On the reach of Pop Song English: ABBA and the accent use of non-native speakers in 1970s pop music
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2025-05-09
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en
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‘Pop Song English’ (PSE) refers to the accent pop singers throughout the Anglosphere use in their music. This thesis expands the social and geographical area of this research field by investigating ABBA’s accent use throughout their career within a language-ideological framework. This study examines ABBA’s realisation of two PSE variables: intervocalic /t/ and non-prevocalic /r/. Realisation rates are investigated using descriptive statistics, conditional inference trees and general linear mixed effects models. Results show that intervocalic /t/ is largely produced in line with PSE norms, whereas non-prevocalic /r/ is not. Moreover, social factors only influence intervocalic /t/. Thus, ABBA do not embrace PSE fully, but do not disregard it either. This complicates the idea that PSE is all-determining. A change of concept is therefore needed. It is suggested we view pop music as a spectrum and means of indexing a pop identity, linguistic or otherwise, as ways to define ones place on it.
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Faculteit der Letteren