– Why do older movies/shows/news/recordings have a much different “tone” of voice and feel to them? Like if you watch old movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or hear any of Kennedy/FDR’s speeches, it sounds so different than the voices on tv today?

Question

Sorry for the awful explanation…

In: Technology

Answer 1

There were a couple of accents that were considered acceptable/mainstream, and pretty much anyone who was on film/tv/radio used those – in the US, the main one was a “Mid-Atlantic” accent (a blend of received pronunciation and New England “upper crust” speech patterns), while in the UK, the standard was received pronunciation.

Over time, there’s been more acceptance of regional dialects/accents, but the “generic” accent for American film has shifted to much more of a Californian accent (perhaps with slightly crisper enunciation than the average person uses day-to-day).