Apparently we sound like Americans when we sing. The English accent disappears. Why is that?
To prove it (sort of) I naturally assumed the band ‘Sugababes’ were American. They looked and sounded completely American, until one day I had a shock when I heard them talking in an interview with completely English accents.
“Clucking Bell! They’re as English as me!”
(paraphrased for decency in GQ)
At the very least, that’s far from true for every British band that makes it over the pond. Of course, maybe that’s part of their success - They sound more exotic or some such nonsense.
Generally speaking, I agree with you, Lobsang. I think a lot of bands sing in an American accent because they think it sounds “cool”, and it may help appeal to an American audience. I don’t really understand the reasoning behind it, personally.
There are, of course, many bands that don’t do this, as Slugworth pointed out. A few exceptions I can think of (there are many): Blur, Catatonia, Oasis, Paul Weller, Travis, Coldplay…
This is true for other bands/singers. Celene Dion is French Canadian with a heavy, heavy accent. She didn’t even sing in English until well into her career. But when I heard her talk, I was shocked to hear her accent. Her singing sounds very “American” as you put it.
Because it’s Ride Sally ride not Roide Sally roide. 
You’ve obviously never heard Anthony Newley sing.
I don’t mean Englishmen trying to sound American. I mean the fact that if any english person sings at all, it comes out in an American accent. or at least in a way that you can’t tell the singer i English. - with the less pronounced consonants (sometimes completely un-pronounced) and other distinctly American accent elements.
Perhaps a better question would have been - “Why do Britons and Americans sound the same when they sing?”
I’m not sure this is relevant or even current, but years ago my Dutch cousins told me that to sing rock and roll in the Dutch language would just sound wrong even silly. At that time circa 1975 Dutch R&R bands were singing in English.
I suspect to the rest of the world that R&R just will not come out right unless sung in English with the standard American network broadcast English accent which oddly enough sounds Canadian to me.
There is a fundamental difference between singing and speaking – generally, regional accents don’t come into play. (Often, people who have a severe stuttering problem can sing with no difficulty… I seem to recall reading that this is because a different part of the brain is being used, although this is only a dim memory and should not be taken as gospel.)
I think that it’s unusual for an accent to be detectable in song, except in certain cartoonish circumstances like C&W recordings. (Or english music-hall routines.) I doubt that a quintessentially english band like The Who sounds “American” to english folks, any more than Britney Spears sounds “English” to Americans… Singing simply pushes regionalisms waaaay in the background.
I think it’s because when you sing you elongate the vowels (which carry the tune) and tend to de-emphasise the consonants because they don’t matter for the melody.
Britons and Americans sound similar when they sing because the prosody of singing masks features that distinguish the dialects from one another. Stress and intonation contribute to the character of dialects much more than people generally realize.
Of course there are different degrees of singing. Some vocalists basically talk over the music, others actually sing.
-fh
Paul McCartney is often quoted as recalling the words of his father before they got big: “You’ll get nowhere with them phony Yank accents lad”. He’s always admitted that the accents seemed to suit their American-influenced music best so it was deliberate in their case.
Nevertheless, The Beatles also complained about attempts to overdub their voices on their films to make them more intelligible to an American audience, so that backs up the theory that there is/was a deliberate and conscious attempt to vary the accent between singing and talking.
The same applies to the Stones. Try listening to Angie and find any trace of the English Home Counties there if you can (notwithstanding the fact that Jagger has an accent all his own anyway). Most British musicians since the '60s have been copying the sound of their predescesors. The only set of British bands I can think of that consciously avoided American vocalisms when singing were the Punk ones.
Perhaps the most peculiar accent change between singing and talking is Rod Stewart. Where does he think his singing accent is from?
I disagree. In “American” there is no such word as “lerv”.
Oh, I’ve just thought of another example to buck the trend - Sophie Ellis Bextor (although I don’t know how well-known she is across the pond). It’s always Murder on the Daahncefloor with her, not …Dãncefloor.
Sometimes accents even out, or are changed, and sometimes they don’t. For example, I had no idea the lead singer of Garbage had an non-American accent until I heard her speak in a recording of a performance, whereupon I exclaimed “Holy crap, she’s a Scot!” However, I never had any doubt that my parents’ Phantom of the Opera soundtrack was a British cast.
Céline Dion does have a bit of a French Canadian accent when she sings, but it’s still much lighter than when she speaks.
[n.b. I have a typically American tin ear when it comes to accents; actual accents may vary, void where prohibited, see dealer for details]
Funnily enough I thought the opposite was true. When I think of Beatles songs I’m sure they sing in a distinct Liverpool accent.
Can’t really think of any good examples, but I suppose the line “Desmond has a barrow at the market place” comes to mind. You’d have to know the song to get this. Sorry, not much of a cite, I know.
Funnily enough I thought the opposite was true. When I think of Beatles songs I’m sure they sing in a distinct Liverpool accent.
Can’t really think of any good examples, but I suppose the line “Desmond has a barrow at the market place” comes to mind. You’d have to know the song to get this. Sorry, not much of a cite, I know.
Princhester’s very much on the right track here. When I was taking singing lessons, here’s a small selection of substitutions I was explicitly taught to make with short vowels:
Short ‘e’ as in ‘men’, ‘i’ as in ‘this’ -> ‘air’ as in ‘stair’
Short ‘o’ as in ‘hot’, ‘u’ as in ‘but’ -> ‘ah’ as in ‘calm’
(due to vagaries of international pronunciation I have no idea if this will make ANY sense to US readers, but I’m pretty sure UK ones will get the drift…)
The short vowels simply can’t be sung on long notes, so some sort of substitution is essential. The particular ones which are made are a matter of taste though. I suspect the american-sounding-ness is a combination of the fact that the american accent (particularly in the south) naturally has longer vowels than most British accents (which forces some sort of substitution) and the fact that historically pop/rocknroll music grew up in America (which influences which substitution is made).
The Americanness doesn’t apply to all styles of music. In classical music, for instance, completely different substitutions are used which (to me anyway) makes it sound very Home Counties English.
No, that’s a pretty good example to support your case, and one I’d forgotten. Although their voices on that song are not broad Scouse, they’re not distinctly American either. Maybe Macca’s dad would disagree?
That was supposed to be a reply to samarm btw.