Jon's Speaking Voice

I've noticed the difference sometimes too. I do know that Jon said when he started the acting that he did have to take classes to get rid of the regionality in his speaking. But, Becky, I have to say, I think it's funny that anyone would say Jon has a southern accent when comparing it to "our" southern accents. Compared to us, he doesn't sound southern at all. Maybe as someone said, southern New Jersey, lol!!

deb

I think of selling point as a reason people buy the CDs. I'm not sure many people would buy a CD JUST BECAUSE the band is from New Jersey. I think the fact that they're from there and they are proud of their homestate is nothing more than personal information. Faith Hill is from Mississippi and has a song called Mississippi Girl, but Mississippians don't go buy her CDs just because she's the home town girl. See what I mean? Maybe we view "selling point" differently.

I think Jon sounds like Atlanta/Nashville type "Southern," not like "moutains of West Virginia" southern.

Ha ha, so as we would say, more "proper" southern versus "hick" southern, lol!! All I know is since moving to New Jersey 2 years ago, I utter one word and I instantly, get, "your not from New Jersey, where in the south are you from and generally they guess Georgia" lol!

deb

I agree it being a selling point for the band - being it glamerous or not - it is certainly a good thing to be proud of ones homeplace and to support that place. Wherever that might be. Much better than those artists that are from not so 'cool' places and deny their home towns and truly mask their accent and live in NY cause it's cool (or so they think). Anyway, I find it quite appropriate to tone down an accent when speaking to a broader audience or someone unfamiliar with that accent and wouldn't call it 'masking' it.


That's what I would have guessed as well. I have an accent/slang in German and if I am home or speak with someone from home, I bring it one quite strong (though I admit it is getting harder and harder for me as I hardly ever speak it anymore). If I ever had an interview or spoke with people of a broader audience, I'd tone it down dramatically.

I believe Jon feels a lot more 'at home' on stage than giving interviews and as such his true accent comes out much more than giving interviews for a broader public.

Its probably more to do with projection of the voice then anything, most people who do public speaking adopt a stronger, sometimes totally different voice to project themselves. I do lot of work with microphones and i adopt a much stronger, vibrant voice to project energy etc, when i train other people in using their voices for DJ work etc i get them to play around with thier voices. Most people on TV and radio have a different voice to their everyday voice, my voice in n ormal speaking mode is quite weak, if i need to get energy across i have to change it totally. If Jon has a stadium of 70,000 plus he needs to project his energy to everyone and thats why he adopts a louder, stronger accent i would say

Yeah, I noticed it too. He does speak differently at different times.

Judy

Jon's southern accent always cracks me up. Somebody please post that Howard Stern show.

It seems that the accent comes out when he is being playful or joking around. I've noticed that with a lot of celebrities. I can't think of many right now but, Ben Affleck for example.

For some reason people seem to respond to southern accent better, or at least that's what I'm told. For example Paul Stanly from KISS speaks (or spoke, not sure if he does anymore) with a southern accent on stage although he's a New Yorker. And he only did the accent on stage, offstage he sounded like he should.

Ice

It's also probably an "acting" thing....he's probably worked on dialects and losing the eastcoast accent for the acting side of his career.