Reading through, I see a lot of hatred towards the American accent. I wish some people could keep this about the actual subject of the article and not personal jabs at the country itself. Thanks for reading and have a swell day! They are singing like black Americans.. Rock and Roll is really a black American sourced music.
Again this theory is, if unconsciously, racist. Refusing to give credit to black Americans is wrong no matter dressed in academic BS. One can say that singers, like Adele, are exhibiting accent reduction because they are vocalizing English in a way that is different than how they would normally speak, but also in a way that is potentially more original to the language.
I think this is where a big debate comes in, the idea is that because language usage changes as well as the enunciation so we now have new accents. So when the author draws the conclusion that the American accent is neutral she obviously is then over generalizing.
It also might have been better if she used the term Standard American English, which is to mean all of North America, not simply the States. However this becomes another debate. Since one can argue that at a certain point new standards are established. So then an accent reduction would mean different things to different people. It is still a very interesting topic to see why specific genres end up singing with a particular accent.
I remember watching the US version of The Voice and the country singer coach was giving tips to the other country singers and one of the common bits of advice was that they had to be careful with their country accent because he stressed in country music the story is most important and sometimes the accent can make it difficult to hear what the singer is saying. In short he wanted them to try and dial back their accent, effectively making it more neutral. That is a textbook example of accent reduction.
A topic for another time about our unusual state nick name probably already been done. Funny you should mention Lily Allen. I was just listening to some of her songs 2 days ago. Realized she was singing with her accent! Of course accents are in the ear of the beholder. I was talking to a woman from Georgia several years ago and she said she had a sexy voice. I asked why she thought that and she said she was from Georgia! My mom was a mimic. If her and dad were around someone with an accent for the evening, by the end she would be talking with that accent.
I think I am that way also, but no one has ever mentioned it. Maybe I think with an accent!! I bet America has more accents than England does. It is just theirs is more prominent to us. Rod Stewart is one of the most evident cases.
When he sings it seems he comes from a remote land between Arizona and Nevada. I ask myself why? Our pure English accent is soooooo musical and sweet! Actually, there are also good examples. I mean Brit singers who have never forgotten the place they come or came from. The past David Bowie and Mick Jagger just to cite the most famous.
Currently young Jasmine Thompson that delights my ears with her very remarkable Londoner accent. I adore her! Thumbs up for singers who refuse to turn their accent from English into cacophonous American. The same holds true for spanish speaking singers…. A neutral accent is I believe like the one in central Mexico, but of course others will think I am biased since I live in Mexico.
I listen to old recordings of myself and I sound thoroughly American. From Bowie onwards, other accents crept into the rock idiom, but I still mainly hear bands, even young ones, using at least an edge of American twang. I studied philology and dialectology. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Amy asks: Why is it that when you hear a British musician sing, their accent disappears?
Enjoy this article? Answers Articles Misc. Daven Hiskey August 9, pm. Thomas October 24, am. Adam October 24, pm. Frank Car July 4, pm. Heilwig August 9, pm. Stig February 10, pm. TorontoAnom May 17, pm. Kabal July 30, am. Kevin August 9, pm. TChristy March 20, am. And you get your linguistics degree from ….. Dennis March 27, pm. Evelyn July 24, am. Thanks for making my day Dennis! Keln April 9, am. TChristy January 6, am. Thank you took the words right out of my mind lol.
Kaitain July 19, pm. They teach maths. Nathan February 19, pm. James August 6, am. Daven Hiskey August 6, am. Leonard July 9, am. Sparafucile January 24, am. Tatiyana September 8, pm.
Victoria April 20, am. Matt Fletcher November 7, am. Jean-F August 5, am. MarkS August 9, am. MarkS August 10, am. Daven Hiskey August 10, pm. Heilwig August 10, pm. TChristy March 21, am. American accent is neutral. Angie January 27, pm. I agree with you completely. Yacob May 11, pm. Just to add to that: Ever heard Gilbert and Sullivan operettas sung by British singers?
Opera in English sung by British singers? Scottish and Irish songs sung for the Scots and Irish themselves, not for Americans? Victorian songs, sung full-voice in cut-glass accents? How about a Scottish accent?
This is a good one! Im british. Go on Kate nash and arctic monkeys!!! Absolutely right. TJ August 9, pm. Warren August 11, pm. MarkS August 13, am. Warren August 13, pm. John August 13, pm. Daven Hiskey August 13, pm. Warren April 5, am. Chistopher August 6, am. Heath was actually Australian…RIP. Great actor. USA rules.
MarkyMark September 30, pm. Sahar October 10, am. Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins! Pierre January 31, pm. Some singers do sound british, like lily allen or kate nash.
Marie February 11, pm. Yacin February 20, am. Miguel March 9, am. Lewis March 18, am. ThisnThat March 18, pm. Evan March 18, pm. Devilwolf January 1, pm. Because it does.
Dogcat February 8, pm. Dogcat February 9, pm. Oh, and I hate to break it to you but Middle English was rhotic.
Eileen April 11, pm. Hayley May 11, pm. Ahms May 18, pm. Ed Sheeran sounds American?? What planet do you live on? I was with you until you said Lorde. Bob Leslie June 27, pm. NObody sings British. Ken May 25, am. How ethnocentric and chauvinist you are. Americans speak English with an American accent. What are you on about, Ken? You sound like you are a bitter and have some issue with Americans in general. Murray August 1, pm. Dot August 11, am. TD September 13, am.
WTF Why is everyone so bent out of shape about this? Good grief…. Lucy W. October 8, pm. Mary October 15, pm. Ani October 17, pm. Tallen November 11, pm. Theresa November 23, am. Shieri November 23, pm. Bernadette November 29, am. Otkon December 1, am. Oleg Aney December 26, am. Robert Alpy January 16, am. Bob January 22, pm. Saurav January 26, pm. Antonio February 3, pm. Antonio Mikhail Klimovskikh July 20, am.
Chris McElwee March 9, pm. Brendan Riley April 4, am. Bento Cruz May 1, pm. Alison September 19, am. Tony June 13, am. Yes, this article is really disappointing.
Mindful Naked July 3, am. Yeah, sure. It has become a cultural expectation. THAT is the sentence I was looking for. Thank you. I totally agree. Dance is dance u limey. Greenaum August 11, am. Kitty LissieGirl January 21, pm. Dar August 11, pm. Alot of petty wound-up people here. How silly. Kaitain November 8, am. Kenneth Gray September 18, pm. Fanatoli Guyoff February 7, am. Cassy Michael July 9, pm. Reg, another Aussie October 15, am. Tom November 4, pm. Mari Adkins November 23, pm. Peter wood-Jenkins November 7, am.
The Spice Girls always sang with their Brit accents as well. JT December 10, am. Some Dude January 8, pm. I think there are many, many exceptions to all these things I think because brains is crazy. Vicky March 19, pm. Paul Martin April 15, pm. Jimmy April 28, pm. Laurie L April 25, pm.
Tai Ta September 23, am. It seems more beautiful in that sense: U. What an elegant concept. Alex February 25, pm. James Gibbon September 29, am. Lisalu January 26, pm. Tom Gabriele June 25, am. Scratch May 2, am. Michael The-Pyro June 1, pm.
Comment June 6, pm. Spice girls lose their accents when singing too…. John OB January 15, am. Kristinkkj4 August 27, am. Chris Zcollins July 1, pm. AJ August 1, am. R August 17, pm. L Brown October 1, pm. Iggy Hughes October 19, pm. Michael December 31, am. Similar to how their are numerous accents?
Please buy a dictionary! Michael October 8, am. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Where do their accents go? Once this takes place, singers are forced to stress syllables as they are accented in the music, which forces singers to elongate their vowels.
Read on to learn more. The others that come to mind The Cure for example have very subtle accents that only peaks through occasionally depending on the song. Billy Bragg…. I think this issue comes from the fact that most forms of popular music were invented in the US and that influence has lead to the so-called Mid Atlantic accent being standard. Also, the States is a huge market so singers want to sound American-friendly to tap into it.
Your email address will not be published. Except maybe these guys. One is technical. The cadences are all wrong. For many accents, the tune and the rhythm of a song can constrain these qualities to the point where the accent seemingly disappears.
This is true even for certain qualities of the General American accent and regional American accents related to it. GenAm is a rhotic accent, which means speakers pronounce the letter r at the end of words like car and lover. But if most Americans sang those words the same way they said them, they'd sound like pirates. Instead, many songs force American singers to push the r more towards a vowel ah sound, the same way many Brits might pronounce it. See Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher" for examples of both sounds.
In some performances he pronounces the r fully, and in others he holds back on it.
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