Have accents changed over the last few decades?

[boujeewooje]

I saw an old clip from the 1970s, a group of young people at Glastonbury festival being interviewed. They were all quite softly spoken and had very RP sounding accents. I’ve noticed this with lots of old clips showing teens and young adults from 1960s/1970s. It made me realise I never hear young people speak this way anymore, despite it only being a few decades on.

Yes, accents always change and evolve. The Cockney accent has changed a lot, RP sounds very different now to how it used to sound, and new accents emerge such as urban Asian (Mobeen-like accent) and Estuary English (although that has been around a while).

Definitely - listen to the queen speaking over the decades, it's interesting.

There are still lots of young people who speak with RP. Think private school types in particular.
I thought your post would be about accents becoming blurred generally. I read something the other day about how UK accents are becoming less distinct, partly due to the Increasingly mobile population.
(Also, I wonder if 70s interviewers focused on Interviewees who spoke BBC English. They might not have been representative of the population.)

Yes, accents have changed. Language evolves and develops according to the people who use it. However, what’s also changed is the people who are considered “acceptable” enough for us to see on TV and for programmers to interview and promote. Decades ago, the BBC wouldn’t have generally interviewed quite so a broad a range of society, hence why you’ll get a skewed perspective of how people in the U.K. spoke.