Tuesday 30 November 2010

Teen Speach - being something they're not

Why is it teenagers take on an accent when they speak, as though they are imitating the voice of a Patois Jamaican.  But they have never been or lived in one of those beautiful places.  I can understand the need to establish your own niche in society, but to talk as though you have come from a different culture altogether seems stupid to me.  Very stupid.  Because this is an insult in two forms.  First an insult to the cultural background they actually come from and secondly an insult to the culture they are trying to mimic.  Do they think they are any different from the world?  By ending every sentence with the word "man" or wearing jeans/trousers which have crutches so low it looks like they have shit themselves.  Without fail, every time I see a young person with these fashion conscious leg wear I have the image of a baby walking.  A baby with a nappy full of crap, and being weighted down by the the crap. Or is it something to do with death row inmates in America and their not having belts.  Oh yes of course, because everyone is on death row here aren't they?

I have been listening to an extra ordinarily talented female singer Adele.  She has a great voice, her lyrics are good, but yes, you guessed it.  I can hear that sound in her voice, the linking of words, the tempo, the missing of phonemes in her words.  So in a second sense although I'm liking her music it also grates on me.  If she wants to segregate a potential audience then she has gone the right way about it.  Just as the unfortunate Nina Simone found herself blacklisted by a number of record companies when she sang songs relating to how life could be from her cultural background.  She recognised the damage later in life how those songs had effected her own career.  It might be I am getting old.  My voice is worth nothing in the world of music.  I'm not saying all of Adele's music is sang in this same slang like manner because there are entire sections of songs which are sung quite eloquently and without the unnecessary stress of pretentious-something-she-is-not-and-never-will-be.

Watch this space, will she change?  Will the idiots of teenage life grow older and then comment on the teenagers they see as they grow up into adults?  No doubt the answer will be "yes" even if it is in part.