English bands singing in American accents

Drew_TNBD

GavRichList said:

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

No.

The salient point is this - if you knew anything about the history of singing, the techniques behind singing, and the stylistical aims of the majority of pop and rock, you wouldn't be such a retard to reduce it all down to a geographical location.

If someone sings with an extremely low larynx and lots of modified vowels, no-one accuses them of singing like an Italian!! Why do they do so with "American" ? It's bullshit. Utter bullshit.

GavRichList

Righto mate.

NickL

Sir Elton has been singing in a strange mid-Atlantic twang for his whole career. Maybe that came from his early days doing those Woolworths "not original artists" records.

Arctic Monkeys pretty much summed it up in 'Fake Tales of San Francisco': "You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham".

starwarsnosebleed

Drew_fx;1052480" said:

It's bullshit. Utter bullshit.

What are you trying to say dude?

PolarityMan

GavRichList said:

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

I already lol'd the first one...but you guys aren't serious right?

Deijavoo

What about screamo metal and hardcore bands?

Where is that accent from?

BahHumbug

Just to butt in.....I used to think, many years ago, that Brits singing in American accents was shite. However, I've realised that it's difficult not to adopt an accent that you feel fitsthe song. If I'm singing an American song it's difficult not to do American, if it's say Sam Carter, I do Brummie, if it's Bob Marley I do Stereotypical Jamaican. It's very difficult not to and feels wrong not to. So why fight it. Also I notice references to KT Tunstall above. If you think about it most Scottish rock acts of the last 20 years have tended to sound very American (apart from the Proclaimers). I think it just must be some similarity in the accents that comes out in singing. Anyway at the end of the day, why get hung up on it? Just enjoy what you do.

Deijavoo

BahHumbug said:

Just to butt in.....I used to think, many years ago, that Brits singing in American accents was shite. However, I've realised that it's difficult not to adopt an accent that you feel fitsthe song. If I'm singing an American song it's difficult not to do American, if it's say Sam Carter, I do Brummie, if it's Bob Marley I do Stereotypical Jamaican. It's very difficult not to and feels wrong not to. So why fight it. Also I notice references to KT Tunstall above. If you think about it most Scottish rock acts of the last 20 years have tended to sound very American (apart from the Proclaimers). I think it just must be some similarity in the accents that comes out in singing. Anyway at the end of the day, why get hung up on it? Just enjoy what you do.

Wisdom.

Bellycaster

I always though Joe Elliott was a prime perpetrator.

I do like a few Def Leppard tracks though, but not necessarily for his vocals.

GavRichList

I fail to see it as anything other than an impression. And no, I wasn't joking re BC. To each their own, but I hate that drawl style of singing at the best of times, genuine or otherwise - instant turn off for me. Personally prefer singers that find their own voice rather than somebody else's.

Deijavoo

What if that is their own voice?

Deijavoo

Just so I'm clear, what accent is this?

KKJale

That's an interesting one. I'm getting a cross between Misheard Irish and Affected South Coast Hipster. 

Deijavoo

KKJale said:

That's an interesting one. I'm getting a cross between Misheard Irish and Affected South Coast Hipster. 

Must remember not to impersonate that one then. Copyright and all. 

Deijavoo

Falkirk's finest!

UnclePsychosis

My favourite ones are the modern US punk bands, who sound like Americans trying to sing like Brits trying to sound like Americans who were copying Brits who were copying Americans.

I genuinely read a really interesting thing on the US West Coast Punk accent that was written by a linguist. I'll see if I can find it.

Emp_Fab

UnclePsychosis said:

My favourite ones are the modern US punk bands, who sound like Americans trying to sing like Brits trying to sound like Americans who were copying Brits who were copying Americans. 

Time for the Kursaal's...

stickyfiddle

UnclePsychosis said:

My favourite ones are the modern US punk bands, who sound like Americans trying to sing like Brits trying to sound like Americans who were copying Brits who were copying Americans.

I genuinely read a really interesting thing on the US West Coast Punk accent that was written by a linguist. I'll see if I can find it.

I'd be interested to read that

*googles* this one? 

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/i-made-a-linguistics-professor-listen-to-a-blink-182-song-and-analyze-the-accent

Iamnobody

PolarityMan;1052546" said:

GavRichList said:

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





I already lol'd the first one...but you guys aren't serious right?

Cheers for the lol...

I know Cliffy Biro are Scottish rather than English but it's the generic, whiny pop punky vocal that I happen to dislike and to my ears it sounds a bit American.

It's that vocal style I dislike rather than who delivers it. If they were a US band I still wouldn't like them.

tabbycat

generally speaking i think it stinks of inauthenticity if the material is your own.

obviously if you are a covers or tribute band covering a song by an american artist, your are dealing with someone else's material, their inflexions, their rhythms, and also audience and genre expectations. you can be forgiven for going along with that, or you can choose do do your own thing with it. i tend to respect british artists who try to do their own thing with it, rather than ape.

but if you are british, with a british accent, and doing your own material, there isn't much excuse for it. it's just a cheesy gimmick. and there is also the authenticity thing that if you are claiming to be writing songs that are an expression of yourself, who you are, what you think and feel, how you have got to this point in life, etc, what kind of statement is it making about your sincerity if you can't bear to make those statements publicly without first running them through the rawk-translation engine? it's fundamentally inauthentic, insincere and pulls the rug out from under you re claims to credibility.

market forces at the middle of the road end of things have a lot to do with it. record companies are lazy and want a nice processed blob of mid-atlantic-flavoured crap to play with, as it is easier to market globally than something listeners have to broaden their minds to appreciate. it depends where your ambitions lay.

sex pistols, joy division, siouxsie, cure, my bloody valentine, slowdive, radiohead, broadcast, are the names of bands in the first folder i opened on my desktop to check my point. all deeply progressive and even genre defining artists.

an exception might be the jesus and mary chain, but then i wouldn't classify them as progressive but regressive in a post-modern sense (apologies for the artspeak). jim switches between british (scottish in his case) and american inflexions as if to make a statement about who he is via that movement. he's a scot raised in east kilbride who grew up listening to the stooges, velvets, shangrilas, etc. so when he moves between british to american accents it's almost as if he's singing in inverted commas. the post-modern meta thing. he's not aping but referencing, in a very un-selfconscious instinctive way.

to appreciate the distinction between aping and referencing, consider how edwyn collins (fellow scot, same time) referenced the buzzcocks 'boredom' (lyrics and guitar solo) in orange juice's 'rip it up'. he's playing with it, trying it on like a leather jacket he bought in 1978 that no longer fits in 1983. there’s memory and melancholy there. it's collage not mimicry. 'rip it up'. clue is in the title.

people can do what they want, but the authenticity thing is an issue.