Fake Jamaican accents? Like when Fish does it on "What Colour Is God?". Don't you hate that shit ?!
The other day I was watching the BBC News and they were in Scotland. They were interviewing eye witnesses to some event and one of the witnesses was black and she had the thickest Scottish accent I ever heard! In my naive mind it never occurred to me that there are black people in Scotland and that they would talk like Fish. It actually blew my mind to hear it!
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Originally Posted by Yves
On which part of the song does he do that?
Well, that just isn't true or borne up by the facts.
I agree with this pretty much. When the Beatles were doing covers of American R&R songs they sounded American. Well, to be honest, when I was a little kid I had no idea the Beatles and Stones were from some other country across the ocean. But then you had Herman's Hermits (Peter Noone) who was obviously singing in a somewhat exaggerated, English accent (maybe it wasn't exaggerated but let's ne honest, the Beatles and Stones didn't sing like that). I guess it depends on what they're singing. Dusty Springfield was called a soul singer. She was doing American style R&B of that era. It probably would've sounded a bit odd if she was singing with a British accent. It just wouldn't have worked. Now imagine if Jack Bruce sang in a Scottish accent. I doubt it would've worked with Cream. I don't think British, rock vocalists were consciously trying to sound American, I think they just sang naturally.Hmm, I never thought of this as adopting an American accent. I actually think when ANY native English speaker sings with proper diction they can tend to sound "similar," but I never thought of it as sounding American.
Seems to me - as a Scotsman living in New York - that everyone thinks they can do a great Jamaican, Scottish and Australian accent - and very few really can.
Reminds me of the episode of The Tomorrow People where they encounter a group of extraterrestrials (one of them played by a young Peter Davison, in his first, apparently very embarrassing TV role) who pick up old western TV shows on their ship, they assume all of the Earth is like that. So the whole episode has everyone speaking in these really lame "American" accents. If they actually talked the way they did in westerns (say with everyone impersonating John Wayne), but instead they sounded more like a bad imitation of The Beverly Hillbillies.
And while we're on the topic of accents, I remember years ago, back in the late 80's, seeing a Scottish group called The Proclaimers on David Letterman. After they did their song, Dave interviewed the two brothers (twins, I think) who were basically the main guys in the group, and I swear to you I couldn't understand a word either of them said. There's been occasions in recent years when I've had to turn on the closed captioning on the TV when watching British shows, because the accents lately have become difficult to understand. I guess British TV producers figured out that if their shows were going to be "more real", they had to ditch the "BBC accent".
Wow, Christopher Lambert sounds bad. He also looks like there's something wrong with him.
I don't get the complaints about Mrs. Doubtfire - that's SUPPOSED to be not only a faked accent but a faked female voice too. Is she (he) supposed to be Scottish? I didn't remember if she was, I just thought English.
Not offensive but it's sure weird sometimes. Watching Hugh Laurie in House, for instance, really fucked with my head for a while at first. But at the same time it's interesting, and especially impressive when done well. The Jamaican thing doesn't strike me as any more or less dumb than, say, white guys trying to sound like street gangstas. (Well, actually, strike that. White gangstas always sound like idiots, so a little fake rasta-talk is more bearable after all.)
Anyway, it all depends on the context. A little silly "ya man" stuff for a particularly reggae-sounding song doesn't really bother me. A more extensive affectation might.
Or how about Arrested Development's mini-sequence with the Wee Britain neighborhood in the middle of California? Americans playing Brits who are trying (badly) to sound American. It still gets me.
i seem to remember a Robin Williams interview where he said he based the voice of Mrs Doubtfire on the voice of Scottish film director Bill Forsyth. Its not the worst attempt at a Scottish accent I have ever heard.
Raj sounds like George Lopez when he does a white guy voice.
Yeah, white guys trying to sound gangsta is just as annoying. Beastie Boys always sound stupid to me, especially as I went to school with Mike D and back then he just sounded like a nerdy Jewish kid.
Now THIS is annoying as hell.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
White guys saying the word "gangsta" is annoying.
It surprised when I was a teenager and I first started watching EastEnders (yeah, I know, why was I watching that crap!), which had a couple black characters. But then I remembered that on The Tomorrow People (which I had watched several years before that) had a black character (played by an actress born in Glasgow, no less!).
BTW, when accents are done well (as by the likes of Hugh Laurie, Simon Baker, and that actress who plays the stalker on Two And A Half Men), it doesn't actually bother me. I only get annoyed with badly done accents. For instance, the typical "Irish" accent who hear a lot of Americans do seems to based more on the leprechaun from the Lucky Charms cereal commercials, as opposed to any actual Irishmen. If you've ever heard Gary Moore, Phil Lynott or Rory Gallagher speak, that's more like what actual Irish accents sound like.
And conversely, I don't much care for badly done American accents, as per the Tomorrow People episode I mentioned before.
Word up, homeslice.
Maybe not Jamaican per se, but he goes 'patois' in the part about the cop with the partner with a nervous trigger finger. And I don't mind it, it just came to mind when I saw this thread and I know you're a big Fish fan.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Does anybody remember Informer by Snow? That dude was, like, a white guy from Canada. But the thing is, he was able to do a quite believable Jamaican accent. It was so good, that one of my friends, who heard Informer on the radio for the first time, and didn't know who the singer was, thought the artist was, like, a black Jamaican or something like that. xD Haha.
Some of the comments about Ali Campbell & UB40 are, well, a bit tone deaf.
First, even though they're covering classic reggae tunes, their voices are so distinctively Black Country, it's actually quite endearing.
Second, they channeled huge proportions of the profits of their records back to the original writers & performers who had been exploited originally, & who had made little or no money from their work.
I don't care for their music particularly, but I have so much respect for their values.
Just for the record, I've come around to Beastie Boys in the past 10 years.
This guy too has a bit to say related to the topic. :-)
https://youtu.be/Nq3I16BgPvY?feature=shared
Figured I'd throw this out there...
https://youtu.be/3t1K7dw2uj0?t=385
At 6:25 if it doesn't automagically go there.
Behold! The disco/calypso crossover NO ONE asked for!
I understand she later changed her name to Miss Cleo:
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
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