Ever since the Sixties, some of the biggest names in British music have been accused of faking their style to become stars in the US.
But a study has found that people lapse naturally into a stateside twang because it is actually easier to sing that way – and feels more natural.
That is why it is difficult to detect Robert Plant's West Bromwich roots in the hits of Led Zeppelin, or a London accent in the Rolling Stones or hear any trace of South Wales when husky-voiced Bonnie Tyler belts out a ballad.
According to researcher Andy Gibson, the American voice is easier to sing with and is so commonplace that it should be called the "pop music accent" instead.
Mr Gibson, of the Auckland University of Technology, made the claim after tests on New Zealand singers.
He found that despite speaking with distinct Kiwi accents, they would automatically sing the same words just like true Americans.
This is because singing in a local accent would sound funny and because American rounding off of words makes it easier to sing them.
Mr Gibson said, "There were huge differences between the sung and the spoken pronunciation of the same words.
"Consider the difference between 'I' (spoken) and 'ah' (sung), 'girl', pronounced without the 'r' in speech and with the 'r' in singing, and 'thought' with rounded lips in speech versus 'thart' with unrounded lips in singing.
"Studies in the past have suggested that non-American singers wilfully put on American accents but my research suggests the opposite – that an American-influenced accent is the default when singing pop."
Mr Gibson believed his findings also explain why so many of us end up sounding like cheesy rock stars when we sing our favourite songs in private.
"We do it automatically; it doesn't require any effort to sing with an American-influenced accent," he said.
"The American-influenced accent is automatic in the context of singing pop music, and it is used by people from all around the world.
Which was particular to rock music, which I would agree, I can still find those who sing different tempo and style of music in an accent but rarely do I notice a band doing rock themed music without something resembling mostly an American accent.
Anyways I thought it was interesting. Feel free to make me look like an ass and post music with clearly accents in them. Bonus if the whole song is in English, Rock and comes from a British band.
There's something funny about your name and this post.
Also, I don't listen to enough music, but something seems terribly wrong about all of this. I can't imagine british Brittons singing anything but English English.
The Kooks are one of the few bands that sound distinctly British when they sing. And they sound so good singing it too. I wouldn't mind more British in the songs I listen to.:
not rock at all, but for reference, the alias acoustic band has wards tah speak with ye
but I would imagine that a large part of it has to do with prosodic parsing of speech-- pitch movement, pausing, lengthening, rate of speech are normally cues we utilize in conversation for pragmatic purposes, and they all differ according to regional accent. In singing these are all determined by the dictates of the music itself more or less and so a significant proportion of our regional flavour to our speech gets normalized.
If you think about this style of music in the above vid, so much more of the musical flow is left to the singer than with other genres (including rock).
(at least it makes sense to me if I think of it this way)
I don't think of it as an "American" accent more of a "neutral" accent. Have you heard a New Zealander try to sing in their accent? Jesus Christ it's horrifying. Same with really any accent in English in my opinion.
Ok so I still don't get it, is the article saying that pop singers are being fake, or it is just natural to sing in and "American" accent? Or is it just because American pop is the most popular and most singers want to produce music that is the most popular?
On December 25 2011 13:27 Fruscainte wrote: I don't think of it as an "American" accent more of a "neutral" accent. Have you heard a New Zealander try to sing in their accent? Jesus Christ it's horrifying. Same with really any accent in English in my opinion.
You can't call an American accent a "neutral accent". I'm sure NZ'ers think their accent is normal.
On December 25 2011 13:27 Fruscainte wrote: I don't think of it as an "American" accent more of a "neutral" accent. Have you heard a New Zealander try to sing in their accent? Jesus Christ it's horrifying. Same with really any accent in English in my opinion.
You can't call an American accent a "neutral accent". I'm sure NZ'ers think their accent is normal.
Well American accents vary from region but in particular i was talking about a Hollywood accent with a tinge of southern drawl, ie the accent you get on tv's and movies which is mostly renationalized to west coast if you remove slang. Which is an odd thing to say as quite a bit of American tv shows can end up being produced in Canada by Canadians doing American accents :D, not the majority but more then you would think.
On December 25 2011 13:27 Fruscainte wrote: I don't think of it as an "American" accent more of a "neutral" accent. Have you heard a New Zealander try to sing in their accent? Jesus Christ it's horrifying. Same with really any accent in English in my opinion.
More or less. growing up with music from all over, the nationality of any western english singer was never apparent. Heard of the band Muse? I can barely discern their accent while they sing, its so faint that only a trained ear would recognize, somebody who's heard both american and british accents in tv and in music.
I doubt any musicians do this on purpose. Perhaps this means american accent is derived from a lot of singing? There's a lot of american historical precedent for this idea to have some validity, from the time of the mayflower and since.
Interesting, but saying "American accent" is a bit too broad. I think if you compare Cockney English with midwestern-American English, you can definitely hear that the midwestern accent is not as colorful or enunciated as British English. So when singing, it makes sense to me that a British accent might be harder to work. I"m probably biased because I'm from the US, but then again NY/NJ accent is a lot different from the rest of the country
That actually makes me wonder if many American musicians with thick southern or NY accents also switch to a "neutral" American accent while singing? By this articles logic, they should.
EDIT:
The more I think about this the more it seems like a "chicken or the egg" argument. Do singers with a British accent sing with an American accent because it's trendy, or because it's practical? We can find examples of both, but perhaps it's impossible to say how or why it started.
if you look at a lot of the English-speaking singers who do retain their original accent, it seems like it's an intentional stylistic buffer to their concept. Country singers, for instance, always keep the southern drawl and the lyrics/subject matter is also usually tied to this. Another example is British punk/alternative rock, stuff like the sex pistols, the clash, the smiths is supposed to be more down to earth, political/social commentary so adding in the British accent helps put the music in context.
These two groups were both from Manchester but the accents sound completely different while singing. And it doesn't seem like Morrissey's singing is awkward or physically harder.
Well if you look at where rock comes from, which is most rhythm/blues and country there were very much American styles of music at least in terms of popularity one would think rock would be first American. Although when rock became popular a wide mix of American and British bands were popular but at the same time before there was rock there was rock and roll, which was strictly American, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, The Clovers, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash at times et al.
Just another song where the accent is clearly audible. In generaly I agree that accents are much harder to hear in songs, but I think a lot of it comes from the difference in technique between singing and talking rather than an actual attempt at singing with an american accent.
I agree completely with you OP however (and somebody please post this song for me) I respectfully say
Fuck You.
By Lilly Allen.
I'm going to sleep and will edit this some time tomorrow with the video but yeah she clearly has an accent throughout the entire song. And I do so love the British accent <3
Research.... from AUT? rofl I'm not taking this seriously until a more reputable source concludes the same findings - AUT is a teaching university that is so insecure it has university twice in its official name (auckland university of technology university). So yeah...
I found that some words rhyme only when you sing it in the American accent, I am guessing that's probably why. In Australian, the country singers sing with an American accent too because it makes sounds right that way.
I gotta say, when the Japanese insert English phrases in their songs with the American accent, I really don't understand it.
On December 25 2011 15:22 Plexa wrote: Research.... from AUT? rofl I'm not taking this seriously until a more reputable source concludes the same findings - AUT is a teaching university that is so insecure it has university twice in its official name (auckland university of technology university). So yeah...
Ahah they must be a division of the department of redundancy department
Same thing happens with canadian singer who sing in french. For exemple, Celine Dion who has a heavy Quebec french accent when she speaks, sings in perfect "Parisian" french.
I just think that since music is supposed to be an international thing these days, a lot of people prefer to speak in a "lack of accent" to make it more universal, because if everyone sung in a British, Australian, Russian, or whatever accent it would really be localized to that region for the most part. I know there are exceptions and someone is going to be more than glad to show me, but that's just the way I look at it.
Pop musicians need the widest possible audience for their fashion business (with occasional dancing and singing to advertise).
The American accent is most understood because of the huge cultural invasion of the past 50 years. I think the first occurrences of this phenomenon were conscious decisions, and the rest is simply passed down through musical generations.
the examples given aren't really concrete. Mick Jagger and robert plant claim to have had american influences with their work. so it really comes down to a relative accent, more than a natural one.
I was thinking about this earlier today rofl, listening to the swedish band Dead by April, guys have pretty thick accents when speaking, but when singing they have that "American" accent.
On the other hand, you can hear the British accent in Robert Smith's (The Cure) voice in most songs.
But I do agree that most artists I've heard have the american accent.
EPT
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