Why did Taylor Swift stop singing in a country accent?
Why do singers lose their accents when they sing? An exploration of authenticity in popular music.
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On today’s episode, we’re tackling a question from a listener named Joel: Why do we only hear pronounced accents in country music songs?
Our guest this week is New Yorker writer Kelefa Sanneh. In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore identity in country music, why Taylor Swift stopped singing with a twang, how Drake changed the way people think about authenticity in hip-hop and why Adele and Harry Styles don’t sound British when they sing.
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Here’s all the music from today’s episode:
Check out Kelefa’s book Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres.
If you’re new here, listen to episode 36: Is Taylor Swift bigger than Michael Jackson? and check out our NST starter pack.
NST Recommends: We’re enjoying the podcast The Culture Journalist by Emilie Friedlander and Andrea Domanick. Both culture writers with sharp takes on the world’s emerging trends, their episodes uncover the shadowy technological, economic, and political forces lurking beneath the surface of 21st-century music, film/television, style, and media. Read and listen here:
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