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Why did old american movies sound so different? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by jediToru@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Whenever I watch old movies the characters always have a different tone than they have now. It seems to have changed somewhere from the 2000s. Is it just me or did something change?

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[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not OP but I notice it too. It's really obvious in the way people talk, not the quality of the audio but the style of speech. Really obvious if you go watch some black and white Holywood movie ( some Humphrey Bogart movie for example). It's less and less obvious the closer in time it gets, for me it disappears around the 80s.

I never know if people really talked like that or if it is stylised acting. It's not just the choice of words which obviously changes with the times, but also the tone and accent. Very hard to explain, I'm not good at this.

[–] Followupquestion@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There used to be a stylized “Mid Atlantic” accent that many actors developed and the news at the time would use the same accent. With more modern movies, there was a move to actors with regional accents of their own, as well as a change in the way acting stopped emphasizing “projecting” their voices so the people in the back of the theater could hear them. Since movie audio is all recorded and mixed digitally, any lines that didn’t record well just get ADRed.

[–] Mereo@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, sort of a "Queen's English" or "BBC English" in the UK.

[–] Atarian@vlemmy.net 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's more correctly known as "received English", old chap.

[–] Mereo@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Ever so sorry young lad.

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

In America we use BBQ English.