English bands singing in American accents

starwarsnosebleed

I think its sort of hard not to slip into an American accent sometimes when singing.
Its just when i hear a non-American vocalist trying too hard to be American i find it very, very cringey.

Happens across all genres, but i have no idea ,why the need?

Phil_aka_Pip

Didn't the Beatles say it sold more records?

hobbio

It's one of the things that I can't stand, whilst simultaneously recognising that it's impossible to prevent without trying really hard. 

Robert Plant is the worst offender I can think of.

vasselmeyer

I'm sure it's that the root of modern poop and rock music was blues and rock n' roll. That was the template for the British wannabe rock 'n rollers (Cliff, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury etc) and they imitated the likes of Elvis, Chuck Berry etc. After that, the format was set.

It quite nice to hear rock sung in an English accent and it's generally music that doesn't come from the blues genre. The likes of Bonzo Dog were always considered idiosyncratically English. Lately, it's wonderful to hear the broad northern vowels in The Arctic Monkeys.

starwarsnosebleed

Whilst i dont like the Arctic Monkeys, i have to say, upon hearing them for the first time on the radio, the first thing that grabbed my attention was the singers accent.
I think if he had put on an American slant, they would have next to no identity.

starwarsnosebleed

vasselmeyer;1052109" said:

I'm sure it's that the root of modern poop.

Well said.

FelineGuitars

Aways thought the kinks sounded more British as did Steve Marriot.

Maybe the Yanks just talk how we sing?

Iamnobody

It's one of the reasons I can't listen to Biffy Clyro...

Col_Decker

What is an American accent though? Singing just sounds like singing to me and most singers just have a generic singer's accent unless they've got a strong country twang. Does KT Tunsall sound American when sings? Nope. Does she sound Scottish? Nope. Not to me anyways

the_twin

Could be worse. What about Dick Van Dyke?

starwarsnosebleed

Ive always thought she sounded Very American tbh.

starwarsnosebleed

As i said, its hard to sing without slipping into it a little bit, i just find it grating when its overdone.

That Jake Bugg fella for instance. His 'lightning bolt' song is ok, not my cup of tea, but fairly interesting. His accent is so overtly American, its fucking annoying, and i find it hard to like him because hes obviously a bit of a cunt.

Note. The vocals do fit the track perfectly, and if he sang it in his own accent it would sound like the Wurzels.

I just find it a bit of a cop out. Maybe im just being a lesbian.

starwarsnosebleed

the_twin;1052411" said:

Could be worse. What about Dick Van Dyke?

The Dutch have nothing to do with this discussion.

EricTheWeary

Hey, play in a ska band here, no American accents. The danger is doing a bad Jamaican accent and sounding like Jim Davidson.

Drew_TNBD

starwarsnosebleed said:

I think its sort of hard not to slip into an American accent sometimes when singing.
Its just when i hear a non-American vocalist trying too hard to be American i find it very, very cringey.

Happens across all genres, but i have no idea ,why the need?

The bottom line is, when English people sing in an English accent they either sound completely dumb or completely pretentious, or even worse than that, they end up sounding "nice" and "quaint" - fuck that.

For some reason the American accent has a fair amount of snarl and grit to it, listen to someone like Corey Taylor just TALKING - he sounds more characterful and aggressive than any English person.

I've actually had singing teachers push me towards a snarling American sound, because an English voice just isn't rock and roll.

Americans and Aussies have the best singing voices imho.

GavRichList

Awful, awful habit. Some of my most detested singers. Biffy Clyro an excellent example.

Drew_TNBD

Also I should add, it's kind of silly to reduce it down to "American" accent... America is a massive place with as wide a variety of accents as any place on the planet.

fretmeister

Yeah, but if I'm singing southern rock I need to sound like I just fucked my sister. No matter how you assess it, an Alabama accent works better than Norfolk.

GavRichList

Isn't the salient point however, that if you're not from there, you shouldn't sing in their accent?

not_the_dj

Singer in one band I gig with does a comedy "why brummies sing with American accents" bit during "All Right Now", goes down a storm when he does a verse in full on brummie.

GavRichList

I think you can at least make a case for it in a covers band, but not originals. It's ridiculous.