Is this just something I imagine or…?
In: Other
Aussies and Kiwis too. It’s just a decision made by the music industry. Some do keep their original accent, but it’s not common. My grandparents were musicians and some other relatives were in theatre.
trying to appeal to the american audience, if they sound british it wont sell well, plus you just sound cooler when signing with an american accent
Singing itself requires a different tone/rythem/inflections than speaking.
Singing also requires different mouth shapes; breath work; tongue placement
Singing is different from talking musically
They are putting the accent on for the song, same as Americans do. Go and listen to, for example, Wannabe by the Spice Girls. They are singing in an unmistakable english accent. How Bizarre by OMC is in a kiwi accent. And, in the same vein, Americans with really strong accents change their accents for the song to be much milder and more mid-Atlantic.
Singing and speaking use different parts of the brain. Some people with aphasia are still able to sing. Those artists likely listened to a lot of American artists when they were young, which influenced their singing, while their environment set their speaking accent.
Amazing how this sub has so many people that are quite happy to chime in on things they don’t know about, or make a guess and share it likes it’s fact. I hope people that ask questions on this sub are aware of that.
This video has the best set of answers from what I have found. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuK4r3k6iTQ&ab_channel=EatSleepDreamEnglish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuK4r3k6iTQ&ab_channel=EatSleepDreamEnglish)
To me, Dave Gahan’s (Depeche Mode) singing voice seems to have his native British accent to a degree.
The generic American accent tends to be neutral, which happens to align with how songs are sung. Also many accent features like rhythm and speed are overridden when singing rather than speaking.
Youtube video on the subject…
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ8RdLtZWlc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ8RdLtZWlc)
Accents affect vowels. Vowels are often pronounced differently when singing, usually lengthening them. You can still generally hear a person’s accent when they sing, but it’s less pronounced most of the time.
Singers are influenced by American pop culture from a young age. So they end up singing in a more US based accent because that’s the singing they are exposed to. US market is also bigger so there’s a commercial reason to do so.
Singers from previous generations have sounded much more British.
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