Who's speaking voice is most different to their singing voice?

[Beagle 2]

I'll start you off.

Macclesfield softly spoken wally Ian Curtis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LK-7dnuk8M&feature=related

Captivating incredible Ian Curtis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVc29bYIvCM

[SteveDave]

Rufus Wainwright

Sings like Thom Yorke, talks like Big Gay Al

[Nuclear Optimism]

I've always wondered; when British singers sign with an American-sounding accent, is that a cynical marketing ploy, or do people naturally go a bit American when they sing?

[Tiny Poster]

A lot of people find it hard to sing in their own voice, for a number of reasons - such as projection, or confidence - so they change it a bit. What with American music being the prevailing cultural influence the whole world over, it's not surprising that people 'naturally' lapse into that kind of accent. Or perhaps their original accent sounds a bit daft - cf Ozzy Osbourne telling Frank Skinner that Paranoid just wouldn't work in Brummie.

[Steven]

I've always thought of it as a natural bi-product of the singing process. With the English accent the stress is more on the constanants rather than the vowels. But in the American accent the vowels are stressed more, and this is also the way it works with singing. Because the throat needs to be open the stress is put more on the vowels, which are sounded with an open throat rather than with closed lips or labio-dental movement, so someone singing the word 'love' wouldn't stress it as 'llllllllllllllllllllllllovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve' that would just sound weird, so they stress the open vowel sounds `loooooooooooooooooveeeeeeeeeee', because it's the more natural process for singing. Hence why people tend to sound more American, the Beatles etc just sang that way because they were copying the records they listened to though!

[Jamie Oliver is fat]

Robin Gibb

[Gulftastic]

Jimmy Sommerville

[gabrielconroy]

Thom Yorke

Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdm-VC_z8FI

Singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n10JC0BOWF8

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I've always wondered; when British singers sign with an American-sounding accent, is that a cynical marketing ploy, or do people naturally go a bit American when they sing?

It's partly how much they've been influenced by American culture, and is on some levels a bit cynical.

I fucking hate it. We have enough American singers from America thank you. Even cynical working-class-heroes like Kate Nash and Arctic Monkeys bloke are preferable. At least their origins are there somewhere.

[daf]

Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream -
speaking = Glasgow
singing = All of the Deep South American States combined

Putting on a different accent to sing is a ludicrous affectation, it's the aural equivalent of wearing a wig.

[Kane Jones]

I fucking hate it. We have enough American singers from America thank you. Even cynical working-class-heroes like Kate Nash and Arctic Monkeys bloke are preferable. At least their origins are there somewhere.

I disagree - give me that trans-atlantic twang over 'knees up mavva braaan' or 'ey oop chuck' any day of the week.  Unless it's Robert Smith or Morrissey.  Because.. Well, I like them. I think it's more natural to sing with a slight American accent than it is to sing with your own accent.  It just sounds weird and actually more forced, like these singers are trying to make a point of sounding a bit shit and 'British'. It's not singing, more like talking in tune.

My vote goes to Axl Rose.  Voice like a midnight graveyard when he speaks.  Like a chainsaw through metal when he sings.

[Black Ship]

Brett Anderson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beMb2ouSViw&feature=related

[non capisco]

Putting on a different accent to sing is a ludicrous affectation, it's the aural equivalent of wearing a wig.

I see nothing wrong with it - a bit of artifice has always been part of rock 'n' roll.

[daf]

I see nothing wrong with it - a bit of artifice has always been part of rock 'n' roll.

They sir, are wearing a musical wig - a phoney-baloney red white and blue star spangled wig at that!

[NoSleep]

I've noticed a tendency for almost anyone to sing out of tune if they adopt an SE English estuary accent. It's entirely unconscious for the most part.

Interesting that some styles of music lend themselves to singers using their speaking voice. The notable singers in the Canterbury scene for instance (Daevid Allen, Robert Wyatt & Richard Sinclair).
You find it a lot in Brazilian music, too (Sepultura aside).

If you're looking for the singer who sounds most different to singing voice when talking, then I guess you're going to have to look at some of the Metal bands

Angela Gossow speaks:

http://youtu.be/y7MKbv0gXtM

Angela Gossow "sings":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxD4Ruf68bU

[Unoriginal]

It's partly how much they've been influenced by American culture, and is on some levels a bit cynical.

I fucking hate it. We have enough American singers from America thank you. Even cynical working-class-heroes like Kate Nash and Arctic Monkeys bloke are preferable. At least their origins are there somewhere.

Not The Kooks though. Never The Kooks.

[ITMA]

I'd no idea until I heard a clip on the radio a few months ago that I'd never heard Freddie Mercury speak.

And I would have never guessed he talks with an oh so posh voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wk9hPubD1Q

[CaledonianGonzo]

Really?

There's plenty of Queen where Noël Coward Fred is to the foreground:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkxWyt7K4hw

[ITMA]

I'd no idea until I heard a clip on the radio a few months ago that I'd never heard Freddie Mercury speak.

And I would have never guessed he talks with an oh so posh voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wk9hPubD1Q

Probably just me that has missed him speak. I'm hardly a Queen fan... "my favourite album would probably be.... The Best of The Queen"

[CaledonianGonzo]

To be honest, the most seemingly out of character thing about that interview is the way he's just quaffing away on a massive tankard of beer and chain-smoking tabs.

[waste of chops]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOtpf0K13NE vs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwgMMtgSTVE

[Unoriginal]

My dad was always watching Queen's best of collection of music videos. I'm one of those people who knows every word of Bohemian Rhapsody off by heart but I really don't want to. My dad's a cunt.

[Natnar]

Lisa Stansfield. The singing voice of soul, the speaking voice of Gracie Fields.

[Beagle 2]

Ah yeah, I reckon that's actually the one!

[Vodka Margarine]

Kate Bush
Holly Johnson
Adele
Matt Bellamy
Sharleen Spiteri
Elizabeth Fraser
Mike Patton (pre '92 vintage FNM)

And some who sing exactly like they speak:

Leonard Cohen
Lou Reed
Jarvis Cocker
Cerys Matthews
Ringo Starr

[rudi]

Jimmy Sommerville

That's who I imediately thought of, yeah. Him and La Stansfield also mentioned above.

What a useful post this was, eh?

[NoSleep]

Well, it's prompted me to see your Jimmy Somerville with my Curtis Mayfield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKIakthV8uk (interviewed by Paul Weller)

http://youtu.be/Z9nwcpGZE6A (Freddie's Dead)

...what a man.

[phantom_power]

Whenever I hear Billy Ocean interviewed on the radio, which is not often admittedly, I wouldn't be able to guess in a million years that it was him

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater:

Theatrical, soaring, sometimes bombastic falsetto singing voice, not unlike Mark Hollis from Talk Talk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBLB-_b3_Jk

Fairly typical American blokey speaking voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgXJ3yB3RCM