Dialect change

FRITZ JUENGLING juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US
Mon Nov 4 19:19:29 UTC 2002


I have asked several choral singers about this and they generally say the same thing-- 'sounds better without the /r/s'.  I guess that is simply a matter of taste.  I am not bothered by /r/s in songs at all.  I do remember a song from the early 80's by a group called REO Speedwagon, "Keep on Loving You", in which the lead singer, Kevin Cronin, exagerated his /r/s.  I think one reason the song was so catchy (it went to #1 in the US) was because of the exagerated /r/s-- foreveRRR.
Anyone else remember that song?
Fritz
>>> jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM 11/04/02 06:06AM >>>
I'm not a professional musician, but having sung in a
number of chorals during my life, I can say that, to
make the sound more pleasing, dropping the "r" at the
end of words and eliminating diphthongs as much as
possible are two things which are stressed
consistently.



--- Karl Krahnke <krahnke at LAMAR.COLOSTATE.EDU> wrote:
> The discussion on dialect change in song raises an
> issue I have been
> vaguely aware of for some time and on which I
> recently received some
> surprising evidence.
>
> I do not regularly listen to popular music of any
> kind (that is not meant
> as a snobbish remark--I just don't), but when I do
> hear sort of mainstream
> vocals (sorry, I can't be more precise, yet) I
> frequently notice the singer
> using a relatively r-less pronunciation and
> monophthonizing /ai/
> diphthongs. There may be other features, but I have
> not noticed them. Yet,
> as several of you have noted, when the singer is
> interviewed, s/he uses a
> fully r-ful dialect with diphthongs.
>
> I thought I was on to some unrecognized
> sociolinguistic change that I would
> get around to researching some day, when I mentioned
> this phenomenon to a
> freshman class of mine--extremely linguistically
> naive and r-pronouncing,
> diphthongizers. They shrugged and said that it was
> nothing new to them,
> that several had taken pop singing lessons and that
> was a basic part of the
> instruction.
>
> I haven't gone any further with this. Is this common
> knowledge? Any similar
> experiences?
>
> Karl Krahnke
> English Department
> Colorado State University


=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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