I've always been curious about this, and I'm wondering if UK visitors to this forum can clarify it for me.

About a decade ago when my daughter was 10 she asked me where in the United States the Rolling Stones come from. I answered that they don't come from the U.S. The Rolling Stones are English.

"Then why do they sing with American accents?" she asked.

It got me wondering what English people think of that. I know of no American singer who has made a career out of singing with an English accent, and it would seem very odd to me if an American singer did that.

As for Jagger's singing with an American accent, I can't fault him because he turned me on to so much great American music. It it wasn't for the Stones, for example, I would never have discovered Muddy Waters. I'm grateful to the Rolling Stones for turning me onto my own country's music. Still, when I hear Jagger in an interview talking with his English accent, it makes me think that Jagger is more of an actor than a singer.

Anyhow, you Brits, what's your take on Jagger singing in an accent that is foreign to him?

Great question

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For some reason, most rock and pop singers sing with an American accent of some sort, however strong. I've no idea why. I do it a bit myself. It's pretty strange, come to think of it.

Rock n roll is basically an American form of music, so there's no real need for Americans to sing in any accent but their own.

Mick sometimes sings in an American accent. I wouldnt say he's made a career out of it. He's sang in Cockney accents before (without actually being one),a hispanic accent, a black American accent and even in a faux-Jamaican one.

So, he can sound silly in a variety of accents!

When the Beatles did their first press conference in the US in 1964, one journalist asked them "Why do you speak like Englishmen and sing like Americans?". The answer - "It sells better".

Thats probably not that far off the truth. At the start of their career, covering the music of black American blues artists was a big enough step in its own right - doing so in a London accent would have been a bit TOO preposterous.

To be honest I'm from Holland, and when I to talk Englisch it's more with US accent then UK

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I remember being a child and being confused when I heard the Beatles speak with an English accent after hearing them sing "American".

I think if you sing you will loose your accent

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Here's a quick take. Most accents (Southern, English) tend to make one syllable words into almost 2 syllables..... For instance, the word "rain" isn't said on one steady level, it may go up or down halfway through the word depending on the accent. But when words are sung they usually have to stay on one level because each syllable is just one note which has to stay on that level. If that makes any sense. The accent gets lost (like NICOS said)

I always thought the Stones, Beatles, etc. just wanted to sing the way their influences sang; so in order to sound like Chuck Berry, Elvis, etc. you have to sing with an American accent.

That all changed though with the Kinks. Ray Davies started singing like an Englishmen and of course he inspired a lot of bands to follow (the Jam, later on Oasis, etc.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-04 06:46 by JMoisica.

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JMoisica
I always thought the Stones, Beatles, etc. just wanted to sing the way their influences sang; so in order to sound like Chuck Berry, Elvis, etc. you have to sing with an American accent.

That all changed though with the Kinks. Ray Davies started singing like an Englishmen and of course he inspired a lot of bands to follow (the Jam, later on Oasis, etc.)

It's a big reason why the Jam and Weller never caught on much in the States.
Weller's singing, accent, and subject matter are VERY British,
plus I don't think Weller ever cared or not if he made a dent in the States.
A song like Eton Rifles or Saturday's Kids means nothing over here.
However, they are ony of my top 5 bands ever.

i've been a stones fan since 1981 and it still escapes my mind at times that they're from england. because american music is woven so deep into the fiber of the band. the stones have more respect for american music than most u.s. artists who perform it.blues and rock and roll originated in the southern united states which has always had strong ties to england in one way or another. the accents are simular in ways and so are many customs and belifes

Listen to Mick on No Spare Parts. Love it!

Even stranger is when Americans try and sound like Mick trying to sound American!

Guns'n'roses have a couple of songs where Duff sings with english "punk accent". Without being too convincing, imo

.



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-04 22:21 by SwayStones.

Listen to Mick on No Spare Parts. .... Yeah ain't Mick good...

Sun Is Shinin' from Altamont is another....But Mick
has had it bolted down even from an early age... just
try Little Queenie from those '61 Little Boys Blue ....Stunnin' stuff Micko ....



ROCKMAN

This is actually really interesting to me for a few different reasons. Firstly, I come from London, born and brought up here. Secondly, I feel that the ever-increasing cultural influence of America means that its culture (and all that goes with it - film, vocabulary, dialect, accent etc.) is becoming the dominant one, certainly throughout the English-speaking world and possibly beyond. Thirdly, because I'm such a huge Stones fan and am proud that they originally came from London, I do look for signs that they do still have a link to their roots and origins after a life of becoming truly international people, and with their empire run to such a great extent from America and Canada. This obviously broadens the discussion from simply singing, out into a wider cultural context, but is relevant nonetheless.

What I would say is that those signs are still very much there. Charlie is the obvious one - accent-wise, he still sounds like a man who's never left London. It's certainly not a Cockney accent (whatever that might be) - it's more what would be considered that of a middle-class educated man of his age, with the odd diversion into dropped 'H's and the like.

Ronnie occasionally has something of a mid-Atlantic twang and inflection, but I've noticed that's usually when he's in Rolling Stones PR mode and is having to talk about how exciting and groovy everything is in Stones-land, and particularly when he's being interviewed by an American reporter. Otherwise, his working class London-boy roots are obvious from his accent.

Mick is an interesting one. We all know about his range of different accents, his "y'all havin' a good taaame?" from the stage, and his forays, like Ronnie, into Americanisms when he's over there, but generally, he does sound English. Now, as has been debated on here - which English accent does he have? I would say that he generally speaks with a well-spoken London or home-counties accent, at times similar to Charlie's, but there are times when I've heard him sound like he's come straight out of the East-end (Cockney, if you like), even nowadays, which I don't think is put on. You have to remember that this man spent the first twenty years of his life, and an awful lot of his time since, in and around London (and if you want to go into even more detail, his accent was formed on the Kent/Essex border where, whatever his middle-class family background might have been, the accent is a lot closer to what would be considered Cockney).

Keith, meanwhile, is so wrapped up in his own myth and spends so much time attempting to cement it by being in 'Keef' mode with his various figures-of-speech, quotes-in-waiting, mumbles and the like, that it's difficult to find a consistent accent there. But, as with the rest of the band, his roots definitely come through frequently. Listen to the Tip Of The Tongue documentary from Four Flicks, when the band exit the airship in New York and Keith, referring to Charlie, says "ee's awright, ee's awright", or the rehearsals of Learning The Game from the Bigger Bang DVD when the mic is too high for Keith and his instinctive reaction is delivered in a none-more-London accent.

DD, do you know of any guide to British accents, or just London, either on the web or in a book? Are does your knowledge come just from having lived there? I've tried looking into the subject some, but the technical books about it are hard for a layman to follow.

The guy from green day (Billy Joe) sounds like he is putting on a English accent on some songs.

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Ket
The guy from green day (Billy Joe) sounds like he is putting on a English accent on some songs.

He is indeed an American Idiot.

A few weeks back a friend asked me if the Stones had any other songs like "Prodigal Son" wherein Mick sings with such an authentic delta blues accent. He'd played it for his roots music loving wife who was flabbergasted to learn the song was by the Stones.

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ghostryder13
it still escapes my mind at times that they're from england.

Likewise, but for different reasons.

DD, thanks for the thorough consideration of London accents. I find this stuff fascinating. I lived in London for a time (I'm in California) and was intrigued by all the different voices I heard there. It's a fascinating city. I had a great time living there.

As for Jagger's singing, he is very good at aping Southern American blues singers, although at times he crosses the line. I can't listen to "You Gotta Move" because Jagger's singing on that song sounds like caricature to me. "You Gotta Move" is a stain and what is otherwise the second best rock album ever made (the best is "Exile on Main Street").

BTW, Jagger does a very good hillbilly accent on "Dear Doctor."

And on the subject of accents, when I lived in London (1978-79), Elvis Costello got in a tiff with Sting on account of Sting's horrific Jamaican accent. Elvis said that Sting deserved to be hit in the head with a dead fish on account of that accent. I agree. I can't bear to listen to Sting or The Police because of that phony faux accent.

...Mick's great at affecting an American southern accent...otherwise his accent is totaly British.

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Rip This
...Mick's great at affecting an American southern accent...otherwise his accent is totaly British.

There's no such accent.

To be pedantic,of all the Stones only Bill and Charlie are stricty Londoners,the others are from either Greater London,the home counties or in Brians case Cheltenham

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NICOS
To be honest I'm from Holland, and when I to talk Englisch it's more with US accent then UK

But you'll still have your thick Dutch accent on top of that.

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Koen

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NICOS
To be honest I'm from Holland, and when I to talk Englisch it's more with US accent then UK

But you'll still have your thick Dutch accent on top of that.

Haags Koen

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Gazza

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Rip This
...Mick's great at affecting an American southern accent...otherwise his accent is totaly British.

There's no such accent.

Too right!






"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

It often seemed to me that many singers from Britain
seem to have almost no discernible accent when they sing, even though when they speak, their British accents are very clear to me. Jagger, Beatles, Townshend... all come to mind.

An exception might be someone like old Herman's Hermits (Peter Noon)... I think their singing accents almost accents seem somehow exaggerated.