RIP, Whitney Houston
Feb. 11th, 2012 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinkwriterJust heard the news about Whitney Houston.
Man...
This is like another piece of my childhood dying. First with Michael Jackson, who was a big part of my young years, and now Whitney, who was my favorite singer when I was in junior high, high school and beyond.
She was one of the first artists whose albums I would anticipate excitedly and buy with my own allowance. I have almost all her work on cassette tape. My junior year in high school show choir for Cabaret Night, my friend Lynn and I sang the duet Whitney did with her mother from her Whitney album ("I Know Him So Well" from Chess). I wore that song -- and that entire album -- out. I went to college for music performance largely because of how much I wanted to be like Whitney Houston as a singer. Sad to say, I can't pull off R&B like she could, but I sure wanted to. So much.
Say what you will about the potential sappiness of her power anthem ballads and pop songs, but very few female vocalists in the pop world during the 1980's could sing like Whitney. Mariah Carey wasn't even on the scene yet, Christina Aguilera was probably not even born or just a little kid, Olivia Newton-John was more of a country/pop star (and fading in the general popularity of record charts), and Madonna was more of a show-woman and a boundary-pusher than a skilled vocalist. Whitney was IT. She was the biggest female artist, and I idolized her.
When her popularity declined and her behavior grew erratic and drug-addled, I was so disappointed. Not just because she was the female artist I looked up to the most, but because it was destroying her voice and her body. It was just so sad and wrong.
I always hoped that she would find new, healthier footing again and show all the naysayers that she still had the power of voice to move us all. I hoped she would be able to do it for herself, too.
48 years old. That's way too young. It's criminal.
:(
RIP, Whitney. Thank you so much for the inspiration and the years of beautiful music.
Man...
This is like another piece of my childhood dying. First with Michael Jackson, who was a big part of my young years, and now Whitney, who was my favorite singer when I was in junior high, high school and beyond.
She was one of the first artists whose albums I would anticipate excitedly and buy with my own allowance. I have almost all her work on cassette tape. My junior year in high school show choir for Cabaret Night, my friend Lynn and I sang the duet Whitney did with her mother from her Whitney album ("I Know Him So Well" from Chess). I wore that song -- and that entire album -- out. I went to college for music performance largely because of how much I wanted to be like Whitney Houston as a singer. Sad to say, I can't pull off R&B like she could, but I sure wanted to. So much.
Say what you will about the potential sappiness of her power anthem ballads and pop songs, but very few female vocalists in the pop world during the 1980's could sing like Whitney. Mariah Carey wasn't even on the scene yet, Christina Aguilera was probably not even born or just a little kid, Olivia Newton-John was more of a country/pop star (and fading in the general popularity of record charts), and Madonna was more of a show-woman and a boundary-pusher than a skilled vocalist. Whitney was IT. She was the biggest female artist, and I idolized her.
When her popularity declined and her behavior grew erratic and drug-addled, I was so disappointed. Not just because she was the female artist I looked up to the most, but because it was destroying her voice and her body. It was just so sad and wrong.
I always hoped that she would find new, healthier footing again and show all the naysayers that she still had the power of voice to move us all. I hoped she would be able to do it for herself, too.
48 years old. That's way too young. It's criminal.
:(
RIP, Whitney. Thank you so much for the inspiration and the years of beautiful music.
