From The Beatles to Adele: Do the British Intentionally Change their Accents when they Sing?

Although they share most linguistic characteristics, standard British and American English differ in many ways, and one doesn’t need to be a native speaker to notice this. Differentiating features range from grammar rules to sentence structures but the most conspicuous ones are definitely pronunciation and intonation.

People all over the world tend to perceive British English as more pleasant to hear, more difficult to imitate and generally more “appealing” than General American. However, in popular songs, it’s not always possible to distinguish between the two and there are several interesting possible reasons for this.

Some argue that the British sing with an American accent, which is not completely true, although many foreigners perceive popular songs this way.

Adele’s 2012 soundtrack for the newest James Bond movie, Skyfall, seems to be an obvious example. When Adele sings, her voice is devoid of any dialectal features and she almost sounds like an American. This is interesting because, in speech, Adele exhibits a strong London accent.

Apart from Adele, many other popular British singers sound rather like North Americans. The Beatles were said to have experimented with using an American accent at the beginning of their career, following the influence of some popular blues and rock and roll singers from the US.

In fact, some even claim that the Northern British accent was associated with folk music and that this was the reason The Beatles developed their own American-like British accent. Revolutionary as it was, the band thereby influenced many British musicians who followed their lead.

When discussing The Beatles’ singing accents, David Crystal notes: “A Liverpudlian accent regularly stands out in The Beatles –such as (in ‘Penny Lane’) customer with a rounded first vowel and words like there and wear (in ‘Only a Northern Song’) with a central vowel (rhyming with her).”
- David Crystal

Imitating North American pop-stars remains a quite popular trend today but this doesn’t mean that all British singers have dropped their original accents. On the contrary, there are many who have retained them. Compare, for example, Adele’s voice to that of Lilly Allen and try to determine phonological characteristics that make them different.

Obviously, singers sometimes consciously make a decision to drop or retain their regional accent. Mainstream pop artists mostly choose the former in order to sound more fashionable, while it’s mostly musicians in the “alternative” genre that opt for the latter.

Additionally, there are some phonetic explanations for why accents get lost in songs. Singing involves different speech qualities, so one will actually have difficulty maintaining his or her accent or other regionally-specific speech features when vocalizing melodically.

According to David Crystal, the way singing voices sound is influenced by the fact that

intonation and speech rhythm are lost in melody and
vowel qualities are different (elongated).

Now, most people are not big enough linguistic nerds to pay attention to phonological features of popular songs but if you have ever wondered about it, I hope you’ve gotten your answer.

Do you have any examples of singers using their regional-specific dialects, other than London and Liverpool British? Feel free to leave your comment; we’d like to hear your thoughts.

Photo credit: United Press International, photographer unknown / Foter.com / Public domain, NRK P3 / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA, benzpics63 / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

8 Responses to “From The Beatles to Adele: Do the British Intentionally Change…”

Jon Tagalog said: 03/02/2014 12:34 - Reply
The british accent seems intentional (to maintain that aristocratic slant) because they have to practice it to maintain it, otherwise, they loose it. I even have acquainntances who would go back to england every so often \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”so they dont loose the accent.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\” I have a friend who lost his british aristocratic accent and told me that \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”I cant do it anymore\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\” which begs the question, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”So, they\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’re just doing it to sound aristocratic?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”
- Saundz Team said: 03/02/2014 13:35 - Reply
  Hi Jon!
  Thanks for your comment!
  
  Honestly, saying that they do it just to sound aristocratic seems like an overstatement. Some people quickly acquire different accents when they change their place of living, and this is normal. The more time you spend surrounded by another accent/language the more you get used to it. On the other hand, some people can never imitate another accent, even if they want to. Guess most of your friends fall into the first category.
  
  How about you? Have you ever lived abroad or in a place where people speak in an accent different than yours? How much did it take you to get used to another accent?

Andie said: 06/02/2014 3:49 - Reply
There are examples of English bands who don’t change their accents. The Herman’s Hermits in the past, The Stone Roses and currently Mumford and sons. My guess is that they sing in the way that feels most natural.

My dad was in the Air Force so we moved around (US) to several states. From Georgia to Massachusetts to Tennessee to Texas. The only time he sounded like he was from Georgia was when he spoke to his family on the phone.

My husband calls me an accent chameleon because I often unintentionally adopt the accent of the people around me. I am fascinated by accents!
Just found this page and love it already!
- Saundz Team said: 07/02/2014 10:18 - Reply
  Thanks Andie! Your dad seems just the kind of guy I was referring to in the previous comment. I know several “accent chameleons” as you put it, and I’m always amazed at how different they can sound.
  
  Also, thanks for adding to our list! There’s so many excellent British bands, it’s impossible to list them all in a single article. Stone Roses is an excellent example!

John said: 20/10/2014 11:59 - Reply
I don’t think British accents are harder or more popular internationally like you state. From my minimal experience teaching abroad in Asia and the middle east. People seem to grasp a more British English accent naturally while struggling to imitate the standard great lakes american accent. (which many seek).
- The Saundz Team said: 21/10/2014 7:42 - Reply
  Interesting insight, John! Thanks However, the article doesn’t actually state that British accents are either harder or more popular internationally. We only mentioned the general tendency of people to regard British accents as more “appealing,” even though this is certainly a matter of personal preference.
  
  It would be great to hear more about your experience in Asia, especially in relation to accent preference. If you’re interested in writing an article on that topic for us, please send an email to support@saundz.com

James said: 16/12/2014 11:33 - Reply
Interesting read. However, like John above, I must take issue with the statement that “People all over the world tend to perceive British English as more pleasant to hear, more difficult to imitate, and generally more “appealing” than General American”. I’d like to ask on what do you base this view? Your own person experience (which is what?), or a study or survey or some sort? Perhaps you’re just a British speaker yourself ;). I ask because my personal experience strongly contradicts this assessment. I’m an ESL teacher who has taught for 4 years in the Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey, and Argentina. In all of these countries General American is overwhelming preferred, and this seems to be the consensus of my colleagues as well, many of whom have taught in other countries. Most students, when dealing with a language school or private teacher, didn’t have a preference either way, while some specifically requested to learn British English, and some specifically requested to learn General American. However, the amount of students who preferred General American tended to be between twice and five times greater than the amount preferring British English (Germany and the Czech Republic coming closer to twice, and Turkey and Argentina coming closer to five times). When I’ve asked my students about this preference, they usually say that General American is easier to understand, is more useful for their job or specific plans, or simply sounds more pleasant. I’m sorry for the rather long criticism of a minor point, but after reading and approving of several articles on this site, that one statement stuck out like a sore thumb.

The Saundz Team said: 18/12/2014 14:21 - Reply
Hi there, James! Thanks for the insightful comment. We definitely agree that this is a matter of personal preference, but we keep encountering such an attitude (both online and offline), so it made sense to regard this as a “tendency.” And, no, nobody on the team is British. In fact, most of us are non-native speakers

I personally heard this statement too many times. As for the general case, there is an online poll (one of many) that lets people express their opinion on this (http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/whats-the-sexiest-accent-in-english/); also, we did a research with 100 students from all over the world, which also confirmed that they prefer British English (we’ll publish it next month probably). Furthermore, Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Volume 2 shows that Dutch speakers, for example, tend to classify British English among “beautiful” languages and American English among the “ugly” ones.

Hope this explains the general idea behind the statement. I’m still glad you think our other articles are interesting

Jovana

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8 Responses to “From The Beatles to Adele: Do the British Intentionally Change…”

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