Accents: comment! | Imamother

Ruchel ↓

Fri, May 21 2010, 7:26 am

These are French young singers singing in English. Can you comment the accents (good, bad, etc)? I'm not quite sure personally, it's very hard for me to tell. I'm very curious!

elf123 ↓

Fri, May 21 2010, 9:10 am

Ruchel, not sure if you realized it or not, but I got about 30 seconds into the first singer/song and there is a very clear profanity in there! It's funny b/c I've heard the song before but never realized there was a nasty word in it.
I assume this is the French version of "American Idol?"

↑ Ruchel ↓

Fri, May 21 2010, 9:37 am

Yes it's the "New Star" thing lol. There certainly may be bad words as these are secular pop songs... the girls aren't dresses tznius either. Listen with closed eyes Wink

LeahW

Fri, May 21 2010, 9:54 am

elf123 wrote:

Ditto to that. So I stopped listening. But my impression is that the guy sounds like he's American with a mild speech impediment and his mouth looks really weird as he tries to force out American sounds. I didn't watch the others.

lilacdreams

Fri, May 21 2010, 9:56 am

thanks elf for the warning - ruchel that is so inappropriate for listening - especially if kids are in the room. Please dont post stuff like that Ruchel.

↑ Ruchel ↓

Fri, May 21 2010, 10:17 am

Huh. These are considered random songs here, not edgy or anything, two at least are regularly heard on family radios. Again, the title of each video says pretty clearly it's not Gospel. Or chazanut. And no one says you have to listen to all of them.
I'll put that on the cultural stuff again...

yo'ma

Fri, May 21 2010, 10:22 am

I'm not big into music, but when I hear a song, I usually don't undertand what they're saying anyway Confused

. Yes, some of them I heard an accent, but like I said, I hardly understood it anyway, even if it was accent free, probably. The oldies but goodies, those I understand, but not like I know it.
I usaully don't hear an accent when singing, but yesterday, I heard a spanish singer singing an english song and I guess since she was singing so slowly and no music, I heard a very strong accent.

Teacup9 ↓

Fri, May 21 2010, 10:43 am

The f-bomb is in the first song. I've heard that song many times on the radio and NEVER had any idea that word was in it. Most words like that are cut out in US radio versions, but it is more obvious. Anyway I Googled the lyrics and apparently that word is in the original song. The only other country where I listened to the radio is Israel and I noticed they don't bleep bad words in American songs either.

I agree with the poster who said the first guy sounded funny, like a speech issue, but had little trace of an accent.

The second garbled her words and it was obvious she didn't know the different between individual words. I wouldn't say I heard an accent per say.

3 has an accent. No doubt about it.

4 is hard to say. I hear an accent for sure during parts of the song that aren't exactly sung. However there is something else strange about her voice, but I am not sure if it is an accent or just a crazy, poor, strange performance (which, from my understanding happens on the American Idol too).

↑ Ruchel ↓

Fri, May 21 2010, 10:52 am

Yeah I have never heard of bleeping words either, if a song is disagreed with by a radio they just don't play it... I think the f word is just typical teen stuff and there for realism. If he said a grandma word it just wouldn't be the same... from some reactions you would think I wrote the stuff AND I'm supposed to know there are clean versions of songs...

thanks Teacup for analysis!

DefyGravity

Fri, May 21 2010, 11:02 am

I never knew the first song had the eff word in the lyrics. I've only heard it on the radio and they either blank the word out or change it.

It's only when I hear songs on Pandora that I find out the true lyrics to some songs.

↑ Teacup9

Fri, May 21 2010, 11:16 am

They don't bleep it they just don't say it. It sounds fine. I never even knew a word was taken out.

In the US the FCC monitors what is said on tv and television and fines companies based on the context (like you can say a word that means donkey, but not the same word to mean your behind). Most live shows are played with a ten second delay so slip-ups can be beeped. When I first went to Israel this song (the clean version is called) Living Next Door to Alice, was played all over and unbeeped, but in the US it was beeped, and in the UK they just beeped the part about Buckingham Palace.

The more obvious examples are rap songs. On utube they go by the terms "unedited", "uncensored" or "radio version". I can't think of a particular song right now, but when I come across one on the radio it is very obvious and the song is almost impossible to listen to.

↑ elf123

Fri, May 21 2010, 12:22 pm

Okay, I knew I wasn't crazy. I did some more "research." I've heard the first song, "Creep" on the radio dozens of times too. On the radio here, they change the "eff" word to "very." It's not bleeped, the word appears too many times in the song and it would sound bizarre to have so many bleeps. It's the group themselves who made two versions, they couldn't dub in someone else singing one word. But on mainstream American radio, there is generally no cursing in songs, as was explained about the FCC.

chillax

Fri, May 21 2010, 12:41 pm

I hear an accent in all of them.
Some definitely more noticeable than others though.
If it's a version of "French Idol" why don't they sing songs in French?

↑ Ruchel

Fri, May 21 2010, 12:44 pm

They can sing in French or English, the two main languages for songs in France (in modern music). They can sing in any language for some contests, too. I heard some Spanish, Russian, Italian, and Polynesian!

Yocheved84

Fri, May 21 2010, 3:26 pm

I think they're pretty decent...I couldn't tell they were non-English speakers except for the third one. If you want to hear a French accent with someone singing in English, listen to Celine Dion's first English song....