Why don't British singers sing with a British accent?

[Mars80]

Why is it that British singers such as the Beatles don't sing with a British accent?

[Osias]

I've read an article about this last year. TL;DR: It's something calling "appropriateness" in socio-linguistics. Pop singers used to think they should do an American accent. It was more common in the 50's, later Beatles' songs are more British.

[linguoboy]

Why is it that British singers such as the Beatles don't sing with a British accent?

Peter Trudghill wrote a whole monograph on this. As Dormouse says, it's varied over time, and also according to genre. Some genres even became so strongly associated with British acts (e.g. New Wave synthpop) that American artists adopted English accents when performing them.

[Osias]

The book I read told that reggae artists try to sing with Jamaican accent. In my country that doesn't happen because they sing in Brazilian Portuguese, though.

[Osias]

As Dormouse says, it's varied over time, and also according to genre.

Do you have a link for where Dormouse said that?

[linguoboy]

As Dormouse says, it's varied over time, and also according to genre.

Do you have a link for where Dormouse said that?

This is why I usually don't visit Unilang on my phone.

[Osias]