而出?！八砸环N獨(dú)特的方式在民謠和黑人音樂之間變換……沒有其他人可以像他那樣能同時演繹出艾米納姆和戴米恩·萊斯的味道來。”他說道。

如此用心的流派處理吸引了不同年齡、類型、性別的人，也讓希蘭的歌曲得以在Radio1、Radio2和BBC電臺1Xtra中播放。后者在它的年度實力榜單中把他評為最有實力的藝人——這讓電臺受到了爭議，因為這個電臺一向被稱為“黑人音樂網(wǎng)絡(luò)”。

他不僅吸引了獨(dú)立群體，還要得到流行樂迷的青睞——與泰勒·斯威夫特一同巡演。希蘭甜美的嗓音融合說唱風(fēng)格也對他在美國的發(fā)展有所幫助，比起英國，嘻哈和R&B;在美國更有市場。今年，他與說唱歌手The Game合作，并登上了很有影響力的說唱雜志《Vibe》的封面。

雖然很多說唱音樂都是在自吹自擂，但希蘭能夠讓自己像個鄰家男孩那么普通。從他的第一張專輯《+》里的歌曲就能看出來他更忠于現(xiàn)實，他的推特也常常發(fā)一些既真實又讓人有親切感的微博，如“我今晚要在維多利亞的秘密時裝秀上表演，我正在化妝間吃格雷格的香腸卷”。

牛津大學(xué)的音樂教授埃里克·克拉克認(rèn)為在2014年，這對藝人來說是一個很有利的特點(diǎn)?！八徏夷泻ⅲǖ男蜗螅獩]有很好的外形但很友善——他的歌曲《大聲說出我的想法》是對成長、忠誠和愛進(jìn)行傳統(tǒng)的思考，這有點(diǎn)跟快節(jié)奏的名人生活背道而馳?！?/p>

對希蘭引起全球關(guān)注這個現(xiàn)象更直接的解釋可以在他的歌曲中找到。創(chuàng)作歌手菲奧納·貝文，曾與希蘭共同創(chuàng)作One Direction的《Little Things》，認(rèn)為現(xiàn)在的年輕人為他著迷是因為他的歌曲的可復(fù)制性。

她說：“因為艾德的歌曲多是吉他獨(dú)奏，所以你可以在他的唱片中聽到原聲吉他的部分，人們可以在家學(xué)習(xí)、彈唱這些歌。他所有的歌曲都寫得很好，就算去掉所有的后期制作，這些歌仍然很好聽。看YouTube長大的一代人在討論他們喜歡的歌曲或在自己的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)上分享歌曲的時候，我想他們會被這種簡單明了的曲風(fēng)所吸引，YouTube上的粉絲們一時間靈感大發(fā)，把自己彈唱的版本廣泛傳播?！?/p>

在其他人看來，希蘭的高人氣讓人難以理解，而那些希望新一代歌手的聲音更有突破性的人甚至對此感到生氣。2012年，知名記者凱特琳·莫蘭在推特上寫道：“要是我的孩子告訴我他們喜歡艾德·希蘭，我會把他們裝進(jìn)麻包袋里，然后扔到河里?！倍Ｌm只是通過推特給她回復(fù)了“很多擁抱”的表情，從而避免了一次潛在的社交媒體上的罵戰(zhàn)，此舉讓莫蘭后悔不已，并因此請希蘭喝酒道歉。這件事說明了千萬不要小看與人為善的潛在力量。