I’ve lived in England for about 6 years now, and the major thing I have noticed about British tabloids is the absolute delight they get out of tearing down their own celebrities after building their esteem up to dizzying heights. Joss Stone is the new media darling that the Brits can’t seem to get enough of tearing into lately, with popular Brit tab The Sun spearheading the campaign.
All this backlash is really starting to affect Joss’s UK appeal, as her new album, Introducing Joss Stone, is tanking here in the charts:
JOSS STONE has done a Fulham and plummeted down the pop league table.
She has dropped ten places to 78th in the Popscores list — an influential poll which measures Britain’s attitude to acts.
Joss is now sandwiched between BRYAN FERRY and ENYA, after her strange behaviour in recent months sent her into freefall.
From The Sun
The Sun has also run a few stories making fun of the way Stone speaks with an American accent now, and published incidents where she has put her foot in her mouth (a la James Haven Jolie) and come across as conceited.
The reason Joss is sounding so American-ized to the British now is because she has spent most of her musical career over there, and when she comes back speaking in an American twang, people think you are putting it on and showing off. I have the same problem when I go back to see my Puerto Rican family in Chicago–I have to make an extra concerted effort to revert back to my old accent after speaking in a “Poh-loh, don’t you know, darling?” accent all the time here. It has nothing to do with putting on airs–sometimes you are so used to hearing the accent for so long you become adapted to speaking that way (“when in Rome” and all that).
As to her coming across as dishevelled in British interviews: I heard the interview she gave to BBC’s Radio One, and saw the live rambling speech she gave at the Brits, where she sounded so hippy out of it I wondered if she had dropped some acid before she went out on stage. I tried in vain to look up the Brits footage so you guys would know what I am talking about, but for some reason it’s been pulled. I have read some stuff where she has said that most R&B singers nowadays are no different than strippers, but considering she keeps stepping out to ceremonies in psychedelic dresses that are supposed to be worn as shirts and the “f***ing for tracks” scandal, I think someone should tell her that those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Joss’s album is doing very well in the USA, however, so maybe sitting next to Enya on the bottom half of a UK music league table isn’t an exact determiner of how bad your career is doing.
But…but I like her music!
I like her a lot, but I’m afraid she may pull a britney. I honestly hope not. She’s so young.
I think Joss has real talent but a total lack of guidance, I see her ending up like Whitney Houston, Britney has no talent so they were never the same in the first place.
Celebitchy, what you say about the Brits is true, they raise someone so that they can pull them down, I think that is the reason Posh said she is leaving. I lived there for two years but man I have never seen a more bitter, jaded, malicious and jealous press.
Dont think they do it only for Showbiz stars, even for their politicians, one time they are hailing someone as the future, the next they are digging into his crack past. It is the way their minds work. They like people who are seemingly stupid like Jade Goody, Whinehouse, lily Allen and Kate Moss so that it makes them feel better about themselves since they feel they are better than a star or the future prime minister.
In the US, this is only in LA but even here, there is less malice than in the U.K, it is more for gossip and a hearty laugh.
My advice to Joss is,leave the UK, stop sleeping around, stop doing drugs,get some guidance and you will have a long rewarding career.
It has nothing to do with putting on airssometimes you are so used to hearing the accent for so long you become adapted to speaking that way
Me three. I’m American but also lived in the UK for six years, and I’ve been in Turkey for three, so my accent is *all* fucked up. At least once a week someone asks me to settle a bet about whether I’m from New Zealand or South Africa, neither of which I’ve ever even visited. My friends back home think it’s an affectation, but most of them have never left the state and don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. So I’m glad to hear you say this.
I like her music and I think she’s kinda hot.
joss stone fired her mother who was her original manager…im not sure if they are even on speaking terms at this point.
i thought that joss was cute, and does have a gorgeous voice…
what im tired of in general is the use of the voice doing this weird combination of a way too long falsetto as if it were sung by a gospel singer…
like the way christina aguilera does it…i cant stand that..its annoying.
there is a lady on SNL who does these brilliantly funny sketches with her singing like they do now….its funny.
It’s totally understandable when people pick up a twang to add to their natural accent when living abroad. And especially as some people pick up languages and intonations quicker and more easily than others. Personally, I’ve lived abroad for nearly 10 years and still have a strong English accent but my sister is like a parrot. Normally her accent is the same as mine but whenever she has a few drinks in a foregn country or somewhere with strong accents (Liverpool for instance) she picks up the lingo. And she doesnt just talk with a twang, she talks in complete accents, like she was born there. It’s bizarre but really funny and she literally cannot help it, its completely sub-conscious. But, in her defence, she only does it when she’s been drinking. And I reckon that’s what happened to Joss Stone. Joss didnt come across with just a little bit of Americanism, she sounded like a proper Yank who’d lived there all her life. It was totally surreal seeing that she grew up in Devon!
I bet she was as nervous as a rabbit before going on stage, drank far too much champagne, got all star-struck by the legendary faces in front of her and consequently forgot who she was. She’s only 19 after all.
It’s horribly embarrassing that she did it on live tv in front of all those rock stars & legends but also quite amusing. I can just imagine the shame she felt the next morning when all the rags started ripping into her and people started discussing her actions on tv as a bit ‘mental’. Poor girl. I wouldnt want to get out of bed if that was me. Fame certainly comes with a very high price but Bridget Jones eat your heart out!
alice, that’s not what falsetto is – falsetto is when you go so far into upper register that it is more of a “whisper”, not full voice belting.
I am from Texas and I’ve lived in England for just over 5 years. My accent is so bizarre – it’s still Texan, but with British slang thrown in.
I started consciously using British terminology for things at work just because otherwise it would lead to a lot blank faces and a lot of discussion of ‘Where are you from?’ It’s hard to get work done when people are telling you they once went to Disney World and like John Wayne and the TV show ‘Dallas’!
You really can’t altogether help taking on an accent in a new place. It just helps you get on with life!
I am British, well English. I personally don’t think the reason the British public hate Joss Stone has anything to do with her new accent. I think its all quite simple really and thats because she is obviously a complete twat. She was a twat at the Brits and in every single interview i have seen her in since. One of which the presenter went on to say she turned up 2 hours late just because she was getting her hair done, or something like that (was a while ago now)
Hi Ditz–I did say she was acting a bit like a cow in one of the final paragraphs of my blog. I was just making the point that the whole accent thing might be caused accidentally by getting accustomed to staying in a country with an accent different to than what you grew up to.