Obscure Trivia: Why Can You Hear An Accent When Someone Speaks, But Not When They Sing?

Question

As I am sure you have noticed, especially if you listen to music by native English speakers who are not from your area or from a different country (if English is your native language, that is), you cannot tell if they are English, American, Australian, etc... when they sing. You can more clearly hear their accent when they speak.

There is a very good reason for that. Do you know what it is? It's obscure trivia, so give it a shot. The first person who gives the correct answer and explains it so it makes sense will get the BA.

Have fun trying to figure it out if you don't know it!

Answer 1

Speaking doesn't need much effort so the vocal chords are not stretched to their limits.While singing needs different strength of of the vocal chords hence accents are no longer audible. Wouldn't it be weird if you hear someone singing with accents??

Answer 2

I don't know but it is a good question, that I wish I knew the answer to.

Answer 3

It must have to do with the pitch.

Answer 4

As usual,I'm dying to know...Rolf Harris and Bjork and Colin Hay and reggae..I haven't a clue..Fascinating!

Answer 5

The most obvious answer is that the song is learned, the same way the language is - phonetically. If you hear the word Dawg, you will repeat the word Dawg, whereas a reading of the word might produce a spoken word closer to dug, or even dorg. (depending upon one's "normal" pronunciation of that three letter combination)

Mind you this is only true when singing songs written outside your own coloqial lingistic community. Note that the Beatles sang in a decedly British accent when singing songs they wrote. And Selena had an obvious latin sound. It is also extremely difficult to shake harder accents such as those of Asian countries, case in point, William Hung.

Of course, you can not discount the influence of the music itself upon the singer. "Danny Boy," whose lyrics were written in England, by a Brit, who according to all evidence had spent little time in Ireland, if he had been at all, is almost always sang with an Irish Brog. In fact, a smart singer who wants to appear to be a good singer will rework the tune to fit his or her personal accent. If I might use an example from this season's "American Idol," did you hear David Cook's remix of a Dolly Parton song? David knows he can't sing country, and rewrote the song accordingly. He is probably the least versatile singer on the show but he is smart enough that the average listener is not going to realize this - at least that is what he seems to be banking on.

Anyway I hope this helps with your question.

Answer 6

how can it have a correct answer when it's obscure?

Answer 7

Because, just as you learn to speak by mimicking those around you, you learn to sing the same way. So, when you learn to speak you pick up the accent of those that you learn from, and when you learn to sing, you also pick up the accent of those you learn from. Most singers in the world DO have an accent when they sing. It just doesn't seem that way to us because music that is popular in Western society, that is made by non-Americans, is made by non-Americans who learned to sing by listening to American artists, or those influenced by American artists.

But most people do sing with an accent. A lot of country singers sound southern, for example (no matter where they come from). This is because they learned to sing by mimicking country singers who sang with southern accents.

Answer 8

I think it is because they change their vocal chords when they are singing but I don't know for sure.

Answer 9

speaking and singing are from different parts of the brain. I have someone that could not speak after a stroke, but could still sing in church.

Answer 10

Bron - I really don't have the answer to that, but I've been wondering that since childhood.

Mostly it was British singers and I immediately asked my Mom - "wutz up wit dat??"

It is a mystery - sorry I don't have the answer :)

Answer 11

Singing comes out of a different part of the brain.

People who stutter in their native language often speak flawlessly in a foreign language.

Answer 12

um...i CLEARLY HEAR Jim Sturgess accent when he sings songs from Across The Universe

Answer 13

When speaking, vowels and consonants all have definite durations, intonation and articulations (loudness or softness for different syllables) to give accents their different attributes. However in singing, these durations and articulations of the vowels and consonants change to fit the tempo, tune and dynamics of the song. Therefore people with different accents can sound similar when singing the same songs since the way a person sounds when singing is influenced by the song and not how the person speaks.

Answer 14

is it coz accents are often influenced by the 'tone' of voice, and this varies differently when talking but when people sing, they vary the tone in a similar way so u dont distinguish accents.

note: you CAN sometimes tell accents when people sing. like music like the darkness (sometimes overpronounce can't as CARNT) compared to american.