ONE MORE… I am sorry about this: Myni=Munci
The Libertines sing with a cockney accent.
Most artists that perform in english are doing so so that they can sell more albums in the big markets of USA, the UK and mainland Europe, obviously. If you are going to make a name for yourself singing in english it makes sense to sound english, no?
This has always been the case here with the exception of Björk, but then again she’s just wierd. Sigur Rós releases all their songs in Icelandic except the newest CD wich is tacfully sung in gibberish, but when they released Ágætis Byrjun they had actually performed a few songs live in english, including at least one of the songs used in Vanilla Sky - devout sigur rós fans can PM me if they want to hear them. It does seem that recently more bands have started to perform in their native language or with thick accents so that people can hear where they’re from, though.
I rather disagree with the reaction (in general I actually like the odd bits of English in J-Pop (I haven’t heard a whole lot of Korean music) - finding it either cute or amusing (occasionally both in the same song).), but, you’re right that the accent’s usually pretty thick.
It’s not only when they’re singing in Japanese - Puffy AmiYumi and Shonen Knife, two Japanese bands with North American carreers (and thus a good body of songs done in English for an English speaking audience) have really thick accents when they’re singing in English. (SK has a song called Devil House - pronouncing it ‘Debiru Haussu’, and if you’ve ever seen the Teen Titans cartoon, you’ve heard Puffy - they do the opening theme.)
There is a scene in the movie “The Commitments” that addresses this. An Irish band is practicing to play American soul classics, and the backup singers are singing in their Irish accents. Someone yells at them “Don’t use your own accents! It’s ‘Ride, Sally, Ride’ not ‘Roide, Sally, Roide’!”
Guy Sebastian, the singer from Australia, doesn’t have a heavy Australian accent, IMHO, even when he’s talking. But then, anecdotally, I find many South Australians generally don’t.
The singer who Sebastian beat in the Australian Idol series final, however, sang with a very heavy rural (and if the truth be told slightly nasal) Australian accent.
UselessGit, I see your weird Björk accent and raise my weirder Morten Abel accent. It’s not American, it’s not British, it’s not Norwegian, what is it?
As for Sigur Rós, they have admitted their lack of proficiency in English – their interviews in English are pretty painful to listen to – and as a result prefers to stick with what they know, ie. Icelandic and gibberish.
Emiliana Torrini, the Icelandic-Italian singer – best known for her performance of Gollum’s Song at the end credits of The Two Towers, and for her voice work on Thievery Corporation’s The Richest Man in Babylon – also sings with a distinctly Icelandic accent, and sounds eerily Björkish at times.
I remember that I could hear Klaus Meine’s German accent a bit in the Scorpions’ music. Same with Udo Dirkscheider of the group Accept. And don’t forget that current Techno guy who calls himself Kompressor.
I read an interview with Klaus Meine, several years ago, in which he explained why he sings in English and not German. He said something like, “If you try to combine a harsh language like German with harsh music like heavy metal it comes out sounding like ‘krrrunnnch’.”
Man does she kick ass or what ???!!!
Nightwish’s singer Tarja Turunen is Finnish and she’s a Classically trained opera singer.
In Spanish a similar effect happens.
In Spanish-language rock you can hardly tell the difference (unless they group’s Argentinian or Uruguayan and not always even then).
In more popular ( I mean country or area-specific) music such as Salsa, Tango, Huayno, Vallenato, Ranchera, etc., the opposite happens, you sometimes exagerate your accent to sound “right”, even if it is not you own.
In my own, humble, case, I’m a second-language speaker of English and I speak with a London accent, but in many cases if I sing in Karaoke, I sing it in the song’s accent, i.e. if a sing “New York New York” (badly) I’ll say “York” and not “Yohk” as I would when I speak.
it doesn’t matter if it’s english or some other language - the singer learns to correct it if it means more money for them, those that don’t other sounds good that way or is forgotten.
that would be either.
anyway, an example would be the exodus of hong kong singers after '97 to the mandarin markets. those that failed to correct their accents is forgotten, while some who does so correctly, retain their accents in speech while some do not.
Steve the Elf is right, classically trained singers (I kinda sorta am) are taught intonation for the language they are singing in, and that masks the accent.
Except…
I have a Bernstein conducted version of “West Side Story” on CD starring Jose Carreras and his accent is TERRIBLE. They had to get someone else to do the spoken parts for him. I saw a documentary of Bernstein making the recording, and he basically calls Carreras an idiot for not being better at the accent.
So, it doesn’t always work.
Now that is strange stuff. I heard a sample on the website and I think he was saying “you don’t have to be gay to…” something. Strange stuff.:dubious:
I suppose this isn’t really relevant, but I always thought the proclaimers were welsh.
I beg to differ. Costeños (People from the coast of Mexico and such) as well as the Carribbeans have very distinctive accents. (“No voy a trabajar” becomes “No vo’a tabaja” etc.) Spanish people also have their own lisping accent thing. Argentinians sing like the Italian/Spanish crossbreeds they are (although granted, it isn’t always noticeable). I’ll take your word on the Uruguayans. Generally, though, I can tell whether a singer is from Mexico (and specifically, which region of Mexico) or not much easier than where an English singing group is from.
True. Damn shame Celia Cruz is dead. RIP.
No, they’re from Leith (Edinburgh area), hence album title Sunshine on Leith. And hence really, really thick Scottish accents.