British pop singers sound American because the Beatles

Oldie but goodie: The reason British pop singers sound American when they record is the Beatles.

British pop singers have been imitating American pronunciations since the Beatles and the Rolling Stones began recording in the 1960s. These musicians were largely influenced by the African-American Vernacular English of American blues and rock and roll singers like Chuck Berry. Imitating an American accent involved both the adoption of American vowel sounds and "rhoticity": the pronunciation of Rs wherever they appear in a word.

Linguist Peter Trudgill tracked rhoticity in British rock music over the years and found that the Beatles' pronunciation of Rs decreased over the course of the 1960s. The trend also went in the opposite direction as new genres developed: American pop-punk vocalists like Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day took on a British-tinged accent to sound more like seminal artists such as Joe Strummer of the Clash.