This one is harder than most.
Growing up in my house, there were several records that were on steady rotation and became the foundation of my love of music and popular culture. Michael Jackson’s Thriller. New Edition’s self-titled second album. The Ghostbusters soundtrack. And this one:
I remember this cover better than any of them, mainly because of that face. I think I fell in love with that face a little bit. It wouldn’t be an incomprehensible instinct, and surely I wouldn’t be the first or the last. But what a rare thing that someone who looks like that would have a talent to match, or even surpass, her physical beauty.
Quite obviously, Whitney Houston started her career as a model and she easily could have kept going that way, since it’s not a stretch to argue that she was prettier than any of the most well-known of them. Even more uncommon than her appearance, however, was her singing voice, a talent which demanded the world’s largest stages. Whitney was noticed by Clive Davis, the music executive who discovered Alicia Keys and many others, and under his direction she was shepherded to fame, beginning with a truly massive debut album. Whitney Houston was released in 1985, when Whitney was just 22 and I was nearly 8.
That first album is the one with ”You Give Good Love”, “Saving All My Love For You”, “How Will I Know”, “All At Once”, and “Greatest Love Of All.” Here’s “How Will I Know”, just because it makes me happy:
After that, Whitney became first-name-famous, a pop star known and loved so well that she could put out her next album title with just that one word:
That’s the album with “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”, “So Emotional”, and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, among others — songs which I’ve not heard in a while, but songs which I am scarcely surprised to realize that I remember entirely just by typing out the titles. The same goes for her next album.
It’s quite surprising to realize, looking back on the discography, that after these three star-making, legend-cementing albums, that there were only four more records to come. It’s unusual for a pop star of Whitney’s stature to have only seven studio albums. (By comparison, Madonna has twice as many, and still counting.) Part of that is because she went into the movies in the 1990s, most famously in The Bodyguard — the soundtrack to which was half made up of songs by Whitney; that’s the one with “I Will Always Love You”, “I Have Nothing”, “I’m Every Woman”, and “Run To You”. The Bodyguard was a huge success worldwide. Whitney never exactly became a movie star off of it, though she probably could have. That’s for others to speculate upon. That’s not why I’m here today.
I’m not going through this story chronologically because we know how it ends, which is why I’m writing about it at this specific moment. On a more personal level, it’s also true that by the time of The Bodyguard, my musical interests had diverged. I was moving away from the kind of singer-based pop that Whitney had mastered, and I was getting more into rock and deeper into hip-hop. I’m more of an omnivore these days, but when you’re in early adolescence, it’s jarring to toggle back and forth between top-40 and Public Enemy. It’s also not easy to explain. And so you eventually forget how much certain artists meant to you, until a day like today arrives.
But while there is plenty of pop music I listened to and enjoyed and later became embarassed by, I would never feel ashamed of liking Whitney Houston’s music. Wasn’t then, and I’m not now. In fact, those early records hold up as well as any pop music ever. The primary reason for that is because Whitney’s voice overpowers any of the dated instrumentals that may or may not be present. Subtract time and what you’re left with is Whitney. It’s more than enough.
Without a doubt, Whitney Houston is one of the most historically important and genuinely talented popular performers to have emerged during my lifetime. As one of the earliest musical influences I was exposed to, she’s also one of those for whom I hold the most affection. I don’t believe it’s my business or my right to know about the personal lives of the entertainers I admire, but in this culture it’s impossible to avoid, and everything I know about Whitney Houston’s life, and everything I am inside, leads me to view this as a tragic day. It would be monstrous to view this loss as anything other than an abbreviated and tragic end to a remarkable and now-legendary talent.
RIP Whitney. I will miss you. Great Talent