American Accent

Hey,
My name is Julian, im 15 from Sydney, Australia.
Right now im focusing on my singing career, which i do alot of rapping aswell. When i rap people usually notice i pronounce alot of words in an aussie accent, because i try to put on an american, but its what i want to do, no im not being fake i just dont like "Music" with Aussie accents, www.myspace.com/jay2p listen to my music and i guess you will understand some people dont hear it, most people do, As for me i cannot notice it a bit.. but i wanted to know what words you can hear im pronouncing wrongly, if you cant be bothered doing that, then can somebody offer something to help me pronounce those words correctly in an american accent...
Thanks

Julian

Well, as an American I can do a (good) fake Australian accent myself so maybe I can help you transfer over to American. When you pronounce your "A"'s, like with the word "Australian", for the second "a" say it more like "ay" than "eye"...because Australians pronounce it something like "Austr-EYE-lian", while Americans do "Austr-AY-lian". Small things like that can easily accomplish your goal. It's kinda hard to do training over the 'net like this but maybe I (or someone) could make an audio clip of Australian vs. American and send it to you. Just remember to watch the vowel sounds and watch American TV and try to copy the speakers there.

Do you have msn messenger or a chat client

We Australians DON'T say "Austr-EYE-lian".
Don't tell me your idea of the Aussie accent is Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin?

Hi Julian, do you have a webcam too? I would like to see you rap. ;)

I think the EYE instead of AY think is typically more New Zealand...

A lot of obviously Australian singers and bands have done quite well in America, like silverchair and the Living End. You don't need to pull a Shirley Manson, who covered her extremely sexy Scottish accent with a Standard American singing accent...

Just stick to the Aussie. If you REALLY wanna pull off an American accent, listen to an over-done Standard American accent like Christian Bale's in American Psycho or Ewen Bremner in Black Hawk Down (they really can do American accents, it's just in those movie they go campy and over-the-top) and that should give you an idea of something to shoot for...

And I know, no one actually talks like that and if you do it'll sound weird, but as an Aussie, chances are you're not going to nail it on the head, so you'll come out sounding close enough.