Which rock/pop singers sing in their "dialect"?

Cafe Society
1

For an activity some time ago (demonstrating the different dialects of English) I had a devil of a time coming up with examples. It seems a lot of rock singers from England could just as easily be from Texas when the sing- even if their conversational speech is pure Brummie or Yorkshire. The main exceptions are London punk bands - which kids who grew up with Green Day recognize as a “punk accent” as opposed to any city or regions speech.

The other examples I ultimately did come up with were:

The Proclaimers (Scotland)
Midnight Oil (Australia)

Other than that, who makes it clear where they are from when they sing rock or pop? In country music the dialectial influences are often exaggerated - with some exceptions.

The are a lot of groups that do sound generally “British”, but how about Scouse, Geordie, or Brummie? Also, are there any grops that sound “Canadian” due to their dialect (as opposed to geographical or cultural references).

2

The Beatles make it clear in their version of the traditional “Maggie Mae” (not the same song as Rod Stewart’s hit of the same name).

3

An Australian punk group called Frenzal Rhomb sing with a very broad Australian accent. It also helps that they have songs like Let’s Drink A Beer and At Least We Know Russell Crowe’s Band’s A Fucking Pile of Shit. :smiley:

Belle and Sebastian sing with slight Scottish accents. And I’m guessing that Bjork sings with an Icelandic accent, although it could just be a Bjorkian accent.

4

Arab Strap “sing” with very broad Scottish accents.

Space sound unmistakeably Scouse in spots.

5

And Blur couldn’t be from anywhere but SE England.

6

The lead singer of the Cranberries has some Irish inflections but it varies from song to song.

7

Billy Bragg, anyone?

8

The Super Furry Animals are extremely Welsh, as is Tom Jones. If you want Canadian Regional Dialects, then try Great Big Sea

9

Sean Paul sings in his Jamaican dialect/patois.

10

Does Enya count?

11

Thom Yorke of Radiohead sounds obviously British.
Daniel Johns (Silverchair) is obviously Australian.
Shonen Knife are very, very Japanese.

12

B&S sing in the accents they have. There’s nothing ‘slight’ about it.

Well, no, they could be from anywhere as their whole Mockney accent is a put-on. Damon Alburn is a polite middle class boy from Colchester, yet somehow manages to sound like London barrow boy.

13

I know exactly where he’s from and I was referring to his Essex accent which comes across on most of his vocals, rather than the Mockney accent he puts on from time to time.

14

The Corrs - Irish
B*Witched - Irish
S Club 7 - British
Spice Girls - British
Sophie Ellis Baxter - British
Kylie Minogue - Australian
Killing Heidi - Australian
Bardot - Australian

15

The lead singer of Kemuri has a strong Japanese accent (though his English lyrics are quite well written).

Do the legions of manufactured Jpop, C-pop, and Other-Letters-Designating-An-Asian-Country-Pop singers who add random Engrish phrases into their songs count? :wink:

16

A couple of english singers…

Roy Harper sings in a very english southern-ish accent…can’t place it entirely.
He also writes songs about cricket :wink:

Robert Wyatt, another singer who sings in his own accent.

17

The charlatans sound extremely Brummie to me.

“One to anoootha
A sister and her broootha”

J.

18

Oim Ennery the Oitth, Oy yam.
Ennery the Oitth, Oy yam, Oy yam. . .

19

Country singers that are actually from the South (US) sing in their accent. However, there are lots of top country stars from the midwest and (gasp) Canada who sing in the same accent.

There are some California punk bands that sing in California surfer-type accents like say Blink-182.

20

Donovan’s Scottish accent is evident in a lot of his songs.