How/when did Valley Girl accent or intonation spread among so many young folks in the US. (2013, movies)
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I guess I'm talking about intonation and accent style as well as some slang (though some things like "grody to the max!" are obviously dated to the '80s), but I have noticed the rapid rise in Valley-Girl like talk by young people of my generation. Some elements include that uptalk or high-rising intonation at the end of sentences, as well as heavy usage of the word "like" in contexts like "She's like (quote); He's like (some other quote)". Being mid-20s in age, I have noticed that it seems to be really prominent in people my generation but even noticeably less common in people just a bit older -- 30s and 40s.
20-something year olds across the US, regardless of region, have picked it up.
I mean, the original "Valley Girls" as defined by the mall-wandering teen girls of the Valley in the 80s would have been in their 40s or so by now, so something's keeping it popular!
By spread, in part I mean it seems more mainstream and also no longer stigmatized (no longer seen as much as being girly or shallow if you talk that way). It no longer has connotations of just being a ditzy, materialistic, shopping teenage girl, when anyone from college students, office workers, young men etc. are exhibiting these speech patterns (even growing up, I heard people laugh at those who talked like Val gals in the 90s or so and even adults who advised teens not to do so or else risk being not taken seriously, but by the 2000s, there was more lax attitude as even adults talked that way).
Mass media. Period. Even adults say "my bad," which is irritating as hell.
Mass media and improved technology, because that could be the only explanation as to why Europe's youth seems so "Americanized" in comparison to the adults.
Mass media. Period. Even adults say "my bad," which is irritating as hell.
Mass media and improved technology, because that could be the only explanation as to why Europe's youth seems so "Americanized" in comparison to the adults.
Yeah, but the Valley Girl style talking used to portrayed as more negative or characteristic of a "shallow person" even when shown in the media (in the original song sung about the Valley Girl by Frank Zappa's daughter, it was that portraying that talking style was supposed to be making fun of "shallow, airhead, rich but spoiled" teenagers).
Mass media spread things around obviously, but how did it turn the negative portrayal of the talking style into at least a neutral one (the mass media can make a speaking style either popular or unpopular depending on how the characters/peoples/stereotypes are)?
Mass media spread things around obviously, but how did it turn the negative portrayal of the talking style into at least a neutral one (the mass media can make a speaking style either popular or unpopular depending on how the characters/peoples/stereotypes are)?
At first, I don't think it was negative. Being from that area, I think kids thought it was funny and adults thought it was silly. In general, I think people want to conform to mediocrity rather than stand out above the crowd. That's why there are few exceptional people...and a lot of jerks around. Heck, sometimes I'm a jerk.
At first, I don't think it was negative. Being from that area, I think kids thought it was funny and adults thought it was silly. In general, I think people want to conform to mediocrity rather than stand out above the crowd. That's why there are few exceptional people...and a lot of jerks around. Heck, sometimes I'm a jerk.
Ah, okay, so more "silly" than negative. But it went from "silly" to not serious but tolerable at least, right.
Didnt the valley girl thing go out in the 1980s????? I dont think many people even use the phrase "valley girl" anymore. If you want to hear valley girls talk then hop a ride with doc Brown back to 1985 in his delorean time machine. What year did they go to in the second movie??? 2013 right, well you dont have to wait long and you can hop a ride back.
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Did many girls in the Valley or LA even talk in the stereotypical 'Valley girl' manner (as in the Frank Zappa/Moon Unit) song? Even in the film Valley Girl it wasn't that extreme. I did detect the old style Val intonation well into the 90s, films like Clueless kind of reflect that.
I think it's simply because LA is such a dominant media capital, that the dominant fashions and culture, which includes the speech, just spread across the rest of the country through movies, TV shows like the Hills, celebs like Paris Hilton. I don't know why more people tend to speak with the intonation (I know what you're talking about), I think that could just be a natural evolution, not necessarily a Val thing.
Actually, come to think about it, I was just reading about how at least one feature -- the uptalk (or question-like ending when people make statements) aspect of the young generation's speech isn't thought to be exclusively caused by Valspeak but has independently developed in other parts of the English-speaking world (you find it in the UK, Australia, Canada etc.).
That seems to be one style that is associated with Valspeak though.
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