At a rented theatre on a Saturday night in Seoul, 20 self-conscious young talents stand awkwardly, some of them in tears, in front of hundreds of cheering friends and relatives.
周六晚上，在首尔的一个租来的剧院里，20个年轻选手有些局促地站在台上，一些人眼里还有泪水，台下是数百名为他们加油的朋友和家人。
All have been working towards this moment for years, before passing through preliminary auditions staged by JYP Entertainment, one of South Korea’s biggest music production companies. Then came six weeks of intensive training for this climactic performance, after which only three are handed the bouquets that signify the offer of a training contract.
所有人都为这一刻努力了多年，他们先是通过JYP Entertainment公司的初选，之后接受了6个星期的密集培训，而这次表演就是培训后最终的高潮部分。在表演结束后，只有3人能拿到花束，代表签订培训合同的邀约。JYP是韩国最大的音乐制作公司之一。
“I’ve been working so hard for five years, and now I’ve finally made it,” Kim Byung-kwan tells the audience, clutching the flowers and visibly overwhelmed after being named champion of the evening.
“我已经辛苦努力了5年，现在我终于做到了，”Kim Byung-kwan向观众们说，手里紧握着花束，显然已被成为当晚冠军带来的巨大喜悦压倒。
The stakes are high for these young hopefuls, who have the opportunity to become superstars not only in South Korea but across Asia, and increasingly beyond. Psy’s 2012 rap hit Gangnam Style — so popular that it recently forced YouTube to recalibrate its counting system for video views — is only one example of the growing clout of South Korean popular music, which hauled in revenues of Won4.4tn ($4.1bn) in 2013, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency.
对这些渴望成功的年轻人来说，奖赏是丰厚的。他们将有机会成为韩国、乃至整个亚洲的超级明星，甚至越来越有可能在更多地方扬名。朴载相(Psy)2012年的热门Rap单曲《江南Style》(Gangnam Style)太过流行，以至于YouTube最近不得不为其重新校准视频播放次数计数系统。这只是韩国流行音乐日益增长的影响力的一个例子而已。根据韩国文化产业振兴院(Korea Creative Content Agency)统计，2013年韩国流行音乐产业共实现4.4万亿韩元（合41亿美元）的收入。
With its slickly choreographed videos and addictively energetic sound, K-pop commands obsessive followings across Southeast Asia, China and Japan, and has established firm beachheads in Europe, the US and Latin America. Its international success, along with that of the country’s melodramatic soap operas, reflects the glamorous image of a country that has gone from one of Asia’s poorest states to one of its richest in two generations.
韩国流行音乐(K-pop)以舞蹈动作精美的视频和令人着迷的动感音乐赢得了来自东南亚、中国和日本的大批痴迷的追随者，并在欧洲、美国和拉美建立了坚固的滩头阵地。在两代人的时间里，韩国从亚洲最贫穷国家之一一跃成为亚洲最富裕的国家之一。韩国的流行音乐以及情节夸张的肥皂剧在国际上的成功，正展现了这个国家富于魅力的一面。
Most of the music profits from what has come to be known as the “Korean wave” are taken by a handful of huge production companies, often named after the initials of their former pop star founders. JYP, for example, was founded by Park Jin-young, a popular singer in 1990s South Korea.
在所谓的“韩流”文化中，大部分音乐方面的盈利都流入了少数大制作公司的囊中。这些公司通常以它们曾经身为流行歌星的创始人的名字缩写命名，比如，JYP的创始人朴轸泳(Park Jin-young)就是韩国上世纪90年代的流行歌手。
The companies manage every step of the music-making process — recruiting singers as young as their early teens, and grooming and training them before forming groups from the most talented and marketing them around the world.
这些公司控制了音乐制作流程的每一个步骤——在歌手们还在青少年初期的时候就招募他们，对他们进行栽培和训练，然后挑选最有才能的人成立组合，并推向全世界。
A browse through a JYP investor presentation shows how the industry has taken the concept of the manufactured band to a new level. One slide breaks down planned releases for the year ahead: one quarter will bring a single from the as yet unannounced “boy band I”, while the next will herald releases from “girl band” and “boy band II”.
浏览一下JYP的一份投资者介绍，就会发现这个行业已经把“打造乐队”的理念提升到了一个新高度。一张幻灯片分条说明了下一年的发布计划：一个季度将推出一个尚未宣布的“男孩乐队一”的一首单曲，下一个季度将预告“女孩乐队”和“男孩乐队二”的新唱片发布。
The largest production company, SM Entertainment, alone made overseas revenues of about $100m last year, up from $8m in 2008, according to analyst estimates at KDB Daewoo Securities.
根据KDB大宇证券(KDB Daewoo Securities)的分析师估计，仅最大的制作公司SM Entertainment一家，去年就创下了约1亿美元的海外收入，而2008年这个数字仅为800万美元。
It has produced two iterations of one of its most popular boy bands: the six members of EXO-K sing in Korean, while their counterparts in EXO-M perform the same songs in Mandarin for the huge Chinese market.
SM公司为旗下最火的男孩乐队之一打造了两个版本：成员共6人的EXO-K以韩语演唱，而对应的EXO-M的6名成员则瞄准巨大的中国市场，用中文演唱同样的歌曲。
The aspiring performers can be subject to tough training regimes and strict labour contracts, says Stella Kim, an early member of what has become South Korea’s most popular pop group, Girls’ Generation. In the days before a performance, dance and singing training would run from 10am till well after midnight.
金贤京(Stella Kim)说，这些雄心勃勃的艺人可能必须服从严格的训练制度和苛刻的劳动合同。在表演前的日子里，舞蹈和歌唱训练会从上午10点持续到午夜以后。金贤京曾是少女时代(Girls' Generation)的早期成员，这个组合后来成为韩国最当红的流行乐团。
When the time came for Ms Kim to turn professional at SM, her parents baulked at the 13-year contract she was of­fered in her teens, which would have banned her from working for any other entertainment company during that time and given SM all rights to her name and image, while placing swingeing limits on her share of the band’s earnings. “They said, ‘We can’t sign our daughter up to slavery,’” she recalls.
金贤京即将转为SM公司的职业艺人时，当时仅有十几岁的她接到了一纸为期13年的合约。这份合约禁止她在合约期间接受任何其他娱乐公司的工作，要求她将有关名字和形象的所有权利移交给SM公司，还将她对乐队收入的分成压到低得不能再低的程度。对着这份合约，金贤京的父母犹豫了。金贤京回忆着说：“他们说，‘我们不能让女儿签订奴隶条约’。”
Despite changes aimed at boosting artists’ rights, controversy over restrictive contracts continues. In November, the six members of boy band BAP sued its agency over their seven-year “slave contracts”, claiming each member had been paid only Won18m over two years, despite generating about Won10bn in revenue for the company.
尽管已经有一些旨在提高艺人权利的改变，围绕限制性合同的争议仍然存在。去年11月，男子乐队BAP的六名成员因为一份7年的“奴隶合约”将所属经纪公司告上法庭，声称他们为公司创造了高达100亿韩元的收入，但每个乐队成员在两年间的薪资仅为1800万韩元。
“The whole training process becomes a kind of debt that you owe to the company,” says Mark Russell, author of two books on the industry, K-pop Now and Pop Goes Korea.
“整个培训过程变成了你欠公司的一种债，”马克•罗素(Mark Russell)说。他著有两本关于韩国娱乐业的书，《韩流正当时》(K-pop Now)和《韩流袭来》(Pop Goes Korea)。
Meanwhile, one of the country’s most prominent plastic surgeons estimates privately that more than 90 per cent of K-pop hopefuls undergo cosmetic surgery, further claiming that trainees may be obliged to reimburse their agency for the cost if they are not chosen for a professional group.
同时，据韩国最知名的一位整形医师私下估计，在韩国流行音乐界，超过90%的年轻艺人都接受过整容手术。此外，这位医师还称，培训生如果未被选中进入职业乐团，或许必须向所属经纪公司偿还整容手术的费用。
The process of bringing new singers to the market has become ever more systematic, says Kim Hyung-kyu, head of talent at Cube Entertainment, an agen­cy behind some bands with huge followings across Asia, which has started holding shows in Brazil and Europe.
Cube Entertainment的艺人负责人Kim Hyung-kyu说，把新歌手推向市场的流程已经变得越来越系统化。该公司旗下有几支在亚洲有大批拥趸的乐队，已经开始在巴西和欧洲举办演出。
“Companies used to just select artists who were good, improve them a bit, and go to debut. Now we consider the de­mand first, which market to target, before we start working on the bands.”
“过去音乐公司往往先挑选优秀的艺人，稍微提升一下他们的才艺，然后就出道。现在，在开始组建乐队前，我们先考虑需求，考虑要瞄准哪个市场。”
In a five-strong band, Mr Kim says, one member should be fluent in English, with two Chinese-speakers and two Japanese speakers. One of Cube’s new bands includes a Thai singer, which it ex­pects to help the group crack that country’s lucrative music market. To motivate the trainees, seven hopefuls might be made to compete for five positions in a new band.
他说，在5人乐队里，一个成员应该能说流利的英语，两名成员会说中文，还有两名会说日语。Cube公司旗下的一支新乐队里有一名泰国歌手，该公司希望这有助于乐队打入泰国利润丰厚的音乐市场。为了激励培训生，公司可能要求7名年轻人角逐新乐队的5个位置。
“Out of 10,000 people who audition, only 100 will become trainees, and out of 100, only 10 can become a popular singer. And out of those 10, only one will really be a star,” he says.
“在10000个参加选拔的人中，只有100人能成为培训生，在这100人中，只有10人能成为流行歌手。而在这10人中，只有1人能真正成为明星。”
Competition is equally fierce among the agencies themselves, with a steady stream of fledgling companies springing up to challenge established names. Hwang Hyung-chang, a former advertising consultant, set up Chrome Entertainment in 2012 with an idea for a quirky five-piece girl group and just Won10m in the bank.
经纪公司之间的竞争同样非常激烈，不断有新公司涌现出来，挑战老牌公司的地位。当过广告咨询师的Hwang Hyung-chang在2012年成立了Chrome Entertainment。当时银行账户里只有1000万韩元的他想要打造一支风格古怪的5人女子乐队。
“I did as much as I could by myself — styling, shooting photos, cover designs,” Mr Hwang says in the recording studio of his agency, its name tattooed on his forearm.
“我做了自己力所能及的一切事情——造型、摄影和封面设计，”Hwang Hyung-chang在他的公司里的一间录音棚里说。他的小臂上纹了公司的名字。
The resultant band — Crayon Pop — shot to fame in 2013 with its debut single “Bar Bar Bar”, catching attention with their matching crash helmets and dance routine modelled on a piston engine. The band was invited to open concerts for Lady Gaga and Mr Hwang says Crayon Pop’s hit earned Chrome $2m in the year after its release, helping to fund recruitment of several new acts.
他组建了一支叫做Crayon Pop的乐队。2013年，Crayon Pop以出道单曲“Bar Bar Bar”一炮而红，MV中的女孩子戴着一样的安全帽，编舞动作像活塞式发动机一样，吸引了人们的眼球。该乐队曾受邀作为Lady Gaga演唱会的开场嘉宾。Hwang Hyung-chang说，在Crayon Pop出道的那一年，乐队的成功为Chrome公司创造了200万美元的收入，给公司招募新艺人提供了资金。
“In this industry, it’s not really about how much you have in the bank,” says Mr Hwang. “It’s about how long you’re able to survive.”
他说：“在这个行业，重要的不是你的银行账户里有多少钱，而是你能存活多久。”