That’s the whole point. This is in itself a contradiction.
British bands tend to sing in an American accent, I’m sure you’ve noticed. When they don’t, like the Arctic Monkeys, it’s a bit of an affectation. It sounds funny because we’re accustomed to the American accent in rock and pop music.
I anticipated these three erroneous statements in my first reply. In particular, the second is rather condescending, or is Alex Turner’s similar speaking accent an affectation, too?
I don’t have experience with a lot of accents, but where I grew up there were a lot of folks with roots in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and that area. I noticed that when being dramatic, like in storytelling, many (most, actually) would exaggerate their own accents.
Also, I saw a program on PBS about poetry in Scotland. It took place in a pub, and the people there seemed to do the same. When rhyming, or talking about rhyming, they would sound, well, Scotisher.
They really like ol’ Robert Burns over there, don’t they? 
With good reason, imo.
Can you give us an example of a show where you’ve heard this?
I saw West Side Story on stage in London and it was hilarious. They were struggling with American much less New York.
I have a southern accent, Tennessee specifically although I’m not sure if there is a difference in the bible belt. Whenever I try to do most accents I end up just sounding more southern. Or sometimes people think I’m pretending the accent to be ironic and will start talking like Steel Magnolias. That happens alot actually because I’m always just like “what are you doing whats happening to your voice?” Most people go into Steel Magnolia mode when immitating southern accents.
I also hang out with a Russian girl a lot and so everytime I try to do most accents now I just go into Oksana voice because I have the most sound memories to go on. I try to imitate my boyfriend’s parents (Finnish) all the time and it just comes out like Oksana which is a combination of russian, misery, and cigarettes.
Heh. I’ve never considered this before, but I totally know what you mean.
“I am the very model of a modern Wu-Tang killer bee on the swarm”
Hang on, so you don’t think it is the norm for British bands to adopt an (approximate) American accent when they sing?
“Affectation”… well, all I mean is that it’s a thing they do that stands out about them and some other acts. Lily Allen’s another one. It’s obviously fashionable at the moment to sound more British. But even then, Lily Allen for example sings “smi-i-ile” with the standard pop pronunciation, so that it almost rhymes with British “shall”. That is, rather like the American pronunciation.
I’m not sure how you missed this…
Oh I see, I thought you meant your first reply to me. Needless to say, I disagree. For one thing, it’s not just vowel sounds - listen to non-rhotic John Lennon hitting those R’s in Beatles songs, for example. He is trying to sound like an American rock ‘n’ roll singer.
OK, with the Beatles, I will concede that there was a clear effort to make them suitable to the American market. But that was part of the early days of global music promotion, which has now become the very force causing the homogenisation of vocal sounds.
Please try not to fall into the “I have no accent, and everyone else has more accent” trap. Unless you mean that it “flattens out” the perception, not the accent.
Sort of, but there are features of British and Irish usage that differentiate it from Australian, Kiwi, Canadian, American, etc. usage. (I’m talking about dialects more than accents here, but there are still broad differences that apply pretty widely.)
I actually meant that people tend to view their country’s standard dialect as neutral, which I could’ve worded a lot better. For example, you would probably say of the average person from (say) Nebraska or Ohio that they had “no accent”, but you would really mean that they spoke something pretty close to Standard American English, as opposed to some Canadian, British, Jamaican, etc. dialect.
That’s pretty much what I mean, yes.
Didn’t The Telephone Company years ago come up with a neutral american accent in the midwest somewhere, and center their telephone customer services (inormation it was called back then) in that area?
Maybe it wasn’t the phone company. I do remember reading about research to find such a population. Probably not okay now.
The “Midwestern” (meaning Lower Midwest) accent used to be considered as close to Standard American English* as one speech pattern could be, so newscasters, telephone operators, etc. were prized for either (a) having grown up there or (b) being able to fake it well. The current equivalent, which some people (myself included) call CNN English, has been slowly picking up California speech features over the last few decades, just like almost every other American dialect. Don’t quote me on any of this, it’s just gleaned from stuff I’ve picked up in my short time as a linguistics student. Do You Speak American? by Robert MacNeil and William Cran is an excellent source for these kinds of questions.
- By “Standard”, I mean the dialect that’s perceived as “neutral”, or most appropriate for the most situations. For example, someone who speaks AAVE or a Southern dialect at a family reunion may try to eliminate the features that make their accent stand out; at that point, they’re speaking Standard American English, or at least trying to. Just in case that wasn’t clear.
There was? By whom? Their managers? Are you implying they altered their singing style for American audiences?
The Beatles readily admitted their musical heroes were Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other American blues and R&B performers. It’s logical that they would imitate those accents when singing, whether consciously or not.
You were quite clear.
I watched that show on PBS, and it was indeed excallent. I’m going to look for it to come around again. There is another, older, series titled, I think, The History of English which was also very interesting.
Both series have companion books out, too. I haven’t seen either but I’ve read the book for Do You Speak American?. I highly recommend it.
I was thinking about buying it. They are both available on DVD and VHS, but very expensive. It’s nice, though, to hear the language spoken by natives.
Heh heh, I can’t win here, can I? 
Yes, I do feel that they tailored their early sound to suit. But note my past history here of slagging them off while under attack…
In any case, Lennon is only one single example, and a very old one at that. Usram, got any others?
I meant that it flattened out the perception. Look, when I listen to “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” by U2 I can understand it. When I listen to Bono in an interview, I need Closed Captioning turned on.
Listen to “Yesterday” by the Beatles. It’s sort of half-sung, half-spoken. McCartney’s accent comes sailing through quite clearly. Listen to “She Loves You”. Not nearly as much accent to my ear. ( Not sure which one of the boys sang that tune, but both Lennon and McCartney had/have strong accents )