The Role of Accent in Popular Music: An Interdisciplinary Approach

In the thirty years that have passed since Peter Trudgill first published his study of British pop-song pronunciation, and fifteen years since Paul Simpson published his follow-up study of accents in pop and rock singing (1999), there have been several changes in the way linguists approach the sociolinguistics of singing. These changes include Franz Andres Morissey's introduction of sonority as a factor behind choosing particular phonological features, and the ongoing and evolving criticism of Trudgill's original assertion that singers were (and possibly still are) trying to 'imitate' Americans. The present study argues that existing theories are insufficient, and proposes a new framework for dealing with phonological choice in song, centred around three separate but unavoidably interrelated values that influence style choice – aesthetic, sonority, and indexicality. Unlike many related studies, it places emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, drawing upon the work of musicologists, philosophers and linguists, in an attempt to bring a fresh perspective on the phenomenon. Special attention is given to the notion that singers use accents to create (or be appropriate to) a particular aesthetic. The view is taken that music scenes act as unique speech communities that possess both socially and musically derived linguistic norms that all members accept (both performers and audience), but only few actively utilise in their language use (the singers)

The Syrophoenician Woman

Matthew 15:21-28

Staged Action: Six Plays From the American Workers\u27 Theatre

[Excerpt] This collection is an attempt to restore and revitalize interest in a largely forgotten American theatrical genre, the workers\u27 theatre movement. Workers\u27 theatre is a term that is used broadly to define theatre from the working class or theatre about working-class people. Here it refers to a unique and specific movement in the American theatre of the 1920s and 1930s to employ the stage to address issues concerning the worker and the workers\u27 movement. A simple definition was given by Hollace Ransdell of the Affiliated Schools for Workers in 1936: a workers\u27 theatre play deals truthfully with the lives and problems of the masses of the people, directly or suggestively, in a way that workers can understand and appreciate . These plays need not be written by workers themselves, and, in fact, many were written by figures sympathetic to the labor movement. The plays themselves are a series of fascinating, moving, occasionally frustrating dramas that often passionately explore the possibilities of the workers\u27 movement. Even during the Great Depression, these plays never displayed the pessimistic images of the future as reflected in the contemporary fiction of Steinbeck and Dos Passos. Instead, the plays of the American workers\u27 theatre clung tightly to stirring, Utopian visions, as was hoped for in the early writings that formed a basis for the movement

How to use stereotypes to raise awareness of cultural interpretation and encourage intercultural competence

As Ghent University is increasingly attracting international undergraduate and graduate students there is a growing need for special attention concerning intercultural issues. Besides the presence of international students the personal and student body has also been diversifying in the last decade. The diversity of cultures, linguistic backgrounds and religious affiliations within the same working force or among the students brings the need to tackle issues arising from intercultural encounters. Ghent University’s established a Diversity and Gender Unit, this unit has been organizing workshops ‘Intercultural Communication’ for its personal and doctoral schools. PhD-students as well as teaching staff and administrative and technical staff can choose to participate to these workshops. These workshops ‘Intercultural Communication’ have attracted participants from all sections and departments of the university and are especially designed to tackle a wide set of problems, misunderstandings and issues related to multicultural settings in a limited time frame (3 hours). To be interculturaly competent doesn’t mean you have to know all cultures, which is rather impossible. There are alternative ways to become an intercultural competent person. Hence, the workshops are going beyond informing people on other cultures. The workshops’ goal is to enhance its participants awareness of their own cultural interpretation mechanisms. Below I will give a short overview of what is been done to achieve this goal in a relatively short stretch of time. First participants are motivated to discuss social themes such as migration, ethnocentrism and racism. Participants are encouraged to talk about their own experiences, expectations and culture, and to reflect upon terminology and cultural differences. The workshops emphasize that knowing your own culture is the only way to understand your own perspectives and thus understanding other cultures. Being self-conscience of your own cultural mechanisms becomes the key to appreciate other ways of thinking and doing things. Secondly cultural self consciousness is achieved through an explicit discussion on stereotypes and their meaning. To reach this goal participants have self reflective discussions on negative and positive stereotypes concerning their own cultural group. Furthermore following questions are raised: How do stereotypes work? What is wrong with stereotypes? Can we avoid stereotype thinking? Are stereotypes useful? How so? Participants are stimulated to think about where stereotypes come from, what they tell us and how they can teach us something if handled with care. Through this experience participants are engaged in critical thinking of several stereotypes they may have of others. They are taught how to apprehend what they don’t know as to learn more about others through sensitive questions concerning their own stereotypes

Concluding Address: Culture and Worship, Once More

(Excerpt) The organizing principle I needed to pull together the events of this week became clear quite early in the institute. It became clear because of the great wisdom of the people who attended my discussion session after the opening keynote. They raised some critical issues and pulled many things into the dialectical tensions of which, for lack of time, I had been able to explicate only one side. In response, I found myself again and again saying, This gets us back to the necessity for community, doesn\u27t it? All of the worship issues, especially the wars, arise because our churches are not genuine communities

An evaluation of the instructional practices in voice teaching at Australian performing art institutions

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the practices and techniques of vocal training for student actors at a tertiary level, through a survey of experienced voice practitioners in Australian performing arts schools, appropriate texts, consideration of contexts and my own professional experience. Vocal instruction starts with the basic training of ‘the instrument’ or the vocal capabilities of the body. Following this or concurrent with its teaching, more specific forms of training are addressed. This research project used qualitative research methods to compile a detailed description of the voice teaching practices currently used in Australia. It comprises two parts, namely, a documented analysis of vocal training for acting and a series of interviews with professional voice trainers at performing arts institutions in Australia. The analysis attempted to discern and clarify patterns and themes in vocal training and detail possible similarities/differences with overseas models of teaching identified by the analysis of American and British texts in current use

SHIFTING PERSONAS: A CASE STUDY OF TAYLOR SWIFT

This thesis analyzes how Taylor Swift has changed the way she expresses her Southern identity, specifically her dialectal features, over the course of her career and through her switch from country music to pop music. There were two processes to assess the change in Swift’s speech: the production of /ai/ tokens in interviewed speech and the perception of dialectal change by fans in the comment sections of the interviews on YouTube. Seven interviews on YouTube and their comment sections were used as the data source for this study. Production of /ai/ was measured through an auditory analysis to determine whether tokens were monophthongal, diphthongal, or somewhere in the middle. Perception was evaluated by scraping the comments from the YouTube videos and running key word searches related to accent. The results of the production portion of the study confirm that there has been a decrease in monophthongal tokens of /ai/ from 2007-2019 in Swift’s speech. The results from the perception part of the study show that fans do notice a change in “sounding Southern” and try to explain that change through either labeling Swift as “fake” or by positing other theories related to Swift’s individual life experiences (such as moving around the country). The implications of this study point to how dialectal features are linked with identity performance, and also how non-linguists justify changing dialectal features

A World of Apologies

A World of Apologies is a music video that was created in order to promote multiculturalism and foreign culture education. Within this video, twelve different languages are showcased to the tune of the world-wide pop music hit “Sorry” by Justin Bieber. The video includes multiple important aspects of culture such as music, language, art, and dance. The video was made in hopes to bring about culture appreciation and to bring people around the world together, especially since the current political and social climate in many countries nowadays are in turmoil. Not only does the video itself speak to this message, but so does the process behind the making of this video, which will be revealed within this paper. Also throughout this paper, I will discuss the music video that I have made that stresses the critical role of language and art in culture, the importance of understanding these different cultures, and examples of artists who have created pieces with a similar message to my own such as Dora de Larios, Akram Khan, and Rihanna

Placing the Displaced: Translating the North Korean Characters in Sister Mok-rahn for an American Audience

No two languages are more different from each other than American English and Korean spoken in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). It goes the same for their speakers. Average theatergoers in New York in 2017 share little with the average North Koreans or North Korean refugees scattered around the world. So how should a translator present North Korean characters for an American audience? This paper discusses dramaturgical issues surrounding translating the North Korean characters in "Sister Mok-rahn" for an American audience