Rethinking Whitney Houston

 last.fm

When Whitney Houston passed away, one could hardly find a website that didn’t state whatever views its writers had on the matter, or didn’t run some sort of retrospective of her career. Apparently, nothing attracts attention like a fallen star; and, unsurprisingly, not all of this attention was in the best taste. Inasmuch as I appreciated Whitney Houston, I felt that if this post was published at that time, it would be as if the blog was jumping on the bandwagon; and thus I decided to hold it back for a while.

Not least of all because it also seems that nothing sells like a fallen star. And thus Whitney Houston has posthumously become the first woman to have three albums in the top 10 of the Billboard chart at the same time. Nevertheless, what speaks louder than words about the workings of the music industry is the price increase of her greatest hits album on Apple’s iTunes store hours after her death, a move which Sony Music eventually took back and apologised for. 

However, Whitney Houston was far more than a product. Her unprecedented popularity as a female African American artist in the field of music, and partly in film, signified what Bim Adewunmi addresses in The Guardian as “a huge cultural shift.” And it seems to me that this is a far more insighfull way to look at Whitney Houston than the conventional portrayal of a successful albeit troubled individual, which unfortunately prevailed in most mainstream media accounts.

Many thought of Whitney Houston just as a pop star, as her material was more often than not overtly polished. However, in the long history of jazz and soul music there have been many female African American singers who were heavily marketed in their time by a white-dominated music industry targeting a mainly white middle class audience. We think of such singers today as classic performers, and rightly so: the quality of their art surpassed whatever conventions were laid before them in their era. 

Time will of course tell how Whitney Houston will be remembered. What I found fascinating about her was that her authoritative technique and the natural strength of her voice embodied the expressive quality of the gospels and the energy of soul; and I think it is this distinct cultural identity of hers that characterised songs like Saving All My Love For You, So Emotional, or I Will Always Love You. Whitney Houston actually moved into the gospel territory in The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack, with remarkable results such as I Love the Lord and Joy, while an often overlooked aspect of her work consists of songs dealing with pain and hardship, such as Step By Step and I Didn’t Know My Own Strength. 

Dianne Reeves, perhaps the best jazz singer of our time, addressed Whitney Houston’s cover of Home as “flawless”; the track was performed during her first appearance on television, back in 1983. And speaking of days of old, Whitney Houston’s recording debut as a lead vocalist was on a cover of Memories by Material; a wonderful track featuring jazz legend Archie Shepp on saxophone. I have also chosen her powerful performance in The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988, a political event calling for his release from prison. And last but not least, Your Love Is My Love; a track which seems to me as an appropriate way to say goodbye.

Clap your hands ya’ll, it’s alright

If tomorrow is judgement day (sing mommy)
And I’m standing on the front line
And the Lord ask me what I did with my life
I will say I spent it with you

If I wake up in World War 3
I see destruction and poverty
And I feel like I want to go home
It’s okay if you’re coming with me

’Cause your love is my love
and my love is your love
It would take an eternity to break us
And the chains of Amistad couldn’t hold us

If I lose my fame and fortune
And I’m homeless on the street
And I’m sleepin’ in Grand Central Station
It’s okay if you’re sleeping with me

As the years they pass us by
we stay young through each other’s eyes
And no matter how old we get
It’s okay as long as I got you babe

’Cause your love is my love
and my love is your love
It would take an eternity to break us
And the chains of Amistad couldn’t hold us

If I should die this very day
Don’t cry, cause on earth we wasn’t meant to stay
And no matter what the people say
I’ll be waiting for you after judgement day

’Cause your love is my love
and my love is your love
It would take an eternity to break us
And the chains of Amistad couldn’t hold us