在 2000 年代初充满敌意的音乐产业的包围下，Karen O 接受了宝贵的建议，选择扮演“婊子”的角色。她认为这个建议是自尊，帮助她应对要求顺从和适销对路的环境。通过维护自己的代理权并拒绝妥协自己的艺术视野，Karen O 成为其他寻求开辟自己道路的女性音乐家的榜样。

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Stills / Sorrell Schneider)

Karen O is an idol to so many. Artists like Beabadoobee and Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner are two of a whole class of musicians that hold the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ singer up as a role model and vital force helping to carve out space for women in indie. For the musician herself, so much of that comes back to one token piece of wisdom handed to her.

（来源：Far Out / YouTube Stills / Sorrell Schneider）音乐 » 来自 Vault “做个婊子”：Karen O 收到的最好建议 Lucy Harbron 2024 年 4 月 15 日星期一 2:00，英国 Karen O 是很多人的偶像。 Beabadoobee 和 Japanese Breakfast 的 Michelle Zauner 等艺术家是整个音乐阶层中的两位，他们将 Yeah Yeah Yeahs 的歌手视为榜样和重要力量，帮助独立音乐中的女性开拓空间。对于音乐家本人来说，这很大程度上取决于她得到的一件象征性的智慧。

“‘Karen, you need to be more of a bitch.’” That was the advice a young Karen O received right back at the start of her career that has steered her right. She calls it “The best advice I ever got,” deeming the simple and sharp one-liner as a kind of saviour.

“‘凯伦，你需要变得更加婊子。’”这是年轻的凯伦·奥在职业生涯刚开始时收到的建议，引导她走向正确的方向。她称其为“我得到的最好的建议”，并将简单而尖锐的俏皮话视为一种救世主。

It feels silly and tokenistic. Or even in maybe ways, it feels counterintuitive. Should anyone ever be instructed to be less friendly or approachable? We’re always told over and over that your reputation is a vital piece of the puzzle when it comes to your success. Patti Smith’s biggest piece of advice rings true here, as she instructed her fans and followers to “build a good name”, stating that over time, your name and the well-respected light of your nature will become a “currency”. To Smith, kindness, work ethic and being liked will reward you.

感觉很愚蠢而且象征性的。或者甚至在某些方面，这感觉是违反直觉的。是否应该指示任何人变得不那么友好或平易近人？我们总是被一遍又一遍地告知，声誉对于您的成功至关重要。帕蒂·史密斯（Patti Smith）最大的建议在这里是正确的，她指示她的粉丝和追随者“建立一个好名字”，并指出随着时间的推移，你的名字和你本性中受人尊敬的光芒将成为一种“货币”。对史密斯来说，善良、职业道德和被人喜欢会奖励你。

But that advice doesn’t translate so well when placed into a largely hostile environment. Smith came up in the late 1960s scene at the Chelsea Hotel where collaboration, sharing and caring for each other were highly valued things as artists all seemed to really look out for each other. Even though the Horses singer obviously still faced the issues and inequalities that came from being a woman in music, she broke through at a time that was truly built on openness and love for one another.

但当置于一个充满敌意的环境中时，这个建议就不太适用了。史密斯出现在 20 世纪 60 年代末切尔西酒店的场景中，那里的合作、分享和互相关心是高度重视的事情，因为艺术家们似乎都真正互相照顾。尽管这位马歌手显然仍然面临着作为一名音乐女性所带来的问题和不平等，但她在一个真正建立在开放和彼此相爱的时代取得了突破。

The early 2000s in New York City was a very different landscape from that. While we’d all like to think that all inequalities and injustices get better with time, that often isn’t true in unsuspecting and subtle ways. While the new millennium should have been a bright new step into the future, the blossoming indie scene at the time was overrun by testosterone. On the level above that, the music industry as a whole was overrun by the sexualisation and commodification of women as pop stars ruled the roost and record labels seemed to demand all female artists be easily sold and marketable. It was a time when desirability made a star. In the era of MTV and the start of the digital age, the time that birthed Karen O was very different from the times that came before. They required a protective prickliness.

2000 年代初的纽约市的景象与那时截然不同。虽然我们都希望随着时间的推移，所有不平等和不公正现象都会得到改善，但事实往往并非如此。虽然新千年应该是迈向未来的光明新一步，但当时蓬勃发展的独立音乐界却被睾丸激素淹没了。在更高的层面上，整个音乐产业被女性的性化和商品化所淹没，流行歌星占据主导地位，唱片公司似乎要求所有女性艺术家都能轻松出售和销路。那是一个欲望造就明星的时代。在MTV时代和数字时代的开始，Karen O诞生的时代与之前的时代有很大不同。他们需要一种保护性的刺痛。

To Karen O, that piece of advice has a clear and productive meaning. She explains, “You have to look up when you feel like someone’s pushing you in a direction that you feel not comfortable in going.” For her, the move to be more of a bitch isn’t one to become nasty or hard to work with. Instead, she said it’s “more self-respect to a certain degree.”

对于 Karen O 来说，这条建议具有明确且富有成效的意义。她解释说：“当你感觉有人在把你推向一个你感觉不舒服的方向时，你必须抬起头来。”对她来说，变得更加“泼妇”并不意味着变得令人讨厌或难以共事。相反，她说这是“在某种程度上更多的自尊”。

The need to hold that self-respect harder and more rigidly came directly from the scene and time she came up in. As digital music became a thing and it became harder and harder for bands to gain and keep attention, more pressure was put on the musicians themselves to make their art sellable. Especially for female artists, record labels became desperate to mould and rearrange their stars into something easily consumed and understood.

更严格、更严格地保持自尊的需要直接来自于她出现的场景和时间。随着数字音乐成为一种事物，乐队越来越难获得并保持关注，更多的压力被施加在音乐家自己让他们的艺术可以出售。特别是对于女性艺术家来说，唱片公司迫切希望将她们的明星塑造和重新排列成易于消费和理解的东西。

Karen O always refused that. Instead, she’s marched down her own path to the beat of her own drum, letting that advice and her gut lead and blocking out the other voices. “You usually hear ‘if you don’t do this, then you’re gonna mess this up for yourself,’” she said of outside pressures. “Generally, that’s not true. Not a single time have I ever regretted saying no to something that felt wrong.”

凯伦·奥总是拒绝这一点。相反，她按照自己的节奏走自己的路，让建议和直觉引导，排除其他声音。 “你通常会听到‘如果你不这样做，那么你就会把事情搞砸’，”她在谈到外部压力时说道。 “一般来说，这不是真的。我从来没有后悔对感觉不对的事情说不。”

Being a bitch is simply having the inner strength and the guts to speak up to that, say no and keep doing what you’re doing. For the musician, this philosophy is the only way to protect yourself and what people want from you: your music. “As an artist, you have to protect your gift because it’s a precious thing,” she said, explaining that bitchiness is a way to maintain agency, “If you say no when you need to say no and yes when you need to say yes, you’re carving a path for yourself as an artist that does their art on their own terms.”

成为一个婊子只是拥有内在的力量和勇气去说出来，说不并继续做你正在做的事情。对于音乐家来说，这种哲学是保护自己和人们想要从你那里得到的东西的唯一方法：你的音乐。 “作为一名艺术家，你必须保护你的天赋，因为它是一件珍贵的东西，”她说，并解释说，恶毒是维持代理权的一种方式，“如果你在需要说不的时候说不，而在你需要说是的时候说是， ，作为一名艺术家，你正在为自己开辟一条道路，按照自己的方式进行艺术创作。”

It’s sage wisdom, really. Maybe we should all be more of a bitch.

这确实是圣人的智慧。也许我们都应该更像个婊子。

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