Sometimes Americans will use a British pronunciation for rhyme. Notice how Lana has a three-part half rhyme with cinnamon, livin' in, and vitamin... which wouldn't work with american vie-tamin. The British pronunciation of it, however, uses a short 'i', so you'd get 'vit-tamin', which fits the rhyme.
Lana Del Rey: RadioTaylor Swift uses the British pronunciation of "Jaguar," which has three syllables, to fit the stress scheme of her song "King of my Heart." The stress falls on "exPENsive CARS" and then we have "the JAG-u-ARS." The American pronunciation has only two syllables (jag-war) and would not fit. Bonus - the song appears to be about her English boyfriend Joe Alwyn, so it's a subtle hint at who she's talking about.
"Now my life is sweet like cinnamon [sɪnəmɪn]
Like a f-ckin' dream I'm living in [lɪvɪn ɪn]
[...] Pick me up and take me like a vit-tamin ['vɪ.tə.mɪn]
Cuz my body's sweet like sugar venom"
Taylor Swift: King of my HeartSometimes it seems to be for aesthetic reasons entirely. "Salvatore" is about loving an Italian man, but Lana briefly uses an English broad-A pronunciation of "cahn't" in the bridge:
"All the boys, and their exPEN-sive CARS
The Range Rovers and the JA-gu-ARS ['dʒæ.gju.ɑrz]"
Lana Del Rey: SalvatoreEmilie Autumn's concept album "Fight Like A Girl" is partially set in Victorian England, and she affects a very posh English accent for some of the characters. One nameless character is given an outrageous Cockney accent.
"Can't [kɑnt] you see, you're meant for me"
Emilie Autumn: Girls! Girls! Girls!Sometimes American singers don't really understand how English accents work, such as when Emilie rhymes "thought" and "not" in "The Key." In Received Pronunciation, "thought" and "not" do not rhyme.
"How big is a lady's brain [ bræɪn]?"
Emilie Autumn: The KeyDo you have examples of singers pronouncing words in an accent that's not their own for the sake of rhyme/stress or mood?
"Retreat they do at once, without a second thought [tɑt]
They only know that we were free and now we're not [nɑt]"
Comment from a non-linguist:
ReplyDelete'Now we're naught?' would supply the rhyme.
That could mean that our status is even less than it would be if we has simply lost our freedom.
ellie
This is possible! Emilie is from California, and with a Californian accent, "not" and "naught" would sound the same. I don't know if there are official lyrics for this anywhere to check, but it's a good guess. :)
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