Strange accents in pop music

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Following on from the received accents thread...

The one that gets me is the new wave accent of the late '70s. Joe Jackson, Bob Geldof and the like spring to mind. For example, the word 'night' would be pronounced 'nate' and slightly clipped. Anthoer feature is the sibilant s.

Another oddity is Ray Davies' affected Geordie twang ... at least, that's what it sounds like to me.

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 6 March 2006 14:50 (twenty years ago)

There's a weird thing Bowie does with the 'a' sound - so that 'made' come out like 'mide' for example. I don't what accent that's supposed to be.

Then there's Mick Jagger's curious Southern American accent...

― JBC, Monday, 6 March 2006 14:55 (twenty years ago)

*Ray Davies' affected Geordie twang ... *

gurl, yous really got me gannin'
yous got me gannin' so ah nae knows wot ahm dooin'

― dr x o'skeleton, Monday, 6 March 2006 15:00 (twenty years ago)

I knew Muswell Hill was Norf London, but didn't know it was *that* far North!

― I'm Not Afraid Of Electricity (kate), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:02 (twenty years ago)

I'm still speechless like.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:02 (twenty years ago)

kate bush's comedy australian/cockney accents on the dreaming!

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:03 (twenty years ago)

...and we had an hour's ~~fite~~ discussion about whether I Capture The Castle should be cah-stle or cass-tle. The posh Southern bastards (bitches?) won out over the Brummie.

― I'm Not Afraid Of Electricity (kate), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:04 (twenty years ago)

There's always everyone's favorite, Mark E. Smith. Though I don't know enough about British geography to know where you add an "-ah" to every word.

― js (honestengine), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:09 (twenty years ago)

There's also the throat-tightening thing some people feel the need to do whenever they sing: Elvis costello, for example ... or Paul Heaton, whose voice sometimes verges on the Chewbacca.

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

I've always wondered: what the hell is going on with Tom Petty's voice on American Girl? OK, he's nasal all the time, but this is, dunno, is he badly faking some weird accent on only that song?

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 6 March 2006 16:21 (twenty years ago)

John Fogerty on Creedence songs...though not being yankish I don't know how strange his accent actually is.

― Masked Gazza, Monday, 6 March 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

Poorly?

― MGrout, Monday, 6 March 2006 16:49 (twenty years ago)

The bloke out of Spank Rock has a voice which hovers between London and LA. It's very odd.

― leeroy, Monday, 6 March 2006 17:58 (twenty years ago)

Steve Harley!!

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 6 March 2006 18:26 (twenty years ago)

All those hair metal bands and now pomp country acts like Big N Rich that uniformly pronounce "city" as "cit-tay" or "cit-tah."

― novamax (novamax), Monday, 6 March 2006 18:43 (twenty years ago)

This probably falls under "received accents" and may have been mentioned on that thread, but on the demo version of "I Don't Care" Joey Ramone sings in a ridiculous accent, sort of clipped yet with wildly distorted vowel sounds, well beyond your standard fake-Cockneyisms. "I don't CAAHHR! About this WAAHHLD! I don't CAAHHR! About that GAAHHL!" Fun.

Also, why does the Electric Six singer go "Danger, danger -- high VEHWL-tage"?

― xero (xero), Monday, 6 March 2006 18:52 (twenty years ago)

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/5083/nico.jpg

― C. Paffgen (blunt), Monday, 6 March 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

And then there's Ari Up's German/British/Jamaican thing.

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:12 (twenty years ago)

what is patti smith's accent? its like she's doing rhea perlman.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:26 (twenty years ago)

that didn't come out right. or maybe it did...

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:27 (twenty years ago)

lol.. she looks like Rhea Perlman too..

― midi sanskrit (sanskrit), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:28 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Fogerty's accent slips around. He's from California, right? "Proud Mary keep on buuy-nin" - eh?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:30 (twenty years ago)

That Jenkins guy from Third Eye Blind

― Jingo, Monday, 6 March 2006 20:32 (twenty years ago)

lol.. she looks like Rhea Perlman too..

it seems there's a possible weird synergy going on there that we probably shouldn't explore.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:33 (twenty years ago)

Does anyone else in the US pronounce "twenty" as "twawnie" or was that John Cougar fella just being a knobhead?

― stu (stu), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

And anyone spared Missy Higgins' Oirish/bushranging poet abomination should consider themselves very lucky.

― stu (stu), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:42 (twenty years ago)

H.R. from Bad Brains sounds like an alien to me.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:50 (twenty years ago)

"John Fogerty on Creedence songs...though not being yankish I don't know how strange his accent actually is."

'Proud Mary, keep on toinin'

I thought he was from Boston, but I don't really care...

And no, Mellencamp's just a knob, though people in Indiana are fucked up.

― js (honestengine), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:51 (twenty years ago)

Brett Anderson:

Yer Taykin' me euver.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:56 (twenty years ago)

If Mellencamp's a knob, you're a twat. How about that?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:59 (twenty years ago)

Very surprised that Creed's Scott Stapp has not been mentioned yet.
"With ahms wahd opunn / undourr the sone-laight"
(Read Jack Endino's great article on this type of vocal style here: http://www.endino.com/archive/yarl.html)

― Ron E. Mexico, Monday, 6 March 2006 21:32 (twenty years ago)

Sting's fake Jamaican accent also belongs here.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Then there's Stuart Staples, king of the tired, drunken unintelligible accent.

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:48 (twenty years ago)

early to mid 80s electronic R&B

HELLO READY FOR THE WORLD AND MIDNIGHT STAR!

― Da Na Not! (donut), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:02 (twenty years ago)

On "Freak-a-zoid", on the album version, the band members employ possibly the most unintentionally bad English accent ever, which of course makes the song greater.

― Da Na Not! (donut), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:03 (twenty years ago)

Also, Falco "Rock Me Amadeus"... the best element of the song is that you can only really make out the chorus, lyrically.

― Da Na Not! (donut), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:07 (twenty years ago)

The Beautiful South's Briana Corrigan has a totally bizarre "Mickey Mouse" in "Mother's Pride": "Miggie mice"? I can still remember looking for the lyrics the first time I heard it.

― patita (patita), Monday, 6 March 2006 23:20 (twenty years ago)

James Reyne, of Australian Crawl.

When I was a kid I always supposed he'd started out as mock-Jamaican but that was just because it seemed like a common affectation of Australian bands at the time (that Men at Work fella for instance).

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:31 (twenty years ago)

this is maria's fave youtube video. it applies to this thread (and it isn't an actual falloutboy video. you have probably seen it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Qtt4MBt08&search=fall%20out%20boy

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:41 (twenty years ago)

Ivor Cutler

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:45 (twenty years ago)

I don't really think it's strange really, but I like how Jens Lekman pronounces things like another "anudder" and so on. . .

― Tokyo Ghost Stories (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 03:22 (twenty years ago)

rockwell

― dave q (listerine), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 10:20 (twenty years ago)

Also, Björk, but that is obvious.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 12:42 (twenty years ago)

thirteen years pass...

wtf is this supposed to be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS0SyW980YI

― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, 8 April 2019 19:05 (seven years ago)

A fella doing the 'indie girl voice'?

― D. Joe, Monday, 8 April 2019 19:09 (seven years ago)

An Afro-Jamaican indie girl?

― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, 8 April 2019 19:10 (seven years ago)

The guy's from Glasgow!

― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, 8 April 2019 19:11 (seven years ago)

Kill this prick

― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Monday, 8 April 2019 19:15 (seven years ago)

done!

― lispectah deck (unregistered), Monday, 8 April 2019 20:11 (seven years ago)

thought Sting was French when I was a kid

― brimstead, Monday, 8 April 2019 21:26 (seven years ago)

Al Jourgensen seems like he was trying pretty hard to sound British on that first Ministry album (which was also as "pop" as he ever got).

― enochroot, Tuesday, 9 April 2019 00:51 (seven years ago)

Doesn't he even sing 'me mum and me dad' on "effigy"?

― brimstead, Tuesday, 9 April 2019 01:12 (seven years ago)

i hate this song

― frame casual (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 12:14 (seven years ago)

do they think that they can get the handcuffs off by..... pulling hard on them??

― Lil' Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 14:15 (seven years ago)

i mean i know they move on to other things but... who would do that????

― Lil' Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 14:16 (seven years ago)

i guarantee you there is something worse than this song, and that's his solo acoustic rendition of this song in a small venue where you are with someone who thinks it's great

― Lil' Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 14:17 (seven years ago)

There's something even worse than that, his big hit before this one - that one is a crime against humanity.

― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 14:21 (seven years ago)

Even the title is annoying (it should be Just You and Me).

― what if bod was one of us (ledge), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 14:32 (seven years ago)

Should it? Doesn't it depend on the context? e.g. 'Just You and I (and Everyone Else Wants To Turn Off this Bloody Song)'

― frame casual (dog latin), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 14:48 (seven years ago)

Hmm, in the lyrics, it's "You and I could take over the world/Just you and I". So "You and I could take over the world" is correct, but you wouldn't say "I could take over the world/Just I", would you?

― what if bod was one of us (ledge), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 15:04 (seven years ago)

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