If not for the internet, would you be able to tell the nationalities of these English language singers?
It surprises me how some of these singers seem to lose their accents in the songs they sing.
Famous bands such as U2, The Script, The Cranberries, and the Corrs are Irish, including Sinead O’Connor.
Of Monsters and Men are from Iceland. Kimbra is from New Zealand, and Kylie Minogue is Australian.
But when they sing, the typical rise and fall and intonations of their accents are not distinct, and they could be just as easily assumed to be American or Canadian.
Why is that?
My theory is that music and song have an accent of their own, with the words pronounced following the melodies and the structure of the song and the tune. The way a song is sung has its own unique rhythm and style, which can mask the way specific words are usually pronounced in the accent of a speaker.
So in a way, music unifies people across the globe, and we focus on appreciating the beauty of song as it is, without language borders.
Now isn’t that interesting?