Why do singers with thick accents sing and it doesn’t usually show up in their songs (except for country singers)? There are quite a few singers like this, for instance I think Tom Jones is Welsh, and I can never tell by listening to his songs. And Sting’s songs never sound British, yet when he talks he has a definite accent. How is this?
Well, I think they’re just conforming to a generic showbiz rock and roll accent - partly because it’s what sells and partly because they’l;l have grown up imitating the big names of rock and roll, who were quite often American.
There are bands and artists who depart from this norm and sing in their native accents; The Proclaimers(Scottish), Catatonia(Welsh) and Blur (Cockney/Mockney) - this often turns out to have limited appeal though.
There are also American singers in whose songs regional accents are discernible; for example Cyndi Lauper has a perceptible NY twang
Try a little Madness…
Liam Gallagher sings with a Manc accent.
Kate Bush and Al Stewart have noticible accents when singing.
I think singing just alters your pronunciation. Some sounds are probably easier to sing nicely. It’s not that British singers always sound American - I’m sure some of them try to - it’s that both American and British singers sing in a way that is different from how they normally speak, and it comes out closer to American-sounding English.
There are plenty of British singers who have a noticeable accent in their singing. The first examples that come to my mind are the vocalists for Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and the Cure. And Sting’s singing has a definite English accent to my ears.
I’d have to disagree regarding the Beatles. They all had definite Scouse accents, one or two of them so thick you could cut it with a knife, but when they sang you hardly knew they were English. Many Americans, on first hearing them, actually did wonder why they had no accents when singing. And the same was true of the singer on their early Hamburg recordings; he too has a definite accent which is indiscernable on the records.
As to why this happens I think it may be that the intonations and rhythms of the song tend to override the natural speaking intonation of the singer.
It seems to be a matter of choice. I saw an interview with Adam Ant once, and he was asked a question regarding this. His reply was, “Well, ‘Goody two, goody two, goody goody two shoes’ sounds a lot better than, ‘Gawdy two, gawdy two, gawdy gawdy two shaes.’”
I read an interview with John Lennon on the subject. He said he was immitating American artists.
I’ve noticed some American punk bands sound British as they immitate their favorite punk artists. Kurt Cobain commented on his fake British accent in his early days of singing.
Billie Joe from Green Day sounds… well, I’m not sure anybody knows. Pseudo-British punk?
Terry Hall has a definite British accent (I’m horrible with accents, I’m guessing his is from… the Midlands?) when he sings, but his songs are slightly tuneless. I think singing melodies changes the way one pronounces sounds and how long they are held for, two things which define an accent.
You can hear a little bit of their native accent in Penny Lane but not through the whole song.
I’d like to see someone with some expertise on opera singing comment on this, but I’ll take a crack at it based on my understanding.
Singing loudly enough to be heard without amplification in a large space opens up the vocal tract. This makes the vowel sounds less distinct. Also, in singing we vowels get more weight relative to consonants than they do in speech. And as previously mentioned, the timing of the music takes regularizes the timing variability that comes from accents.
The imitation shows itself with Australian artists too e.g last very often sounds like gassed instead parsed.
The Americanisation of Australian English continues apace. When Hurricane Andrew hit, Australian newsreaders pronounced it as HURRi-c’n, but a decade later with Katrina, it’s the American hurri-CANE.
I remember reading a letter in the Canberra Times, someone was complaing about that - in that case referring to these Hurricanes
(Step aside please, I’m a linguist…)
Singing certainly feels a lot like speaking, but the two activities use different parts of the brain. A number of well-known singers, for instance, have had pronounced stutters or other speech impediments that did not carry over to their singing. And, most importantly for this thread, most people find it much easier to change their accents when singing than when speaking. Did you learn “Frere Jacques” as a kid, even though you didn’t speak a word of French? You did it by imitating someone else’s singing. Popular music singers get started imitating recordings of other singers they like to listen to, and pick up the accent from that.
John Lennon was once asked why he spoke with a Scouse accent but sang with an American one. “Because we make more money that way,” he replied. And he was right - popular music is often written in English by people whose native language is not English, and sung with American accents by people whose speaking accent is not American, because it sells better. (And American singers often adapt a sort of Standard Musical American accent even if, when you talk to them, you can hear a mile away they’re from Brooklyn.) When so many singers use the same accent, the next generation of singers grow up hearing that and singing like that, and the cycle continues.
Singers also work on their pronunciations. I help a Japanese jazz singer with her songs. Since singing is memorized, it’ much easier for her to remember it in the context of the song. She speaks English with a strong Japanese accent, but now sings like she’s a native, well, a native of Utah 