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Many years ago I put a bit of Jake on for a couple of sceptical friends of mine. They didn’t like it. Well, fair enough, I suppose. If you don’t “get it”, you “don’t get it”. Understood. However, the female of the couple said, “I can’t understand him !” This, I thought, was beyond the pale and so I retorted, “If you can’t understand him then you’re not listening. His diction is practically perfect”.
I’m mentioning this now because very often nowadays when I’m listening to things on the radio I’ll find myself at a loss as to what’s being sung. I AM trying to listen ; honestly. I’m just wondering if it’s a reflection of my deteriorating hearing or is it that a lot of modern singers don’t pay much attention to their diction ?
It struck me, oh a fair few years ago now, how good some television quiz masters are at pronouncing their words, even at pace. Jeremy Paxman, Anne Robinson, those sorts of people are capable of rattling off questions at a fair rate of knots but even I can understand every word. (I am no one to criticise really because I’m well aware that I’m something of a “gabbler” when I get excited, or even when I’m not !). However, I just thought I’d mention it to see if it’s just me (again !).
HughieI think that Jake’s diction was impeccable. My appreciation is only enhanced by the experience of singing the songs. I think the difficulty for some people is not the diction but a combination of regional accent and rather clipped (in some songs) manner of delivery. (Heaven forbid that I should say that anyone is wrong here…)
Hi, Paul, and all. I, as you know, am far less squeamish about offending people… So I would include in any diction criticism, the apparent requirement for “youth” presenters to begin a sentence with “Like”, or end it with “Yanaawha’ahmeen” or “Innit”…
The problem with , you know, getting onto this sort of, you know, subject is that it can open up a whole, you know, can of worms. Last week I was watching, you know, Newsnight and, you know, they had an interview with, you know, the excellent (in every way) Raheem Sterling. Now I bow to , you know, no one in my admiration of him : he is, you know a fine fellow. But, you know,as the interview went on it began to, you know, grate on me that he was struggling to, you know, string more than, you know, a couple of , you know, words together before, you know, saying, “You know !”.
AARRGGHH !!!
Just thought I’d , you know, mention it !
See what , you know, you think.
Hughie
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