The rise of social media platforms such as TikTok have made seemingly “unsexy” accents the hottest new trend.

The increased accessibility to regional accents has resulted in a “perception shift” in their favour, according to a linguistics expert.

Brit Award-winning musician Jorja Smith’s viral hit Crush left people worldwide celebrating the sound of the artist’s Black Country twang.

Dr Danielle Turton, senior lecturer in linguistics at Lancaster University, said: “What is different now is we’re seeing a more sustained presence across different areas of culture.

“Not just TV and music, but sport, social media, things like TikTok just makes it more accessible, and we’re just getting used to hearing a bit more diversity.”