Accommodation and Identity
British Pop Music
Accommodation
•	Speakers change their speech to be more like the addressee.
•	Speakers change to be evaluated favorably by the addressee.
•	Travel Agents change pronunciation to be like clients  in New Zealand.
•	The variable is pronouncing intervocalic /t/ as /d/.
•	“better”[b  d  r]

British Pop-song Pronunciation
•	Popular singers use different accents while singing
–	1960’s pop-style had unique combination of features
•	Not found in any single regional dialect
–	Intervocalic /t/  as [d] instead of [t] or [ʔ] 
»	(Americans use [t] or [d])
–	/æ/ as [æ] instead of [a]
»	(Americans use [æ]) 
–	Non-prevocalic /r/ as [r] instead of deletion
»	(Most regions of America use [r])
–	Monophthongization of /ay/ as [aˑ]
»	(American Southerners use [aˑ])
–	Love and done: mid central vowel
»	(Americans also do)
–	Body and top: unrounded
»	(Americans also do)
•	Popular singers are not accommodating any British audience
/t/ and Monophthongization
	
Non prevocalic /r/
•	Nonprevocalic /r/ is the same /r/ that is not pronounced in U.S. Southern Dialect and New York Vernacular, AAVE, Boston Vernacular etc.
•	Neither London nor Liverpool pronounce it. 

Interpretations Based on Theory
•	Singers are being appropriate to context by altering pronunciation.
•	American pronunciation is appropriate to British singing.
•	LePage’s theory is that speakers seek to identify with groups by pronunciation.
•	Not only accent but vocabulary is American.
–	Guy, call
•	Accommodation theory would have to be extended to cover British pop singing.
British Pop Style Has a Contrast with U.S. Pop Style
•	U.S. Pop style does not pronounce nonprevocalic /r/
–	Elvis Presley (using native Southern dialect)
–	Bob Dylan (adopting Southern accent for singing).

•	British Pop Singers imitate /r/ of U.S. speech but U.S. pop singers don’t pronounce it.
•	British singers would sound more American if they dropped /r/ as in their ordinary speech
–	Apparently British singers couldn’t distinguish between American singing and speaking styles 
U.S. South and AAVE Features found in American Popular Singing Style
•	American singers don’t pronounce nonprevocalic /r/
•	American singers monophthongize /ay/ to [a:]
•	/I/ is pronounced [æ] in “thing” [θæŋ] imitating Southern and AAVE merger of /e/ and /I/ before /n/ (pin and pen are homonyms)

“Matchbox”
(1964)
“sitting” [sIdIn] [sItIn]
“poor”   [por]
“for”	   [for]
“little”  [lIdIl]
“sure”	[šor]
•	Pronounce nonprevocalic /r/
•	Voice intervocalic /t/
“I Saw Her Standing There” (1963)
•	Nonprevocalic /r/
•	Monophthongization
•	Voice intervocalic /t/
“I” [a:]
“compare” [kʌmpær]
“there” [ðɛr]
“her” [hɛr]
“another”  [ʌnʌðIr]
“heart” [ha:t]
“other”  [ʌðIr]
“before” [bIyfor]
“Can’t Buy Me Love” (1964)
•	Mid-Central vowel in “love”
•	Digraph in “can’t”
•	Central vowel in “body”
•	Monophthongization
•	Voice intervocalic /t/
•	Nonprevocalic /r/
“can’t” [kæant]
“love” [lʌv]
“I” [a:]
“care” [kær]
“for” [for]
“everybody” [ɛvrIybʌdIy]
“I’ll” [a:ll]
“satisfied” [sædIsfayd]
“Dust My Broom” 1959
•	Omit nonprevocalic /r/
•	Monophthongization
•	Voice intervocalic /t/
“morning” [mo:nIn]
“I” [a:]
“letter” [lɛdʌ]
“my” [ma:]
“time” [ta:m]
“Down Home Girl” 1965
•	Pronounce nonprevocalic /r/
•	Voice intervocalic /t/
“Lord” [lo:d] #
“turnip” [tIrnIp]
“girl” [girʌl]
“pork” [pork]
“citified” [sIdIfayd]
“every” [eva:]
“fiberglass” [faybIrglæs]
“you’re” [yo:]#
#-Unlike British  Pop style
British Pop Singers Changed
•	The First Two Beatles and Rolling Stones Records had 36% of /r/  (1963-65)
•	Four Pop albums of 1978-79 had 4% /r/
–	Dire Straits, Supertramp, Clash, Sham ‘69

Decline of /r/
•	Beatles and Rolling Stones had similar declines
•	Trudgill claims that 47% was the best they could do.
Decline of /r/ and /t/ for Beatles and Rolling Stones
•	Voiced intervocalic  /t/ scores high
•	Rolling Stones decreased /t/ from 100-46%
–	“Some Girls” 46% 
•	“Pretty” effect lowered score.
Beatles eventually reverted to [a:]
•	Use of [æ] was consistent until 1965
•	Sargeant Pepper and White Album alternated [æ] and [a:]
•	Abbey Road used all [a:]
•	They reverted to Liverpool speech.
British Desire to Sound American Decreased
•	British pronunciations were not introduced until punk music.
•	Punk is loud, fast and aggressive
–	Songs about violence underpriveledge, alienation, rejection
–	Urban working class youth

Punk uses Low Prestige Speech of Southern England
•	Way of speaking is intended to be aggressive
•	Associated with Working Class

•	Punk uses some American features
–	Intermittent Monophthongization
Pop Trends in 1979
•	Most British Pop is /r/ less
•	Most British Pop groups use /t/ and /æ/
–	Even Punk:Stranglers, Clash, Sham ’69
•	Only Punk and Dury use [ʔ]

“I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.” (1979)
American
•	Digraph

British
•	wide diphthong
•	dipthong
•	/r/less
•	/t/ unvoiced
“I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.”(1977)
•	Yankee soldier
•	He wanna shoot some skag
•	He met it in Cambodia
•	But now he can't afford a bag

•	Yankee dollar talk
•	To the dictators of the world
•	In fact it's giving orders
•	An' they can't afford to miss a word

•	I'm so bored with the U...S...A...
•	But what can I do?

•	Yankee detectives
•	Are always on the TV
•	'Cos killers in America
•	Work seven days a week

•	Never mind the stars and stripes
•	Let's print the Watergate Tapes
•	I'll salute the New Wave
•	And I hope nobody escapes

•	I'm so bored with the U...S...A...
•	But what can I do?

•	Move up Starsky
•	For the C.I.A.
•	Suck on Kojak
•	For the USA
•	“soldier” [solǰʌ]
•	“can’t” [kænt]
•	“afford”  [afo:d]
•	“dictators” [dikteytor]
•	“bored” [bo:d]
•	“A…” [æI]
•	“killers” [kIlɛ:z]
•	“Watergate” wɔtʌgæIt]
•	“Tapes” x [tæIps]
•	“mind” [maInd]
•	“I” [aI]
“Quiet!” (1979) (1990)
•	Dury lacks American pronunciation
•	Glottal stop for intervocalic or final /t/
“quiet” [kwayɛt]    9
“quiet” [kwayɛʔ]  11