Singing in a dialect and "Authentic pronunciation" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Herb Stahlke]

Of course, trained singers have undergone a lot of training on vocal
diction, and that determines their sung pronunciation as much as
accent.  Moreso with more training.  I remember noticing back in the
70s the consistency with which Motown singers, who were put through
some pretty rigorous vocal training, all dropped post-vocalic /r/.  I
don't think it was just an AAVE thing.  I think it was training,
because these singers came from all over the country.

Herb

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 10:33 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Singing in a dialect and "Authentic pronunciation"
>              (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
>>
>> IMHO, if singers lose accents in songs, and I think they do, then it
> points
>> toward the great amount of tonality in accents that we are not aware
> of,
>> because the singing takes the tonality out from native speech and
> overrides it
>> with the notes of the song.
>>
>
> Isn't this [singing takes the tonality . . .]  only one of many possible
> explanations for why singers may lose accents in songs?  For example,
> Mel Tillis stutters while he speaks, but sings without stutter.  I doubt
> the tonality has anything to do with this.  But whatever process makes
> him not stutter while singing may also make accented singers sing more
> neutrally.
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
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