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

[Jonathan Lighter]

It must be pretty annoying, particularly since a cruder version of the same
principle resulted in the rise of the minstrel show, but the linguistic
silver lining is that it supports the idea that for many people the accent
is inextricable from the sound.

To white-boy me it isn't the imitation that bugs, it's the media gush. Is
the kid being praised for his singing or for his Frank-Gorshin-style mimicry
skills? And if I want to hear the songs of a fifty-year-old black bluesman,
why shouldn't I listen to one instead?  (The late Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
would be a good choice.) They (or their heirs) need royalties too.

BTW, the choice of "fifty" rather than "seventy" or "eighty" suggests just
how "old"  the critic is.

JL

On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 3:03 AM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Singing in a dialect and "Authentic pronunciation"
>              (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The pure sonic power of good music can attract across many
> boundaries--cultural, social, economic, racial. But many singers don't
> realize how foolish sounding or even insulting they can be when attempting
> to copy the voice of their musical heroes.
>
> Personally, I like best those singers who when performing songs from other
> musical traditions retain something of their own voice. I absolutely love
> listening to Josh White's versions of "Barbara Allen" and "Foggy, Foggy
> Dew". Even as much as I love to hear June Tabor or Kate Rusby sing songs
> from the same tradition.
>
> But Florence Henderson singing Hank Williams, uh.........
> ouch.
>
> Eric
>
>
> >
> > My wife, a fan of "new" music, has just brought to my attention a
> > recently-discovered, 29-year-old, white singer who is greatly praised
> > by random white music critics because, it is written, he is considered
> > to possess "the voice of a fifty-year-old, black bluesman!"
> >
> > Do y'all white folks have *any* kind of idea, the *least* concept, of
> > how much it sucks donkey dick for colored folks to have to spend their
> > lives hearing and reading how *great* it is that some *white* person
> > has, in some way, trained himself/herself to be, in some way,
> > niggerish, whereas the people who are such by birthright are despised,
> > distrusted, ridiculed, and even feared?
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > =E2=80=93=E2=80=93=E2=80=93
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=E2=80=93=E2=80=93a
> strange=
>  complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > =E2=80=93Mark Twain
>  >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org