Why are some of Britain’s regional accents underrepresented in music?
When Arctic Monkeys emerged in the mid-2000s with their breakthrough debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, there was plenty of discourse about how a band had managed to become a sensation while bucking the trend of singing in a put on, yet palatable Americanised accent. They weren’t faking this super-polished vocal style; instead, frontman Alex Turner was singing in a voice you’d be used to hearing in the local boozer.
There was no attempt to cover up their South Yorkshire roots, and it felt refreshing to hear such a bold rejection of the standardised accent of popular music as they replace their ‘anything’s with ‘owt’s, their vowels are truncated, and their ‘t’s glottalised. They may have toned it down in more recent times, with Turner’s loungy crooning adopting a faux transatlantic drawl on occasion, but the fact that they managed to score multiple hits both in the UK and around the world while singing in a broad Sheffield accent felt almost revolutionary.
However, it wasn’t remotely a new thing for an indie rock group to be successful while singing in their own local accent. Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays threw thick Mancunian intonations into the band’s music, Lee Mavers of The La’s was as Scouse as you get—and a far better representation of the Merseyside accent on record than the Beatles were—and Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys has always retained his Welshness regardless of which language he’s singing in.
However, the more you begin to think about the accents of the UK, the more you start to realise that there are plenty that don’t get as much recognition or love in the indie rock sphere. You might be able to flick on the radio and hear a Scottish accent, but you’re far less likely to get any representation for the West Midlands, the South West or East Anglian accents, so why is that?
Of course, there are examples that all the above exist, but they’re hardly seen as the most desirable and can be subject to derision when utilised in song. There’s a reason why The Wurzels are seen as a novelty act and were never indie darlings. It’s not just because they sang about drinking cider and agricultural tools but because their accents, too, sound parodical. They may have been authentically West Country, but they never helped themselves by playing up to the trope that all people in the region are related to farmers and lack intelligence.
Then again, it’s hard to imagine any artist whose style would be improved by enforcing a rule that they have to sing in their local accent. It often appears as though there’s a fine line between capturing authenticity and becoming a joke, and while Richard Dawson can make the Geordie accent sound gorgeous on record, Jimmy Nail wasn’t ever blessed with that same gift.
There’s probably a decent argument to be made that singing in a regional accent lends itself to parody more often than it does to genuine, respectable artistry, but should that really be the case? Are we simply opening up different regional identities to ridicule by playing on stereotypes, and would it be better to hear an authentic variety of the rich dialectal differences scattered across the island? When we’re not pissed out of our heads on scrumpy or scoffing pasties and cheese, the wider West Country accent with all of its rhotic ‘r’s and lengthy vowels is genuinely a thing of beauty, and there’s almost certainly a vocalist out there that would be able to do it justice.
Much like shifting and softening regional accents through the increased insistence on using received pronunciation (RP) prevalent among broadcasters in the past, we can’t let accents be erased in other mediums. Hearing the natural singing voices of those from specific areas of our fair island is something that needs to be brought to the fore more often without a need to ham it up. When Scottish accents are widely known for being melodic and tuneful when used in folk, is it really fair that the first act your mind jumps to for a sung Scottish accent is The Proclaimers? I think not.
