#41

Few things grate on my nerves as much as fake American accents. (Real ones I tolerate; it’s not something they can help. :wink: ) A serial offender in this regard is Mick Jagger.

In the early days of Australian pop music, say up to the mid-1960s or so, it was common, even standard, for local singers to try and sound American. Sometimes they did this almost without realising it. I recall hearing an interview with one producer who found it a nightmare trying to get the backing singers to sing in their natural accents. they would be chatting around before the take, sounding like any other Aussie blokes, then on bursting into song would suddenly mysterious acquire fake American twangs. It was probably part of the cultural cringe of the time; “American records sell the most, so if sound like them maybe we can do the same”. That attitude has mostly died out, thank goodness.

#42

I heard She Sells Sanctuary last night and the Cult guy has a very odd voice, like he’s singing from the back of his throat

#43

There is probably room for a whole separate thread about male vocalists who sound like women and vice versa. have you heard the guy from Pavlov’s Dog?

#44

I’m of the opposite opinion, I completely lost interest in Opeth when he stopped the growls, find them dull now. I loved his growl, so much texture and gave the music the aggressiveness I felt it needed. But each to their own :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#45

just listening now and sounds more like a child than a woman, on this song at least. This is the kind of prog nonsense I love though so thanks for the tip

#46

Think it is an established thing that it is natural to sing in an American accent because elongated vowels required by singing is American sounding, so it is the people who don’t sing in an American accent who are faking it

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#47

Always worth a watch:

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#48

Does thing only happen when singing in English? Why don’t people singing in French or Spanish or whatever sound American?

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#49

This reminds me - I was listening to the first Idlewild (feat. Roddy ‘SoCal’ Woomble) album last night. Pretty admirable how he gradually sacked it off over the course of the next couple of albums.

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#50

Alex Ounsworth from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

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#51

maybe they do and we don’t recognise it because they are singing in another language.Or maybe it is because there are specific sounds in french and spanish which signify french and spanish, where as english and american english have the same basic set up just slightly different emphasis which disappear when singing

#52

I remember reading an interview with him somewhere and he said how his voice had changed so much from his teenage years and struggled to sing like he used to on Captain/Hope is Important records when recording The Remote Part. I guess he just kind of naturally found his voice.

#53

I think only a native French speaker could say whether someone singing or speaking in French was doing so with an American accent, an English accent or no accent at all, i.e. sounding like a native speaker.

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#54

A friend’s mum patiently took in the entirety of Neil Young’s Harvest on a car journey once.

As soon as the last bar faded, there was a momentary pause, before : “who was that mournful woman?”.

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#55

Heh.

I find that Neil Young’s voice treads a perilously thin line between simplistic beauty and sounding like a howling coyote caught in a trap.

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#56

That’s an amazing description. I once put on Built to Spill’s “Randy Described Eternity” and my sister angrily asked me why I was listening to an old lady moaning.

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#57

Oh my god, it so is club-style :smiley:

#58

But also Lou Reed and Mark E Smith.

(they can carry it off but also they’re putting it on)

#59

The bloke from Slaves
King Krule
Basically all other posh boys trying to sound disaffected and edgy, yeah

2 Likes
#60

Pretty sure this is almost everyone? I went through a phase of deeming singing with a transatlantic twang as being massively disingenuous and not 4real but got over it