The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151783 Message #3546920
Posted By: GUEST,Allan Conn
08-Aug-13 - 09:11 AM
Thread Name: Singing in Different Accents/Dialects
Subject: RE: Singing in Different Accents/Dialects
"Most of all, I think the concept of being "fake" needs more thought"
That is true. I can remember when the Proclaimers first came to prominence they got some criticism for intentionally singing in their own accents. For putting it on!
I played a couple of songs at the break at a Debra Cowan gig in Kelso. The first one was in the local dialect whilst the second one wasn't. She liked them both but asked me why I sang the second song with an American accent. I honestly didn't think I was, or certainly didn't mean to. and was kind of taken a back. She must have heard it in there though! I just thought I was singing it in a more neutral way without the local accent.
You are right though we speak differently depending who were are speaking to. With real locals I tend to speak with quite a broad accent using a lot of Scots words; at home with my English wife I tend to rein it in a wee bit; at work it tends to be more standard English but with the Scottish accent. At dinner parties my wife says she can see me holding different converstations with different degrees of dialect being used depending who the people are. I think it is something some people do naturally