Why do English singers sing with an American accent?

Answer 1

I think you'll find most singers (English and American) sing in a neutral accent. It sounds slightly British and slightly American.

This is because:

1.) They want to make their music more marketable over the pond. Every British artist wants to make to big in America, and every American artist wants to make it big in the UK and Europe, so if they sing in a more neutral accent their voice may be better for radio, etc.

2.) The Beatles! The Beatles are from Liverpool, and whilst there is nothing wrong with the northern British accent, it has often been associated with Folk Music, which they obviously believed is "uncool", so they decided to develop a London/North American accent to sing in. Because the Beatles were so revolutionary, the trend to sing in a slightly North American accent caught on, and it became common.

BUT there are singers who sing in a full British accent, like Lily Allen, Ellie Goulding, Eliza Doolittle, Katy B, Sophie Ellis Bextor, The Wanted etc.

And nearly all British rappers rap in British accents - like Plan B, Tinie Tempah, Dizzee Rascal, Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder, MIA and Aggro Santos.

Accents are also about the melody of the sentances as a whole as well as pitch and stuff. When a person sings it becomes harder to recognise the accent, since the melody and the pitch both become a more active components, but you still can.

A better question would be 'Why do English singers and American singers sound similar when they sing?' since both nationalities accents are affected when they sing, not just the English accent.

You're just more accustomed to the American voice so you believe the English are imitating it. It's like when you're a child and you think that other countries have an accent and yours doesn't, because it's what your used to.

Answer

On most of their songs, the Beatles sang with a quite plain Scouse accent (this is quite noticable in songs with the word "singing" in them- the word is pronounced "sing-ging" (with hard"g"). No "put on" American accents except perhaps in some of their early work (many of which were covers of American songs).

Modern British singers from the London area like Lily Allen have the quite noticable "Estuary" accent which derives in large part from Cockney (complete with dropped letters like the "tt" in "little").

It's refeshing to note Australian singers like Missy Higgins singing with an Australian accent, while C&W singer Keith Urban sounds excatly like an American due no doubt to his intended market.

There seems to be a latter-day trend towards vocalists performing with their own native accent rather than contrived "mid-Atlantic" accents although there will always be exceptions like Urban above (and lets face it, songs about yodelling tractors should be sung with an American accent).