It might seem surprising but Brits singing in American accents doesn’t really register with general population anymore.
    It’s not surprising though. The American accent has been the default accent for the majority of successful UK pop/rock singers since the 50s ( Did Billy Fury sound like he came from Liverpool?). Indeed, a New Zealand lingusitics professor put it another way. He said that an American accent is the “lingua franca” of international rock/pop sung in English.
Interestingly, we’ve never had a Australian/New Zealand pop/rock star who sounded like they came part of the world ( Apart from Uncle Rolf?)
    Take country music superstar Keith Urban. Just from listening to him, you would never know that he is from Australia.
    And, in the UK, so many pop/rock singers have got very strong regional accents when they speak, but that all goes away when they sing. Indeed, when Brit rock/pop is ocassionally sung with a distinct regional accent ( think The Proclaimers) in draws attention to itself in a big way. And, even seems “strange and bizarre” to some listeners.
   I never went in for much of the output from the Punk area, but at least many of the bands from back then did strive for an English vocal sound.
   BTW, the article by sociolinguist expert Peter Trudgill - that I mentioned in a previous post -is definitely worth looking up. Back in the mid/late 70s, he analysed a number of Brtish rock singers as to how much of their singing accent was American.
   Ian Drury came out as the most British of all the singers he studied.
    Of course, some singers do just a great impersonation, that it seems mean to complain. For example, I remember Stevie Winwood - at 15 - bursting on the scene singing like a teenage Ray Charles. In one way it was impressive but one could ask, “ If you want to express yourself, do it with your own voice and not somebody elses”.
    Interestingly, I would say that all the really great rock/blues/soul/jazz/country etc singers do sing with a voice that sounds like a musical extension of their day-to-day speaking voices.
      I’ll return to the 100 Greatest Blues Singers list shortly but, for now, think about this.
Do any of UKs rock and blues guitar stars play with a distinct British “accent”? Or, if your like, when they play, do they sound different, in a British sort of way, from great US rock guitarists?.
    For example, it has been said, in the rock press, that Dave Gilmour has a Celtic feel to his playing.