Strange accents in pop music

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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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Poorly?

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Steve Harley!!

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

lol.. she looks like Rhea Perlman too..

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

That Jenkins guy from Third Eye Blind

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

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

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

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

"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 (eighteen years ago) link

Brett Anderson:

Yer Taykin' me euver.

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

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

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Sting's fake Jamaican accent also belongs here.

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

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

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Ivor Cutler

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

rockwell

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

Also, Björk, but that is obvious.

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

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 (five years ago) link

A fella doing the 'indie girl voice'?

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

An Afro-Jamaican indie girl?

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

The guy's from Glasgow!

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

Kill this prick

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

done!

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

thought Sting was French when I was a kid

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

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 (five years ago) link

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

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

i hate this song

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

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 (five years ago) link

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 (five years ago) link

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 (five years ago) link

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 (five years ago) link

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 (five years ago) link

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 (five years ago) link

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 (five years ago) link

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