• Question: Why do we sing with an American accent?

    Asked by Harry Oo to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 21 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 21 Jun 2015:


      We don’t all sing with American accents! I sing with an English accent, despite speaking with a Scottish accent. There are lots of bands out there that sing in their native accents, whatever they may be.

      Often, though, commercial musicians will put on American accents in an effort to make their music more accessible to US audiences, which might be why you hear lots of American accents in popular music. That, and of course a lot of popular music is made by US artists anyway, so if you sing along to that you’ll probably sing it in American accent too.

    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 21 Jun 2015:


      @Harry Oo I was in three choirs last year and never sang in an american accent! Sometimes, especially with classical music, you might have to sing in different languages, like italian or french – but that’s as far as my accents ever went!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 21 Jun 2015:


      Ironically, some American choirs try to sing with a British accent! I think both choirs are looking for pure vowel sounds, which neither British nor American speech has naturally, so you wind up sounding a little strange no matter where you’re from.

    • Photo: Sarah Beasley

      Sarah Beasley answered on 23 Jun 2015:


      Yeah I think it’s the fact that a lot of our popular music originates in the US. I don’t know what I sing with. All I know is that it sounds excellent

      …in the shower.

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