# Singing without an accent **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881 "2011-11-04T18:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Curious3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Curious3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curious3d)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/1 "2011-11-04T18:48:40Z")
Apologies if this has been covered. I searched but didn’t find anything. My search fu is not that great, however. Why do people from the British Isles sing without the accent I hear when they speak? Is this true for Australians too? I hear varied American accents in singing voices - country especially (when I hear it by accident or because a social situation forces me to listen). And I have a Canadian friend who sounds Canadian when she sings. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/2 "2011-11-04T19:26:06Z")
It’s not that they’re singing “without” an accent; they’re singing with a \*\*\*different \*\*\*accent, presumably one that’s appropriate for the genre of the music. Think back to the “British invasion” of the '60s . . . or even specifically the Beatles. You’ll hear all different kinds of dialects being used, British and American. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/3 "2011-11-04T19:31:42Z")
> [@Curious3d](#): > > Apologies if this has been covered. I searched but didn’t find anything. My search fu is not that great, however. > > Why do people from the British Isles sing without the accent I hear when they speak? Is this true for Australians too? > > I hear varied American accents in singing voices - country especially (when I hear it by accident or because a social situation forces me to listen). And I have a Canadian friend who sounds Canadian when she sings. First thing I was taught in voice class was how to shape my vowels to create a pleasing tone depending on the pitch. It’s called migrating vowels. Some consonants also are commonly changed by training – r’s anywhere, ending consonants in particular. Singers who are either untrained or are trying for a ‘country’ sound usually don’t do this, or not to the degree a classically trained singer would. I bet you’ve heard British singers who sing in dialect, it’s sort of equivalent. I don’t hear accents in classically-trained singers from any English speaking country. It’s possible some British accents normally have vowels more congruent with trained singing vowels, and that’s what you aren’t hearing, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/4 "2011-11-04T20:23:11Z")
One thread you might have turned up when you searched was the long and controversial [My argument for why Standard American English really is “no accent” -](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=619668)in which the OP took a large amount of flak for suggesting that > [@My argument for why Standard American English really is "no accent" -](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-argument-for-why-standard-american-english-really-is-no-accent/592101/1): > > no matter how thick a person’s accent might be, or where it’s from in the whole wide world… when they SING their accent disappears. (With some rare exceptions). > … > Therefore, since the majority of English-speaking singer’s accents disappear when they sing and they sound like someone who speaks Standard American English,I contend that Standard American English is as close as it gets to representing a genuinely neutral pronounciation of English. ---
**Author:** ![Curious3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Curious3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curious3d)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/5 "2011-11-04T21:39:46Z")
Thanks all - 🙂 I did some reading that clarified all your points - so it’s a learned thing. I was reading the thread about what American English sounds like to people who speak other languages, and this question popped into my head. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/6 "2011-11-04T22:21:28Z")
Singing with an overt British accent is now in vogue amongst British bands. For example, [Glasvegas](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGOCEOsBE3w). ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/7 "2011-11-04T22:26:49Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > One thread you might have turned up when you searched was the long and controversial [My argument for why Standard American English really is “no accent” -](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=619668)in which the OP took a large amount of flak for suggesting that I’m from California so I natively speak in “accentless” American English. I had to change quite a bit in order to sing. The dipthong we call 'long A" is separated out into “ahh . . ee” for example. “Your” would be pronounced roughly “yoah”. R’s are either rolled or absent. “Dog” would be “Daahg”. It’s much more technical than I am competent to describe, but essentially there are proven ways to create a floating yet round sound that doesn’t easily go flat. It is physiological (the voice is created by muscles and so forth). If you sing in a trained manner, it doesn’t sound like you have an accent, but you do. It’s a musical accent that our ears hear as accentless. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/8 "2011-11-04T23:52:26Z")
Ach, a [**very oldie but goodie**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDJflQfNUE8) that . . . er . . . exposes . . . the accent thing in lyrics, starting at the 1:45 mark. (And it appears that the poster drops his aitches in speech.) ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/9 "2011-11-06T17:14:37Z")
I don’t understand this belief that people don’t display their accents when singing, and would switch to the presumably accent-neutral American accent. Have you ever heard anything by Oasis? Hell, their lyrics sometimes only rhyme if you pronounce words in their Mancunian way. ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singing-without-an-accent/601881/10 "2011-11-06T18:05:10Z")
They put on American accents because that’s what they predominantly hear used in music growing up. Anyone who thinks British singers don’t generally put on American accents is kidding themselves. There are certain words which are almost universally shifted to the US pronunciation when British people sing them - words like ‘fast’ for instance. Even the Beatles and Oasis do it to some extent, particularly Noel Gallagher. Some British bands and singers do use their real accents, and it’s incredibly distinctive when they do: Listen to [this singer’s cover](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqj-sZrh12I) of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car for instance. That’s his real accent. A lot of British singers share that same accent, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to their music.