Why do so many non-American or UK singers sing with an American accent?

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Zoots

Zoots

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I've always wondered about this.

It's not like it is difficult to sing words like can't and path with a British accent.

Was listening to Achtung Baby today where Bono pretty much sounds American.

You buried your treasure where it can't be found
But your love is like a secret that's been passed around

lol.

I guess there are some exceptions... like Pink Floyd.

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland awayyyyyyyyyyyy
 
When I became a fan of U2 I thought they were American because of Bono's accent.
 
I have a bigger problem with UK actors speaking with an American accent. Yes, I'm looking at you, Hugh Laurie. :angry:
 
The British at the time of the American Revolution spoke with accents closer to how Americans speak now than how the British speak now, like the words you used as examples, Zoots. But outside of being a superfact, that doesn't really have much to do with anything. Maybe it's just because America is so goddamn rock n' roll and some American accents are really cool.

Not like many American singers never sing in British accents, though.
 
The whole "pahss" "lahst" thing annoys me a little admittedly, because when you say the words in normal conversation (not being American) it's "pa(r)ss"...

DrTeeth said:
I have a bigger problem with UK actors speaking with an American accent. Yes, I'm looking at you, Hugh Laurie. :angry:
Click to expand...

see i don't have a problem with that. i think that's brilliant, and it is an american show, not a british show.
 
cobl04 said:
well for example in stuck. "it's just a moment, this time will pass" is sung with the american accent.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. My point exactly. Why doesn't he sing "pass" like an Irishman would say it? Maybe cos Bono loves America so damn much! :wink:
 
I'm equally baffled by people who sing in perfectly understandable English, but when they talk it's almost impossible to understand them because of their thick accent. I call this the Sharleen Spiteri syndrom.
:shifty:
 
It's as simple as this, you enunciate and sing words completely different than you speak them. It might be the same words, but it's almost a completely different language, the approach is completely different. It's why you can understand Ozzy and Gallaghers when they sing but not when they speak.

When you sing you try and strip away any "accent", which is why I guess some would call it "American" since our accent is much more generic than other English speaking countries.

Now there are a few exceptions, for example: country music, many country singers have no accent at all then all of a sudden a twang comes out when they start singing. Or Billy Joe from Green Day all of a sudden starts to sound English(probably due to the Sex Pistols).
 
I think it's a non-accent, if you're american you don't really hear the accents of american people so you assume a non-accent is american. Unless I try to sing with an Irish accent, I sing in a non-accent :shrug:
 
Yeah you'd have to over pronounce everything to actually sound like where you're from. I wouldn't say Bono sounds American though, no way. His accent isn't very strong compared to some Irish accents. But The Script...that guy reeeeally is trying to sound American. And when he talks you can tell he's a Dub but he sounds so American when he sings.
 
Bono doesn't really sound all that Irish even when he's talking normally, so it's not surprising that his vocals don't contain a thick Irish accent.
 
Zoots said:
Oh yeah. My point exactly. Why doesn't he sing "pass" like an Irishman would say it? Maybe cos Bono loves America so damn much! :wink:
Click to expand...

Er, actually he does sing it as an Irish person would sing it. Irish people pronounce the word the same as Americans - 'p-ah-ss', not 'p-aw-ss' as English people would generally pronounce it. Clayton or McGuinness probably pronounce it in the English way. Very few Irish would pronounce that or similar words in the English way, in fact the English pronunciation would probably be viewed as affected or mildly elitist and would identify the speaker as either English or Anglo-Irish.

I have heard Bono singing in a somewhat American accent, but not particularly on this song or album.
 
BVS said:
It's as simple as this, you enunciate and sing words completely different than you speak them. It might be the same words, but it's almost a completely different language, the approach is completely different. It's why you can understand Ozzy and Gallaghers when they sing but not when they speak.

When you sing you try and strip away any "accent", which is why I guess some would call it "American" since our accent is much more generic than other English speaking countries.

Now there are a few exceptions, for example: country music, many country singers have no accent at all then all of a sudden a twang comes out when they start singing. Or Billy Joe from Green Day all of a sudden starts to sound English(probably due to the Sex Pistols).
Click to expand...

To me, Bono's singing voice is recognisably Irish, however in interviews he sometimes uses American idioms or pronunciations, which is largely a function of spending so much time in the US more than anything.
 
Agree with Finance Guy. Bono's speaking accent is clearly less local-Dublin than it was 25 years ago, which is to be expected given his circle of friends and his globe trotting. You need only check YouTube clips of him speaking in interviews in the early 80s to hear this.

The main point is that singing is not like speaking. The natural iambic rhythms and speech intonations when talking don't apply to sustaining notes for melody, etc. (Of course, people who rap or talk in music sound closer to their natural accent.) There are clips of the Beatles, after their first US tour in 1964, talking about the American fans telling them that they sing with American accents -- clearly, this is not a new thing.

As far as American accents (of which there are dozens) sounding "generic" -- this is one of the stranger things I've ever heard. Obviously, any of the many American speech varieties is not considered generic outside the United States. If anything, you would expect Texan or deep-south accents to be more understandable (because people generally pronounce vowels more slowly) but this is not generic. No accent on Earth should be called generic.

And about non-rhoticity, many New England people and New Yorkers are famously non-rhotic, so that's common even in the USA!
 
I hate how American actors and singers try and copy an English accent. They think all Brits speak cockney.
 
So, did Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma speak cockney? Did Alessandro Nivola speak cockney in Mansfield Park or Laurel Canyon?
 
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