Culture.

文化。

The infrastructure of rock.

摇滚乐的基础设施。

Thank you for the music.

谢谢你的音乐。

A town in the Amish country of Pennsylvania is the unlikely capital of rock’n’roll.

宾夕法尼亚州阿米什乡村的一个小镇是奇异的摇滚乐之都。

To walk around Lititz on a perfect spring day is to see small-town America at its picture-postcard best.

春光明媚的日子里，在利蒂茨漫步，你就能看到美国小镇最风景如画的景象。

Pensioners stroll along a main street, looking in the windows of gift shops, stopping at the tea shops.

退休老人沿着大街散步，看着礼品店的橱窗，在茶馆前驻足停留。

With around 10,000 residents, the town in Pennsylvania’s Amish country is so pristine that if you saw it in a film you might assume it was a set.

这座位于宾夕法尼亚州阿米什乡村的小镇有大约1万名居民，非常原始，如果在电影中看到它，你可能会以为它是一个布景。

You almost certainly wouldn’t guess it was the rock’n’roll capital of the world.

几乎不可能猜到它是世界摇滚乐之都。

Yet about a mile north of the town centre is an unremarkable industrial park in which the world’s biggest pop and rock shows are made.

然而，在市中心以北约一英里的地方，有一个不起眼的工业园，全球规模最大的流行音乐和摇滚乐表演都在这里举行。

The boxy buildings on the Rock Lititz campus house around 40 companies, which between them supply everything a touring artist requires.

Rock Lititz园区内四四方方的建筑容纳了大约40家公司，提供巡演艺人所需的一切。

The firms that founded Rock Lititz, Clair Global and Tait Towers, take care of the two staples, amplification and set-building.

建立Rock Lititz园区的Clair Global和Tait Towers公司负责两项主要工作--扩音和布景建设。

Others fill in the gaps.

其他公司负责其余工作。

One makes only the motors to drive the hoists that pull PA systems into the rafters of arenas; another makes only stage pyrotechnics.

一家公司只负责制造发动机来驱动升降机，把扩音广播系统拉进舞台的椽子里，另一家公司只制作舞台烟火。

There are two huge rehearsal spaces in which the shows can be assembled and road-tested.

园区内有两个巨大的排练场地，可以在那里集合演出并进行路演测试。

Rock Lititz takes artists from the first glimmerings of an idea to the final production rehearsal.

从一个想法的第一次闪光到最后的制作彩排，Rock Lititz会全程引领艺人完成工作。

There is nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world.

世界上其他任何地方都不会有这样的事情。

And it happened by accident.

这一切都是偶然发生的。

In the 1960s two brothers from the town, Gene and Roy Clair, had a hobby supplying PA systems for local shows.

20世纪60年代，镇上的两兄弟吉恩·克莱尔和罗伊·克莱尔有个爱好，就是为当地演出提供扩音系统。

In 1966 Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons played Franklin & Marshall College in nearby Lancaster, and the Clairs lent a hand.

1966年，弗兰基·瓦利和四季乐队在附近的兰开斯特的富兰克林和马歇尔学院演出，克莱尔兄弟伸出了援手。

According to Clair Global’s creation myth, the band members’ wives noticed subsequent shows didn’t sound as good, and the brothers were brought on the road with their own bespoke system.

据Clair Global的创作神话描述，乐队成员的妻子们注意到后来的演出听起来没有之前好，于是让克莱尔兄弟带着他们自己的定制设备一起巡演。

"There you go," says Troy Clair, son of Gene and now the firm's CEO.

“就是这样，”吉恩的儿子、该公司现任首席执行官特洛伊·克莱尔说。

“That was the beginning of a sound company travelling with the band.”

“这就是一家音响公司与这个乐队一起巡演的序幕。”

A dozen years later an Australian called Michael Tait—who had been designing lighting and staging for Yes, a prog-rock band—came to Lititz following immigration difficulties in Britain, and set up Tait Towers.

十几年后，一个名叫迈克尔·泰特的澳大利亚人在英国遭遇移民困难后来到利蒂茨，建立了Tait Towers。泰特此前一直为前卫摇滚乐队Yes设计灯光和舞台。

The town’s reputation began to spread.

这个小镇的名声开始打响。

But it was not until 2014, when the two companies established Rock Lititz, that it turned from a small hub into the fulcrum of rock.

但直到2014年，两家公司成立Rock Lititz，它才从一个枢纽小镇变成了摇滚的支柱城镇。

It is an extraordinary place: part manufacturing centre (Clair Global, for example, still makes its own PA systems, and sends teams on tour with artists), part R&D paradise and part logistics operation (a visit to Rock Lititz reveals just how many moving parts are required to put a show on the road).

这是一个非同寻常的地方：它一部分是零件制造中心（比如Clair Global仍在制造自己的扩音系统，并派遣团队与艺人一起巡回演出），一部分是研发天堂，还有一部分用于物流运营（参观Rock Lititz就会发现，举办一场路演需要多少移动部件）。

The attention to detail is staggering.

他们对细节的关注令人震惊。

Clair Global monitors all its tours so closely that on its screens you could see that in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the yellow ink in the singer Dua Lipa’s printer was down to 17%.

Clair Global非常密切地监控它的所有巡演，以至于你可以在它的屏幕上看到，在俄克拉何马州的塔尔萨，歌手杜阿·利帕的打印机里的黄色墨水下降到了17%。

Two decades ago Rock Lititz might not have thrived in the same way.

20年前，Rock Lititz可能不会以同样的方式蓬勃发展。

When artists could make money from recorded music, there was less need to sell tickets to live events at premium prices.

当艺人可以靠录制的音乐赚钱时，就没有必要高价出售现场活动的门票了。

After the internet caused a crash in revenue from recordings, that changed.

在互联网导致唱片收入暴跌后，情况发生了变化。

Then came the rise of social media, which had two effects, according to Adam Davis, boss of Tait Towers.

接着是社交媒体的兴起，据Tait Towers的老板亚当·戴维斯说，这带来了两个影响。

It showed there was a global demand for these big shows—and provided the ideal tool to market them.

它展现了全球对这些大型演出的需求，并为营销这些演出提供了理想的工具。

“We’re making these moments that people will remember for ever,” Mr Davis says.

戴维斯说：“我们正在创造让人们永生难忘的时刻。”

He notes that promotion of these events happens largely through pictures on social media, so a dazzling production is “almost a marketing expense”, which allows for higher ticket prices.

他指出，这些活动主要通过社交媒体上的图片进行宣传，所以令人眼花缭乱的制作“几乎是一笔营销费用”，因此门票价格可以更高。

Tait Towers’ shows are designed to look as spectacular to the Instagrammer in the back row as to the punters at the front.

通过设计，Tait Towers的演出在后排的Instagram用户看来，和前排观众眼中的一样壮观。

Simple human vanity takes care of the rest.

人类单纯的虚荣心会完成其他工作。

“I’ve spent $1,000 to come to a sold-out event.

比如我花了1,000美元来参加一场门票销售一空的活动。

Next thing I do is brag about the fact I was there, right?

接下来我要做的就是吹嘘我当时在场，对吧？

And so I’m going to send you this incredible picture of me being amazing.”

所以我要给你们发这张我看起来惊艳到令人难以置信的照片。”

Even if the music disappoints, Mr Davis says, the photos will look wonderful.

哪怕音乐让人失望，戴维斯先生说，这些照片也会看起来很棒。

Amish country turned out to be the ideal location for businesses that are dependent on bespoke parts and custom manufacturing, in which the local Amish and Mennonite communities specialise.

事实证明，对于依赖定制零件和定制生产的企业来说，阿米什乡村是理想的地点，当地的阿米什和门诺派社区专门从事这些业务。

When other commercial outfits have struggled to make the items that big shows needed, say both Mr Clair and Mr Davis, adaptable Amish craftsmen have done so with ease.

克莱尔先生和戴维斯先生都说，当其他商业机构在努力制造大型演出所需的物品时，适应能力强的阿米什工匠们已经能够轻松做到了。

One of Tait Towers’ regular suppliers has been a Mennonite-run company that makes cattle grids: the precision in cutting metal is a transferable skill.

Tait Towers的定期供应商之一一直是一家门诺派经营的公司，该公司生产牛栅：精准切割金属是一项可迁移技能。

The Pennsylvania countryside has another unanticipated advantage: because it is more conductive to getting things done than distracting big cities, bands themselves have descended on it, too.

宾夕法尼亚州的这个乡村还有另一个意想不到的优势：由于这里有助于完成工作，而不会分散大城市的注意力，所以乐队本身也来到了这里。

When The Economist visited, a stadium act was in secret session in a giant rehearsal studio (originally built to test shows before artists got involved).

《经济学人》到访时，一个体育场演出正在一个巨大的排练室里秘密进行（最初建造这个排练室是为了在艺人表演前测试演出）。

Musicians and crews stay at the on-site hotel.

音乐家和工作人员住在现场的酒店。

Lititz may be the only small town where you can see Justin Bieber or Ariana Grande popping out to buy a toothbrush—and bumping into an Amish craftsman on the way.

利蒂茨可能是唯一一个你能看到贾斯汀·比伯或爱莉安娜·格兰德出来买牙刷--还会在路上撞上一名阿米什工匠的小镇。

Covid-19 brought the live-music industry to a halt.

新冠肺炎疫情导致现场音乐行业陷入停滞。

Now business is back, and Rock Lititz is busier than ever.

现在生意又回来了，Rock Lititz比以前更忙了。

But rising demand—up 30% on pre-pandemic levels, estimate Mr Clair and Mr Davis—and varying coronavirus protocols have brought their own difficulties.

但不断增长的需求--克莱尔先生和戴维斯先生估计，比疫情前水平上涨了30%--以及不同的新冠病毒应对方案也带来了各自的困难。

Getting missing parts from one side of the world to the other overnight is harder than it was.

在一夜之间将缺失的零件从世界的一边运到另一边比以前更难了。

There are shortages of all the things tours need, from trucks to screws.

从卡车到螺丝，巡演需要的所有东西都很短缺。

“Things as simple as a stock three-quarter-inch nut: the world is running out,” Mr Davis says.

戴维斯说：“四分之三英寸的库存螺母这样简单的东西在全球都消耗光了。”

But Rock Lititz rolls on.

但Rock Lititz继续滚滚向前。

By the loading docks of Clair Global’s factory, the flight cases were piling up.

航空箱在Clair Global工厂的装卸码头旁堆积如山。

When everything had been tested, they were shipped out to the annual Coachella festival in California.

所有东西经过测试后，被运到了加州一年一度的科切拉音乐节。

Rock just doesn’t happen without Lititz.

没有利蒂茨，就没有摇滚。

来源：经济学人