Bad english?

  • Thread starter Thread starter moskus
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I, personally, as an American, like rock with a british accent. It always seems to personify more of a the rock sound. I think of the clash and the sex pistols, the accent accents the style, giving it a harder edge it seems.
 
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson springs to mind as an exception to the rule I stated. He didn't adopt an American accent, but had great success I mean they were huge in the 70s., but then again that was THEN not NOW!

That American bird who played an English one in the film Bridget Jones' Diary did a superb job of effecting an English accent - I thought she WAS English. But unfortunately many Americans think a 'cockney' accent is THE English accent - ie Bart Simpson's attempt in the Simpsons, and Dick Van Dyke's notoriously bad attempt in Mary Poppins, and while we're on the subject the guy who tries to do a Scottish accent in the Simpsons for the school caretaker is WAY off!

Funny, i wonder if a Country singer from New York would have to put on a Southern drawl in order to be succesful?
 
Country singer from New York...hmmmm, I don't think there's ever been one! But I don't think a New York accent would go well with country music. Maybe that's just 'cause I'm a white collared, city slickin' Yankee.
 
You know... sometimes it's not so much the accent that is the giveaway, but the figures of speech. For example: here in Seattle we call a grocery store cart a "shopping cart", but down in Alabama they call them "shopping buggies".
When I hear certain words or phrases, with or without an accent, I immediately think: English! Or Irish. etc...
Like the Beatles saying "the banker likes to wear a mac". No Yank would ever say that. No Yank would ever call Americans "Yanks" either. It's just a Brit term. Sometimes you can even tell posts on this BBS are from Brits when they use certain phrases.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Thanks for the input, people! :)




Aaron Cheney said:
Sometimes you can even tell posts on this BBS are from Brits when they use certain phrases.
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Could you tell that I was not from an english-speaking country (if my profile here didn't tell you that I was from Norway, that is)?
 
moskus said:
Could you tell that I was not from an english-speaking country (if my profile here didn't tell you that I was from Norway, that is)?
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Nope. :) At any rate, your English is far better than my Norwegian.

-Derrick
 
moskus said:
Could you tell that I was not from an english-speaking country (if my profile here didn't tell you that I was from Norway, that is)?
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Not generally - except for the posts where you ask for help with the English language! :D

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Very interesting thread.

I keep puking when a lot of songs originally in english are translated to spanish and tried to be sung in a "convincing" spanish. I like them a lot more in its original languaje than in bad translated and badly spoken spanish.

A perfect example is Bryan Adams "Everything I do (I do it for you)" which I like in english but detest in spanish.

Great points about American and England's accents, too.
 
I remember hearing David Lee Roth's "Eat 'Em and Smile" in a Spanish version. I don't know if Roth knows Spanish, or if he just learned the songs phonetically. I do know they sounded pretty dorky....

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
I had no idea that D.L.R. did that attrocity... must sound awful... yikes! I thought only pop artists and "boy" bands did that.

Well, anyway, we are retaliating now. How do you like Ricky Martin's accent?

I think music must be played in its original languaje. only my 2 cents.
 
As you're probably aware when they started out The Beatles played a lot in Germany and got to know the place a bit. later on they actualy recorded German versions of a couple of their songs. I think She Love's You became Sie Liebe Dich.

- They sound really strange the harmonies are identical and the sound of the Beatles voices but its in another language. I always thought when I heard them years ago that it was a really nice gesture - I mean to take the trouble to record something for the German fans in their own language, just to make that much effort.
 
You're right, glynb.

That was a nice gesture from the Beatles to the public they had played to for some time and that they were familiar with their languaje. I've heard those versions and they are an eye-opener on how Beatles were so good to make harmonies, as well as performers. Both versions are identical! (except for the german, of course).

Anyway, I wouldn't want to hear something like

"Ella te ama, sí, sí, sí!"

:D ;)

But anyway that's a different concept from artist who try to get a new audience from other countries people and doesn't even know the language properly.
 
Ricky Martin has virtually no accent when he speaks/sings in English, but that doesn't make his music any more listenable in my opinion. ;)

-Derrick
 
Could you tell that I was not from an english-speaking country (if my profile here didn't tell you that I was from Norway, that is)?
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Until our recent exchanges concerning Stavanger, I had always thought that you were a rit working in Norway. I couldn't tell you were Norwegian. Even the colloqualisms were English.
 
Paul881 said:
Until our recent exchanges concerning Stavanger, I had always thought that you were a rit working in Norway. I couldn't tell you were Norwegian. Even the colloqualisms were English.
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Thank you! :)

But "colloqualisms"??? I had to look that one up... ;)
 
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