# Why is it more difficult to detect accents in singing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497 "2011-08-21T02:31:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![automagic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@automagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/automagic)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/1 "2011-08-21T02:31:22Z")
There are a lot of artist and bands that after hearing a lot of their songs and then listening to them speak normally I am surprised that they have a southern, UK or Australian accent. What is it about singing that masks ones accent? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/2 "2011-08-21T02:41:30Z")
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know (and probably more) about the answer to your question can be found here. > **[My argument for why Standard American English really is "no accent" -](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=619668)** > > And I’ve gotten at least one Brit to agree: Because no matter how thick a person’s accent might be, or where it’s from in the whole wide world… when they SING their accent disappears. (With some rare exceptions). They pronounce the words in singing... ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/3 "2011-08-21T02:46:37Z")
In choral singing, the director will specify how certain words/vowels/consonants are to be shaped and produced. In order to achieve the sound and style he or she wants, it is important that everyone create the same shape and color of sound, which oftentimes bears little relation to how you would pronounce something in normal speech. Our director will also sometimes ask us to “Sound more Upper-class British” or “Altos, we need a lustier sound there…not so thin”. So (and this happened at a high school choral workshop in the 70’s) you can get a room full of 500 teenagers jamming on the Doobie Brothers “Black Water” and letting their inner southern accent fly one minute, and then sounding like a bunch of British boychoir singers performing “Dona Nobis Pacem” the next. It truly can be startling to hear those pure, clear choral voices coming from someone who minutes before sounded like they lived in the hollers of West Virginia when they were discussing lunch. It’s the Jim Nabors/Gomer Pyle thing. Which is a long way to explain that a singing voice can and usually does have a range of accents that are appropriate for different types of singing and different styles of music. And a more neutral (yeah, I know I’ll catch hell for this) accent is a lot easier for a wider range of audiences to hear, so it is utilized a lot when one isn’t aiming for a folk/regional/country sound. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/4 "2011-08-21T17:47:11Z")
Singers tend to imitate their influences, which is why Mick Jagger has an American accent when he’s singing, and Kieth Urban sounds like every other country singer, but speaks with his Australian accent. Also, bluegrass vocals tend to sound like they’re straight out of the hills, even if the band is from New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/5 "2011-08-21T18:55:55Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Everything you’ve ever wanted to know (and probably more) about the answer to your question can be found here. > [My argument for why Standard American English really is "no accent" - - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=619668) Good hell, there should be some kind of warning when linking a Stoid thread. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/6 "2011-08-21T19:29:53Z")
Being around musicians a lot, this gets brought up quite often. I’m always a bit bemused really. Guess I just take it for granted that American accents are popular for singing, and that it’s generally taken as ‘no accent’ (when it really isn’t). I suppose that’s because I listen to a lot of music where the singers don’t sing like that, and generally stay quite close to their speaking accent. (Idlewild, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, The Wombats, British Sea Power etc) ---
**Author:** ![gatorslap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/7 "2011-08-22T05:39:55Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Singers tend to imitate their influences, which is why Mick Jagger has an American accent when he’s singing “If you start me up I’ll nevah staht” Sounds kind of like a Boston accent to me. 😛 I have always wondered why more singers don’t retain their accents to a large degree. Lily Allen sounds very English in her singing voice; why don’t more English singers sound like that? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/8 "2011-08-22T05:53:34Z")
I remember being _amazed_ as a little kid when my dad told me that Paul McCartney was British. I think it came up when we were listening to the Abbey Road medley and I was saying how I liked the sound of his voice. Then even after he told me that, I assumed the _rest_ of the Beatles were American! I would have been around 5 years old at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/9 "2011-08-24T00:26:12Z")
> [@gatorslap](#): > > “If you start me up I’ll nevah staht” > > Sounds kind of like a Boston accent to me. 😛 Isn’t it “nevah stop”? That sounds Southern. In fact, almost all rock music was sung with a fake Southern accent. Always amuses me when you hear a Brit drop the g on the word “anything”. They don’t say “anythin’” in the South, they say “anythang”. ---
**Author:** ![gatorslap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/10 "2011-08-24T01:02:52Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Isn’t it “nevah stop”? That sounds Southern. Yeah, I messed up and didn’t realize until it was too late to edit. It’s: If you staht me up, I’ll nevah stahp. I don’t see that as Southern at all. It reminds me of New England. “Hahvahd yahd” and all that. YMMV. > [@](#): > > In fact, almost all rock music was sung with a fake Southern accent. Always amuses me when you hear a Brit drop the g on the word “anything”. They don’t say “anythin’” in the South, they say “anythang”. They say “anythin’” in other places, though. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-more-difficult-to-detect-accents-in-singing/593497/11 "2011-08-24T05:50:41Z")
So where the heck–and _what_ the heck–is Bob Dylan’s accent from?