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It's true that Lucinda had once spent hours of her own time putting together a research memo on the Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies, specifically investigating whether then lead singer Steven Page was purposefully singing in a fake American accent for their 1998 hit single "One Week."
She'd notice that the song loudly announces itself with the lyric "IT'S BEEN," but the word "been" is pronounced *bin*, which is the American pronunciation, as opposed to the more Canadian way of saying it, *bean*. Even more notably, the oft-repeated lyric "sorry" is also pronounced the American way, *sawry*, instead of a round Canadian *soary*.
After scouring the internet for video and audio interviews with Steven Page, she discovered that he did in fact pronounce "been" the Canadian way in casual conversation, which meant he (intentionally or not) was putting on a fake America accent when he recorded the song.
Lucinda couldn't find any literature or analysis on this subject, so she was forced to conjure her own theories, which included:
a. Steven Page was actively suppressing his Canadian accent because someone told him his music would be more successful worldwide if he sounded more American,
b. he was subconsciously suppressing his accent because he'd already internalized this idea, or
c. the song itself is sung from the point of view of a character who lives in the United States and is in fact a subtle satire of American culture.
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