Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a music history class.

旁白：听一段音乐历史的讲座。

The professor has been discussing music of the twentieth century.

教授讨论了20世纪的音乐。

Professor: And what instrument comes to mind when you think of rock ‘n’ roll?

教授：当你想到摇滚乐的时候，你会想到什么乐器？

Student: The electric Guitar?

学生：电吉他？

Professor: Exactly. I think it’s fair to say that the sound of the electric guitar typifies the rock ‘n’ roll genre, which became popular in the 1950s.

教授：非常正确。我认为，说电吉他是摇滚乐的代表并不为过。摇滚乐在20世纪50年代非常的流行。

But really the instrument we know today was the result of a continuing development that started for all practical purposes in the 1920s.

但是，事实上我们现在所知道的乐器，是20世纪20年代，为了我们实际的用途不断发展的产物。

But long before that even, people were experimenting with ways to modify traditional acoustic guitars.

但是，甚至在很早之前，人们试了几种方法去改良传统的原声吉他。

The first guitars were wooden.

第一种其他是木吉他。

This is the Spanish guitar and the strings were made from animal products.

这是一把西班牙吉他，它的弦是用动物制品制作的。

Then came steel strings.

随后，钢绳弦。

And that led to the lap guitar, which is also called the steel guitar because the player slides a steel rod up and down the neck.

这个就导致了钢吉他的产生，这个同样也被称作为钢弦吉他，这是因为表演者在颈部的钢拉杆上上下滑动。

And those are all acoustic guitars. OK?

这些都是原声吉他。对不对？

But then eventually we have electric guitars.

但是，最终，我们有了电吉他。

Over the years, many inventors and musicians contributed to the design of these instruments.

多年以来，很多发明家和音乐家都对这种乐器的设计，做出了贡献。

And each design was intended to alter the sound in some way, at first at least with the electric guitar, to make it louder.

并且，每一款设计都想要在某种方面改变声音。在起初至少是使电吉他声音变大。

So let’s get back to when the steel guitar was first introduced in the United States.

让我们回到钢弦吉他第一次被引进到美国的时候。

It was right after the Spanish-American war in the late 1890s.

这个就发生在19世纪90年代，西美战争之后。

US sailors who were stationed in Hawaii—then a US territory—were very enamored with the music they heard there.

在夏威夷驻扎的美国海员们——之后变成了美国领土——对于他们在那里听到的音乐非常着迷。

Uh, Hawaiian music was based on the steel guitar I just described.

夏威夷音乐用的是我之前说过的钢弦吉他。

Some sailors learned how to play the steel guitar and brought it home to the States.

一些海员们学会了弹奏钢弦吉他，并且把它带回了美国。

Before long, Hawaiian steel guitar music was all the rage in the mainland US.

不就以后，夏威夷钢弦吉他音乐在美国本土风行。

It actually had a strong influence on the development of several musical genres, rock ‘n’ roll most notably, but also jazz and blues.

事实上，它对于很多种音乐都产生了强烈的影响，最显著的就是摇滚乐，但是同样地也对爵士和蓝调产生了影响。

Anyway, by the 1920s, with the advent of the public dance movement, people were gathering in large groups to listen to steel guitar music.

不管怎样，到20世纪20年代位置，随着全民舞蹈运动的出现，人们聚集成一个大群体来听钢弦音乐。

But they had trouble hearing it, especially in large public settings.

但是，他们要听清出这个音乐有点困难，尤其是在大的公共场所。

As I mentioned, the instrument was played horizontally, on the lap.

就像我之前提过的，这个乐器是水平演奏的，在膝盖上。

Since the strings faced upward, the sound was projected toward the ceiling rather than outward toward the audience.

由于琴弦是朝上的，声音向天花板传播，而不是向观众那边传播。

Something had to be done, because the music venues and the audience kept getting larger and larger.

必须要做点什么，因为音乐的场地和观众群越来越大。

So what would you do?

那么，你会做些什么呢？

Student: Find a way to amplify the sound?

学生：找一种可以将声音放大的方法？

Professor: Yes. And to do that, inventors started attaching electronic devices, electrical coils to the acoustic guitars.

教授：是的。为了做到这一点，发明家们开始将电子仪器连接上去，将电子线圈链接到原声吉他上。

And the electronics worked!

这种电子仪器起效了！

But attaching electronics didn’t just affect how loudly you could play.

但是，将电子产品连接上去不仅仅影响了音量。

It also changed the quality of the sound.

这个还改变了声音的质地。

These early electric guitars were hollow and these early amplifiers caused vibrations in the bodies of the instruments.

这些早期的电吉他是中空的，并且这些早期的扩声器引起了乐器主体的振动。

So as the sound got louder, it became more distorted, fuzzy-sounding.

所以随着声音变得更响，声音就变得越发扭曲失真。

And what musicians at the time wanted was a pure, clean sound.

在当时，音乐家们想要的是纯粹的、干净的声音。

Student: So where does Les Paul fit in?

学生：所以Les Paul是怎么发挥作用的？

Wasn’t he the first to electrify acoustic guitars?

他是第一个电子化原声吉他的人么？

Professor: Uh…no. Electrified guitars already existed by the time Les Paul came into the picture around 1940.

教授：不是的。在1940年左右，当Les Paul出现的时候电子化的吉他已经有了。

What Paul did was experiment with ways of removing the distortions and he succeeded.

他所做的就是尝试着将失真的声音去除，并且，他成功了。

He designed a guitar with a solid body that relied solely on electronics.

他设计了一个只用电的实心吉他。

Paul’s solid body eliminated the vibrations, and thus the distortions.

Paul的实心主体去除了振动和失真。

Student: Excuse me. But when I think of electric guitar music, I think of Jimi Hendrix.

学生：不好意思。但是当我想到电吉他音乐的时候，我就会想到Jimi Hendrix。

Professor: Jimi Hendrix, one of my favorites.

教授：Jimi Hendrix是我最爱之一。

Student: But Hendrix’s style really was all about distortion, that’s what’s so great about his music, all those special effects.

学生：但是Jimi Hendrix的音乐事实上就是为了失真，这也是他音乐最棒的地方，那些特别的效果。

I think a lot of rock ‘n’ roll fans prefer that to a pure sound.

我认为，比起纯粹的声音，很多摇滚乐的粉丝都会喜欢那个。

Professor: Yeah. You are getting ahead of me here.

教授：是的。你说到我前面了。

But good, because the point I was going to make is that the sound of rock ‘n’ roll changed over the years.

但是，很好，因为我正要说的就是随着时间的流逝，摇滚乐的声音也产生了变化。

And the designs and technology of electric guitars made those changes possible.

并且电吉他的设计和技术使得这些变化可以实现。

So whereas Les Paul’s goal was to remove the distortion, later musicians wanted to produce it.

和Les Paul去除失真相反的是，后期的音乐家们想要制造出它，

And by the time Jimi Hendrix came around.

一直到Jimi Hendrix出现了。

Well, essentially, Hendrix reinvented the electric guitar, in the sense that he created amazing effects and vibrations that changed the sound of rock ‘n’ roll completely.

从本质上来说，就他创造出的惊人的效果和振动而言，Hendrix彻底改造了电吉他，这彻底的改变了摇滚乐的声音。

So eventually, people tried to improve on Les Paul’s model, well, to modify it I should say.

所以最终，人们试着去改善Les Paul的模型，我应该说是改良它。