An Accent for Singing?

I found that many singers sing English songs in an accent which sounds like a mixture of American English and British English:

1. non-rhotic often times, but words like "girl" "world" does have an "R" sound
2. vowels in "bother" and "father" often distinguished
3. flat "a" sound in "past" "can't" etc.
...

Can you native speakers explain why an accent like this is used in singing?

I'm not sure why but that's how they teach it in classes. I was in my high school choir (Allen, Texas) for three years and the teachers always made it a point that we were not to pronounce the Rs. "It's not 'meRRcy' it's 'muhh-cy'"

The Beatles' accent was certainly British (Scouse, to be precise) but I think thet Lennon and McCartney happend to pronounce /r/ in words like "girl" or "world." Harrison, OTOH, wouldn't produce /r/ in these positions. Ringo never really interested me :)

The reason that people pronounce the "r" in words like "world" or "girl" when singing is probably because it's a central vowel, and central vowels constrict air flow slightly. So it's easier to sing /wArld/ than /w3ld/.

I don´t find it easy to recognize accents when people sing
I have problems with Irish English and American English when I hear a song (they sound very similar when they sing!)
And sometimes, I can´t hear if this or that person is British and not American
Some singers (f ex Sophie Ellis-Bextor) has a strong English accent, so I can hear that she is not American, but it´s worse with others

Are people trying to copy American English when they sing, or is it just me?

What makes you think other people sound American when they sing (specifically)?

I think even American singers tend to become slightly non-rhotic when they sing, and alter certain sounds from the way they would say them in their normal speaking voice. I would say that there are certain conventions in singing that get widely adopted.

There's also a distinction between pop and choral and traditional singing. American-type pronunciations and words like "wanna" are used all the time in pop, but choir singers are taught to enunciate, eliminate "r"s, etc.

It's interesting how accents tend to disappear when people sing. I heard a man with an extremely strong Russian accent sing, and when he was singing, he did not sound like he had an accent at all. I think that American singers tend to be non-rhotic when they sing (no r at all or just a very slight r at the end), because if they don't it just sounds like they are saying urrrr, no matter what the vowel is before the r. (e.g. "They are" would just sound like "They urr" if you have to draw out the "are".

But I think that many British people become rhotic when they sing
Maybe Americans become non-rhotic (I haven´t noticed)

Maybe accents move to a happy medium when people sing ^.^

Why people don't try to leave their accents?
Even black people can do that - L.Armstrong

Because different accents make people interesting ^^

I wonder if I will be more interesting if I will speak:

Bother pother got cought cofee in a kai pah'

I think it is almost disgastin'

Well, if that's the way you naturally speak, then haha, you're so much the more interesting ^.^

On the other hand, if you're doing it affectedly, then I guess I'd see you half negatively and half positively: I'd consider you a little annoying but quite a fascinating persona too! I definitely won't consider it disgusting.

Haha, of course you could try to explain yourself and speak a little slower and use dictionary-defined words, but I really don't have the heart to ask people to give up their accents in favour of plain old newsreader speech... especially if you have something like a beautiful Scottish accent...

I think most British people tend to sound more American because historically America has been the root of practically all post-war music, Blues, Soul, Rock and Roll, Funk, Modern Folk, Disco, Rock, Hip Hop and Rap. They have developed along the way with a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing across the Atlantic, although this seems to have almost come to a standstill as far as chart music recently goes.

The exceptions to the rule are few and far between, but very memorable:

Damian's neighbours- The Proclaimers (Scottish)
The Cranberries (Irish)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Southern English)

More often than not modern music is non-rhotic. gangsta rap, cudda, shudda, wudda, muthaf***a!!

Some English people sing with very rhotic accents, you might want to listen to The Wurzels "Oiv go' a bran' new comboined 'arvesterrrrrrr"!!!!!!