Accents disappear when singing and other interesting things.

A public service announcement featuring
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste just aired on television.
I smiled when I saw her, because she has been one of my favorites
since I first saw her in 'Secrets and Lies' as Hortense Cumberbatch.

On to the point of my post.

Marianne is an English actress with the accent to boot, yet when
she is on "Without a Trace" she speaks free of this accent. The commercial
mentioned above featured Marianne using her natural English accent.
(I could listen to her talk all day long in that accent.)

My question actually concerns people with accents singing. Why is
it we hear songs all the time, yet when the singer is interviewed, we are
surprised to hear them speaking with an accent from another country?

"I didn't know he was from (fill in the blank)"

How do they sing without an accent? Keith Urban is a good example. He
belts out country / western music, yet is from 'down unda' with such a cute
accent.

Just wondering about this little ditty.

KM

You won't get a conclusive answer, but some theories are:

-A larger range of accents strike you as "American" since it's a large country with a large range of accents.

-Many foreign acts do sound foreign (many of the '80s British acts, for example)

-They are imitating a style of singing rather than an accent. I would guess that country acts adopt a "country" accent more often any other genre of music, even if the person involved is an American. I only know one or two of the most popular Urban songs, but if he wasn't using a "country" accent, wouldn't his songs basically be standard pop? Same with that Shania person.

-Something about the act of singing in proper time and pitch tends to tame accents.

-Singers are like actors and think that they will appeal to a broader audience without a provincial accent.


-

This message was edited Feb 18, 2007 4:54 PM

I think American language and accents are varied throughout the States. There is no one American accent. When British people try to fake it, it sounds phony to me because it is too flat with no particular accent as to North South East or West. Just as Americans try to immitate English accents, and fall far short because there are so many locale type sub accents.
When I hear a female impersonating a American accent it always sounds TOO feminine and "sweet". LOL
I find musicians mimic country voices just as those on American Idol will try to sound like a famous singer and not use their own sounding voice. Probably why the singers sound "American" when they are not.

The speech patterns from particular regions of a county often become the stereotype. We've noticed that when a character in a foreign production is supposed to be "American", they tend to give the speaker a southern accent (eg, Scarlett O'Hara) or a New York accent. Sometimes it's hilarious, other times it just sounds odd.

I have also noticed that on low-budget British TV shows that feature a stray "American" character the actor's accent is so bad that it's obvious that they are British. Major films get actors who can do the accent easily, but on tv you often see Brits who can't fake it.

As far as singing goes, a classically trained singer is taught to make their vowels "round and dark" - A's are pronounced "ah", short E's are eh, U's are avoided as much as possible (not a pretty sound!).. Accents are carried in the vowels, so if two singers from different countries sing the same song together, you aren't going to hear the accent difference until they stop singing. If you hear an accent while they are singing they are either not classically trained (probably the case with the aforementioned British pop bands), or they are doing it on purpose to imitate a particular style (country, for example).

~ Marylyn, who is not a musician, but sings in a choir. :-)

Okay, I'm not an expert, but is it possible that singing and speaking are located in two different parts of the brain? I know it's sounds weird, but my son (15) is a stutterer. He has stuttered since he could speak. Yet, when he sings--he does not stutter. If anyone has heard Mel Tillis sing--my son is the same way. Has problems speaking, but not singing. I was told this is a result of the process coming from two different parts of the brain.

Just a thought.

Oh yes, that, too! Mel Tillis is a perfect example!

Thanks for the thought! A good one indeed!

KM

You nailed it Marylyn!

:) angie - also not a professional, but after 15 years in choirs the topic has come up before

I agree with Marilyn and Angie. Thanks Marilyn, you did a wonderful job explaining it - better than I would have.

WUVIE about that nonsense we were talking about, went to the bank and they gave us a form and the card company went after the whole group and recovered all of the funds they had pulled up to 6 months back. I was impressed.

Don

Don, that is fantastic!

Good for you, and glad you pursued it. Hot dog! Congrats!

Karen Marie

WUVIE I need a ebay partner. My son and I were in town and saw a fella with a trailer loaded with a 4 wheeler complete with a gun rack. Now I figure that if they are willing to spend all that money on deer feeders, 20 foot tall deer blinds, 4 wheelers and all that stuff. Why don't we go catch us some deer, put them on ebay, they pay the shipping and in the morning while they sit on their front porch sipping a beer they can shoot the deer and save themselves money and still be able to watch the game on TV and tell HUNTING stories. What do you think?

I stole the picture.
Don