The reason it doesn’t sound like her accent is because it’s not her. It’s a quote from The Cement Garden, spoken by Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Ke$ha. Ugh, what a skank. Everything about her makes me want to puke. Especially her grating voice. It’s not just the auto-tune, she’s affected some kind of brattish whine.
I was having a conversation on Saturday night with some friends about people who just irritate the hell out of you, and I said Ke$ha. My friend said Celine Dion, who also has some interesting pronunciations.
Rod Stewart singing “Don’ need no ticket, you jus’ git own bowed”
That Metallica dude going “Nevah seeeah, nevah beeeah”
Hers are a function of accent, though. Even after all these years in the English speaking world her accent is still really strong.
I do find it hilarious, though, that the woman who came to prominence by singing love songs consistently pronounces the word as “lerve.”
All the lyrics websites I’ve checked do seem to agree on “Dribble,” but I’m almost 100% certain that Jack wants Diane to “Jiggle off those Bobbie Brooks.” I’ll have to dig out my old vinyl copy of American Fool with the lyrics on the sleeve.
I used to always joke that Bob Seger must have had a cold when he recorded one song, because he sings “Tryin’ to live my life with ACHOO, babe…”
Is this more the (I think we had this thread?) “diva”-inspired what’s-the-name-of-that-vocalist-technique thing that’s been a plague on us ever since Whitney Houston?
No, I’m not talking about the melisma, her inability to commit to a note. I’m talking about her inability to commit to a vowel. It’s day. “dā.” She goes from a to e to i like a bowl of alphabet soup. If she were on Wheel of Fortune she’d be down $750.
I would pronounce “war” and “for” the same, but “secure” as si-KYUƏ.
By the way, for affectation in singing accent from the UK, try:
Ellie Goulding, who has a really good voice (her superfast non-autotuned glissandos are really arresting), but WTF is up with her accent? It’s glottal-stopped, part rhotic, part Estuary/London, part posh, and part mid-Atlantic meets Iceland. She also sings “horses” as “horssees”.
But even more annoying is Kate Nash, who puts on a sneering nasal London lass accent that makes me sympathetic to the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfoXz6VMX0]male protagonist in this song[/rul].
Oh my, I could go on for pages about this kind of thing. Some of my most hated have been mentioned already - Natalie Merchant?Gah. She’s always irritated me but I assumed English was her second language so I kind of dismissed it until I learned she’s from the east coast or whatever and now it pisses me off even more.
Someone mentioned Green Day trying to sound British and while it’s not the first time I’ve heard that criticism, I’ve always heard it as sort of SoCal surfer kind of affectation. Billy Joe isn’t nearly as irritating as the schmuck from “Blink 182” and his even schmuckier offshoot “Angels and Airwaves”. There’s so many examples I don’t know where to start.
All the Small Things “. . . she left me roses *boy *the stairs . . "
I Miss You” . . . don’t wast your toimon me your already a voice “insoid moy yead”.
I don’t know if the above translates what I’m trying to explain; just picture Spiccoli as the lead singer of a band.
Adam Lambert’s last hit “If I had You” or as he says it “If I had Jew” never fails to irk me, though it’s not a bad song in spite of his loathsome pronunciation.
The Neon Trees’ song “Animal” is played eleventy billion times on hit radio and really could be a fun song if the singer could get over his speech impediment
“Hiwegoagain. I kindawannabe maw than fwends.So take it easy on me I’m *afwaid yaw neveh *satisfied”
Somewhat surprised Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s name (“Murder on the Dance Floor”) hasn’t come up; I don’t think her accent is actually affected, but it’s just bizarre as hell to hear pop/dance tunes sung with that completely patrician accent.
Sophie also just sounds really bored a lot of the time, which I suppose is part of her schtick but I think some of her songs would have sounded better with a more passionate vocalist. She’s still fairly good all round, I have some of her albums.
I’m in Virginia and I hear “pank” for pink all the time.
It’s true; the way she sings it you can totally hear her going on…
“Going to burn this goddamn house right down … as soon as I finish getting my nails done.”
contra:
The same vowel shift (from “pink” to “pank”) can be heard on John Anderson’s Swingin’ (pronounced "swangin’) (at 0:47 for example).
I recall my eyes rolling a full 360 degrees the first time I heard Axl Rose sing “knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s dough-whoa.”
Not to mention anyone who has ever petitioned the listener to shake his or her groove thang.
You realize the “day” vowel is a diphthong, right?
It’s a feature of some southern and Black English vernacular accents.
I’ve heard it in rural Pennsylvania-Ohio-Indiana in accents that also make “milk” into “melk.”
I can’t believe I neglected to mention the one that I hate more than any I can think of in this or any other life time: Sugarland’s “Stuck Like Glue”. There are no words for the rage that comes over me when I hear this song. It actually has kind of a fun beat even though it’s very much country and all would be well if it wasn’t for the stupid, irritating “I just fell off a pumpkin truck on my way to the hoe down, hyuck hyck hyck” nasal , affected hickness of the singers voice. I’m no fan of nasal twang to start with and something about this chick just sets my teeth on edge. Funny enough, I saw her being interviewed and her speaking voice isn’t nearly as accented. Why in the hell somebody would go out of their way to sound like that is beyond me but it makes me homicidal. And god help me if I actually happen to catch sight of it when it comes on VH-1 and there she is with that asinine soccer mom hairdo. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Fuck. Yes. Can’t understand a word the guy is saying. Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” has a similar problem with mumbling, and I hate the singer’s lazy drawl sound.
I always assumed that Badaya was some sort of Mexican anti-diarrheah OTC medication.