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The twang in Australian Idol

Why are so many young singers adopting American accents in their performances?

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I suppose we only have ourselves to blame, but why are so many of the Australian Idol contestants singing in American accents and why aren’t the judges pulling them up on this?

Last night Kyle at least referred to the twang in Trent’s version of Matchbox Twenty’s 3AM. His vocal accent completely contrasts with his very strine speaking voice.

On Sunday Dylan gave us a very southern sounding Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

And Denvah was doing her best Carly Rae Jepsen in Call Me Maybe.

But if the show is called Australian Idol should the judges, well two of them at least, be pointing out that accents are not necessary? Or even vocal coach Carmen…

It’s not like Dylan started singing Scottish for his excellent Proclaimers number a week earlier, so why are we karaoke Creedence?

It’s an affectation I’ve often noticed with Keith Urban too. Speak Aussie, sings American?

But at least with the Idol kids they are generations younger, having been raised on iTunes. I guess it’s a growth thing and the development process of the competition will iron it out -but only if somebody tells them.

18 Responses

  1. I think part of the problem these days is the idea of learning a craft seems to be a thing of the past, young people imitate pop records and think they are wonderful. It is somewhat disturbing how many people seem to think the vocal exercises that the Mariah Careys of this world seem to stick at the end of every verse are the height of good singing. A lot of these contestants would be surprised if they heard a trained voice. Of course my opinion isn’t worth the breath its spoken on.

  2. Simon Cowell would always point this out to contestants on the UK X Factor. But I guess that’s a show that has produced international recording artists.

  4. Was I going deaf or was that TJ guy one of the worst vocalists to make it to a Top 10 on Australian Idol? I was completely flawed that the judges kept praising him… like am I honestly that far removed from what constitutes a good vocalist that I can’t pick up that he might be good? Absolutely not. Choosing Party Rock Anthem as your song was hilarious, and then attempting to reinvent You’re The Voice with an atrocious remix was an insult to our surrogate national anthem. The whole thing was so bad it was laughable. In fact, the crop of singers this year continues to be underwhelming despite various reports it’ll be the best lot yet…

    1. Agree entirely. They feted him as the winner too early, then kept propping him up.
      But there are some good vocalists among them. The exited Ripley and Imogen. Amy, Denvah, Dylan. I think the Top 2 will be Amy and Dylan.

  10. You make some excellent points in this post, DK, but I think the ship has sailed on that some time back culturally in Australia. Music has become pretty derivative. Sure there are some quintessential bands and singers home to every country, but the Americanisation of pop culture is pretty pervasive; has been for decades, I’d argue.

    With all that said, I thought Kyle was pretty rude to Trent, and later to Amy with his reference to what he’d do to her trophy she won. He is without any class or pleasantry. Not sure how Marcia puts up with him.

  11. Personally, I gave up on the show last week when not one but two of the strongest singers got booted in the first week. The format this year of how they’ve decided to split the group and evict singers is flawed.

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