songs where singers pronounce words incorrectly

those words are her own, she can pronounce freely

Well I can find both /ˈɡʊ.ɹuː/ and /ˈɡuː.ɹuː/ cited online, but have a listen to Infinity and tell me it sounds right

It sounds the same as Marc Bolan's pronunciation in "Metal Guru" to me? I think most North Americans would accent the first syllable instead of the second but afaict, the two syllables sound to me like they have about equal emphasis when Indian people pronounce them, so neither really sounds 'better' than the other to me.

I was wondering wtf was up with the Weekend pronouncing Wrath of Khan as Wraith of Khan, but apparently it's a deliberate reference to the roof of his Rolls Royce. ⭐

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoA_zY6tqQw
Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles

The singer pronounces the letter "ü" as if it was "u", even though they are two different sounds. Maybe it's unfair to criticise an American for not knowing how to pronounce German, but they shouldn't have had their chorus in that language then. The mispronounciation is even more pronounced in the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy song that samples the Dead Kennedys tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAkOifDeSw

Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles

The singer pronounces the letter "ü" as "u", even though they are two different sounds. The mispronounciation is even more pronounced in the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy tune that samples Dead Kennedys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAkOifDeSw

Maybe it's unfair to criticise Americans for mispronouncing German, but OTOH you shouldn't have you chorus in a foreign language if you don't know how it's pronounced.

I was wondering wtf was up with the Weekend pronouncing Wrath of Khan as Wraith of Khan, but apparently it's a deliberate reference to the roof of his Rolls Royce. ⭐

― Manitobiloba (Kim), Monday, 26 December 2016 03:53 (yesterday) Permalink

Wraith is the name of a Rolls-Royce car model

Maybe it's unfair to criticise Americans for mispronouncing German, but OTOH you shouldn't have you chorus in a foreign language if you don't know how it's pronounced.

o_0

?

taking a small amount of time to learn how to say something you intend to record yourself saying is a good way to avoid looking like an incurious rube but the counterpoint to that would be wgaf, most of the egs itt add character to the song

With the DK/Disposable Hiphoprisy example it certainly comes off as rubish, since they want the chorus to be a "smart" piece of satire by citing the words of the Nazi-era German national anthem, yet they couldn't be arsed to find out the correct pronounciation. And it's not like it's a long and complex sentence to be memorised, just two short words! (They even get the "alles" more or less correct.)

A lot of anglophones have trouble with ü so it might not be for lack of trying

That's odd, because the "ü" sound is quite similar to the common "ew" sound in English (such as in "few", "screw", "news" etc).

So it basically pronounced ew-behr, shouldn't be too hard.

Then again, lot of English speakers seem to think that "ä" and "ö" are intechangeable with "a" and "o" instead of denoting completely different sounds, so I guess they just assume it's the same with "ü" and "u" instead of bothering to find out?

Breaking up this German pronunciation party, "I am the mod-ren man" from "Mr. Roboto" just came to mind.

It's a fair point but otoh the speaker in the song is a Californian, not a German-speaker. I don't really know what Jerry Brown's usual practice is when pronouncing foreign words, though.
xp

If this is correct, Geddy Lee mispronounces "Barchetta" in "Red Barchetta".

Idk what's going on with that "mod-ren man" thing, yeah.

xxp Wait till the Uber car service people hear about this

Maybe it's unfair to criticise Americans for mispronouncing German, but OTOH you shouldn't have you chorus in a foreign language if you don't know how it's pronounced.

― Tuomas

also the very first line of "kill the poor" opens with a blatant subject-verb disagreement. i don't see how jello biafra has any punk credibility at all totally ignoring the basic rules of grammar like that.

Jello is from Colorado, not California.

I know but "California Uber Alles" is sung from the pov of a Californian who plans to establish Cali supremacy, specifically Jerry Brown. The first line of the song is literally "I am Governor Jerry Brown".

So if we're going to concern ourselves with the 'correctness' of Jello Biafra's enunciation,, it might be a more relevant question whether the dialect in the song reflects how a Californian, or even Brown himself, would speak than whether the pronunciation of a German loanword is authentic to the German pronunciation.

these long üs don't sound much different to me

http://joycep.myweb.port.ac.uk/pronounce/audio/tuer.wav

also, if you're the leader of a punk band, it's probably easier to yell "OOO-ber" than "*spits strudel everywhere* yooOOuu-buhrrr"

not singing, but what i find really offensive is every arnold schwarzenegger performance. it's like he doesn't care at all

So if we're going to concern ourselves with the 'correctness' of Jello Biafra's enunciation,, it might be a more relevant question whether the dialect in the song reflects how a Californian, or even Brown himself, would speak than whether the pronunciation of a German loanword is authentic to the German pronunciation.

― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Tuesday, December 27, 2016 6:32 PM (five hours ago)

uh that's a nice idea in theory, but every single song Jello Biafra sings sounds like Jello Biafra -- he doesn't make any effort to do realistic impressions of others. It's comedy and satire.

I wasn't being entirely serious, just pointing out that I'm not sure that an authentic German pronunciation of "uber" would even be 'correct' in context.

Really, the most interesting thing about this discussion is probably that Tuomas was listening to the Dead Kennedys.

Not really, I found out about that tune via Disposable Heroes sampling it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0sTpZja6JQ

Baby, baby, fawwin' in love
I'm fawwin' in love again
Baby, baby, fawwin' in love
I'm fawwin' in love again
Baby, baby, fawwin' in love
I'm fawwin' in love again
Baby, baby, fawwin' in love
I'm fawwin' in love again

Similarly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_AA3O66gjI

"Think of Wayne"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8

Julie Covington on the original Evita concept album kept pronouncing 'descamisados' as "day-camisados"

If Adriano Celentano got it wrong does that mean Mike Reid got it right?

In "Ain't Gonna Feel", Kurt Hauenstein of Supermax invents the word live-able, and then rhymes it with liveable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30P3EuPeNzs

This topic merges nicely with one of my favorites, 'songs where singers have recently learned or become enamored with a particular word and are probably using it for one of the first times ever' (although Seven Mary Three did manage to pronounce 'cowmbersowme' relatively correctly).

But anyway:

Silverchair - 'pure massEEEEEEEEcre'
Sponge - 'it's wax a-static'

Related: Stop trying to make "What's the dillio?" happen: Songs that hitch their wagon to slang of the moment But yeah, grunge rock in particular seemed keen on grabbing hold of 11th grade vocabulary word sheets and just leaning into them hard, with curious results in terms of pronunciation, emphasis, etc.

Donovan, "Sand and Foam": "straining my eyes for a sur-FACING submarine"

i'm very enamored of carl wilson's pronunciation of "enveloping" on "feel flows"

hahaha, yeah that's great

There's a place in this thread for Steve Stills. I'm thinking of 'Isn't It Ay-bout Time?' in particular, but also all those songs where he pronounces 'away' 'ay-way'.

Tori Amos is responsible for some strangulated vowels throughout her career, just one example: "Baker baker, bake me a keek"

Lloyd Cole: "protagonist"

There's a place in this thread for Steve Stills. I'm thinking of 'Isn't It Ay-bout Time?' in particular, but also all those songs where he pronounces 'away' 'ay-way'.

I always wondered about the pronunciation of "around" in Matchbox 20's "Push". It almost sounds like "ay-round" to me. Do people in Florida really pronounce it that way?

Or is it just a byproduct of trying to place lexcial stress on a schwa?

*lexical

Tori Amos is responsible for some strangulated vowels throughout her career, just one example: "Baker baker, bake me a keek"

― Bloody Snail, Sunday, January 15, 2017 4:43 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Peace, love, and a hard kyeeeawwwk.

Ha, I had kind of assumed that her vowels had something to do with being Southern too.

I always wondered about the pronunciation of "around" in Matchbox 20's "Push". It almost sounds like "ay-round" to me. Do people in Florida really pronounce it that way?

― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Sunday, January 15, 2017 9:17 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no we do not!

Rob Thomas has marked post-yarl pronunciation generally - see "If You're Gorn," "Re-hull World," etc.

Oh my god, listening to 'Perfect Day' just now and realizing for the first time ever that the line is 'drink sangria in the park'. I had no idea what he was saying about the park before because it isn't pronounced 'sanGRAYuh' fer cryin' out loud, Lou (RIP).