Good grief!
Whitney Houston - the one-woman pharmaceutical experiment, the arch-"wibbler" singularly responsible for the current proliferation of women who sing too high and can't hit the notes - is dead, aged 48 (the same age as me, gulp)!
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Sad news - I wasn't a huge Whitney fan - I saw her live at Wembley Arena in 1988 - it was the same day as the FA Cup Final at the Stadium - I remember fighting through crowds of football fans to get to the Arena.
ReplyDeleteI loved her first two albums - and think she had some great singles - notably It's Not Right, But It's OK, My Love Is Your Love and Million Dollar Bill
Strange I can remember Whitney being interviewed in the late 80's saying if her children turned out like Madonna she's disown them.
Fast forward 20+ years and Madge is adopting children in Malawi and opening orphanages and doing perhaps her best ever performance at the SuperBowl … strange world
Miss Houston was alwas my musical bete noire. It is always very sad when someone throws their life away at such an age, but depite her glittering fame I never rated her as a diva, nor indeed a singer. She was a vocal gymnast.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, there were occasional moments in her musical career that were fun - Dance With Somebody and Million Dollar Bill among them - but those were only because of the context in which these songs appeared.
The greatest problem I had with her was that by applying her singular vocal affectations to every "power ballad", she spearheaded a musical genre I loathe - that in which it is apparently OK to exercise vocal gimmickry that is wholly inappropriate to the material. Thus was born the era of Mariah, Celine, Leona and the rest.
And as for the moral tone she used in interviews such as the one you cited, well history caught her out on that, too... Jx
I agree completely Jon. I was an "anti-fan" of hers for the very same reason. In fact, only Mariah Carey rated higher on my disliked list. I owned Whitney´s two first albums back in the late 80s. I liked the 1987 Whitney album for about two minutes but by the time the rather awful "Bodyguard" arrived she was no fave of mine (of course the alleged quote on Madonna that Tony mentioned did not help one bit).
ReplyDeleteI never understood the praises she got when she was at the "top of her game". She may have been a good singer back in the day, but to call her "The Voice" seemed a bit too much. IMO there were many more talented singers out there that could sing without trying to catch every single not on the scale in one word. And then there were the like of Mariah who followed, doing the exact same thing.
It is always very sad when people die so young as Whitney was. Her life had been in shambles for a very long time, and her voice was pretty much ruined after years of drug use. I started to feel sorry for her, especially after her disasterous tour from a couple of years back.
Hopefully her death wont turn into a complete media circus. No matter the circumstances, people should be able to die in peace without the press looking into every ascpet of their live and death. This is a hard time for her family, friends and fans. May she rest in peace.
Unfortunately, much in the same way as Michael Jackson, a "media circus" is exactly what we are likely to endure for a while yet. She is hardly cold and is already lauded as "the greatest singer who ever lived", blah, blah, blah.
ReplyDeleteWorse, any attempt at criticism of "The Voice", "The Diva", will be met with a hurried and often personal attack on the critic (see Marky's blog comments for an example).
Jx
Well, when Michael Jackson died I did feel that a lot of the comments (both by the public and the press) were totally uncalled for when the man had just died. Fans do feel very vulnerable when their idol dies so unexpectedly and are very quick to lash out on anyone that says things that can be portraied as negative or disrespectful.
ReplyDeleteI was not a massive Michael fan, but a fan nontheless. So I can only imagine how I would react if (god forbid) Madonna, Diana or Kylie for example would die. They are not universally loved by everyone and I know that I would not take kindly to people's negative comments right after they had passed.
Of course everyone has a right to their own opinions. But a lot of people are so vulnerable the first couple of weeks after someone they loved dies that these opinions, mild as they may be, will only be perceived as an attack and a sign of disrespect.
I for one am truly sad she has passed. Not because I liked her work, but because she was too young. She did have talent back in the day that her drug and alcohol abuse ruined and her life in the past 15 years or so has been a tragic example of how a person can have everything and let it all slip away. I feel for her family and her fans and I think that right now she should be honoured and remembered for the highlights of her career.
People still have the rights to their own opinons of course (I was no fan) but I think it is important to remember the emotinal level where a lot of people are when a loved and famous singer passes away.
Sure, it's a horrid time for people who were Miss Houston's fans, but death does not make a person any more universally "loved" than when they were alive. That is a foolhardy assumption, and one I would not make if someone I liked died.
ReplyDeleteIndeed there is a lot of hypocrisy after the death of a star - when MJ died, suddenly people who never had the time of day for him during his problems with the boys crept out of the woodwork to sing his praises, and would tolerate no opposing voices.
It all verges on hysteria, as always. Jx