Thesis Format

Monograph

"That's the Way I Am, Heaven Help Me": The Role of Pronunciation in Billy Bragg's Music

Mary Blake Bonn, The University of Western OntarioFollow

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Music

Supervisor

Mooney, Kevin

Abstract

British singers do not always sound British. Indeed, it is common—and sometimes expected—for singers in a variety of styles and genres to sing with accents that do not match their speech. The specific phenomenon of British (or more precisely, English) popular musicians singing with Americanized pronunciation is so common that it was the point of departure for an entire subfield of sociolinguistics that is focused on the ‘singing accent’ in popular music: the pronunciation patterns that singers use in their singing and how these differ from the pronunciation patterns these singers use in speech (e.g., Trudgill 1983). Nevertheless, some English singers do sound distinctly and unapologetically English, and one example is left-wing protest singer Billy Bragg.

This dissertation explores the role of the singing accent in the music of Billy Bragg. The methodology borrows from sociolinguistics and is primarily based on phonetic analysis. Phonetic transcriptions of six songs by Billy Bragg are used to compare his pronunciation features to the norms and expectations associated with categories such as musical style, place of origin, and socioeconomic background. Bragg’s pronunciation is considered in three contexts: singing his own original words and music, singing a cover, and singing his own music to words he did not write. These analyses show how pronunciation has served Bragg in creating a musical and public identity, how musical considerations can affect pronunciation (and vice versa), how pronunciation can reinforce and accentuate other musical features, and how pronunciation can be used to create a character.

While pronunciation is a part of vocal music, it has not received extensive attention from music theorists. This dissertation demonstrates the value of using pronunciation as a starting point for musical analysis, and the value of phonetic analysis as an analytical methodology. It also provides a framework for considering Billy Bragg, a singer who has not been a frequent subject of study by music scholars.

Summary for Lay Audience

British singers do not always sound British. Indeed, singers in general often sing with accents that do not match their speech. The specific case of British (or more precisely, English) singers in popular styles using Americanized pronunciation is so common that it is often simply perceived as normal. Nevertheless, some English singers do sound distinctly and unapologetically English, and one example is left-wing protest singer Billy Bragg.

This dissertation explores the role of pronunciation in the music of Billy Bragg. In recent decades, sociolinguists, whose research is focused on the systematic study of language variation, have taken an interest in the pronunciation features singers use in singing: the ‘singing accent.’ Sociolinguists such as Peter Trudgill (1983) have adapted tools developed for analysing pronunciation in speech in order to analyse the singing accent. Their work primarily uses phonetic and phonological analysis, or the study of individual speech sounds and how they fit together. In my research, I perform phonetic transcriptions of six songs by Billy Bragg and compare his pronunciation features to the norms and expectations associated with categories such as musical style, place of origin, and socioeconomic background. Bragg’s pronunciation is considered in three contexts: singing his own original words and music, singing a cover, and singing his own music to words he did not write. These analyses show how pronunciation has served Bragg in creating a musical and public identity, how musical considerations can affect pronunciation (and vice versa), how pronunciation can reinforce and accentuate other musical features, and how pronunciation can be used to create a character.

Recommended Citation

Bonn, Mary Blake, ""That's the Way I Am, Heaven Help Me": The Role of Pronunciation in Billy Bragg's Music" (2023). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 9325.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/9325