Sad
In Megasmall this afternoon we noticed a crowd gathered by the ice skating rink and thought there was some kind of competition going on. It wasn’t the ice they were watching, but the big screen showing old Whitney Houston music videos. Something from her blockbuster movie The Bodyguard (subsequently co-opted by Charice), which in the early 90s was so ubiquitous we wanted to take out a TRO on it. Yes, that song, “InDAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY will always love YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…”
In those days we would turn up our headphones to block out the sound, but no noise-cancelling technology of the time could prevent it from shredding your nerves. We refused to watch The Bodyguard* because everyone was raving about it, same way we refused to watch Pretty Woman, Ghost, and later, Friends and E.R. Still haven’t seen them. We thought Whitney Houston was beautiful and had a great voice, but we did not care for her material.
Strange, then, that the sight of random mallgoers gathered before a screen was so affecting.
People die all the time, people who were loved, mourned and are still missed, but their passing goes unremarked except by those who knew them. Celebrity turns total strangers into extensions of ourselves—when something happens to them we feel like it’s happening to us. Whitney at the peak of her career was one of the most famous persons on earth, and then she made decisions that the audience disapproved of and became one of the most ridiculed.
As the impromptu Whitney memorial went on it occurred to us that this music we were either indifferent to or disliked actively was by default the soundtrack of the late 80s and 90s. You heard them whether you wanted to or not.
Their singer is gone, permanently fixed in the public memory at age 48, but we will go on living and getting older. Every time we hear one of her songs we will remember that she’s gone and we’re older. Until the time comes when we forget who sang the songs, which is even sadder.
*Remember Kevin Costner? Ruined by the love of his peers. They gave him Oscars he didn’t deserve for a movie we’ve forgotten. Adoration is dangerous because it is always followed by schadenfreude.
[Martin Scorsese (whose Goodfellas lost at the Oscars to Dances With Wolves) had to wait decades to formally receive the movie industry’s love, and to this day we look forward to his movies. We’re already standing in line for Hugo.]
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 13th, 2012 at 20:48
The first pop song I learned to sing was “One Moment in Time”. I was six and may have rang the alarm bells of my parents and grandparents. I loved shrieking “ONE MOMENT IN TIME! MAKE IT SHINE!”.
As a grade schooler, I ADORED The Bodyguard. I sang along to “Queen of the Night” with much gusto and used a headband as my concert microphone.
I watched “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Pastor’s Wife” but did not understand it because it was about the milieu of black women. I loved the songs. Especially her duet with Cece Winans(?).
I was absolutely thrilled when I first heard her duet with the object of my teenage idolatry, Mariah Carey, called “When You Believe”.
She was the first diva I adored(so gay).
February 14th, 2012 at 03:13
Laminar flow + Whitney Houston =
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssFJhuXTvUE
Making a sound bite from these immortal words…
“Crack is cheap…
I don’t do crack…
Crack is whack!!”
/sigh
February 14th, 2012 at 03:45
I admit to being one of Whitney’s fans who, in the diva’s later years, ridiculed her deterioration and self-destructiveness. It wasn’t contempt but rather pity that made me disapprove of all the later choices she made, which makes it sad.
It doesn’t change the fact that she’s still one of the best divas ever. I supremely prefer her over Mariah Carey’s frequent caterwauling (at least, later Mariah; early Mariah, I liked)… and that Whitney’s passing is a sad note in the history of music. She is up there as a legend alongside Michael, Elvis, Lennon, Morrison.
She may have spiraled downwards in her later years, but Whitney will always be Whitney.
—
On a lighter note, a friend of mine posted this status message on Facebook the day Whitney died:
“Michael. Amy. Whitney. You gotta admit, Madonna’s well-being is now every gay boy’s personal responsibility.”
… whereupon someone commented: “And Mariah, too!”
My friend responded, “Mariah’s fine. She has her CGI, which starred in a movie called Glitter.”
February 14th, 2012 at 10:06
Whitney Houston has delivered songs that have been the anthem of those romantically attached and those who are joining singing contests in the Philippines. Her signature ‘birit’ has been copied relentlessly by trying hard ‘divas’. With her passing, the world has lost not just a great singer but a person that has managed to touch and influence other people.
P.S. I’ve seen Hugo and it’s awesome.
February 14th, 2012 at 10:16
Ako pinanood ko talaga ang “The Bodyguard” sa sinehan. Tapos bumili pa ko ng soundtrack – cassette pa yata ‘yon. At galit na galit ako nang may nang-arbor na hindi na ibinalik. And yes, nung pinapalabas sa HBO ang TB, pinanood ko rin. RIP Whitney Houston
February 14th, 2012 at 14:14
My diva of choice is Mariah but something about the death of another diva makes me really, really sad. Even more so than when Michael Jackson died because I think that as homosexual, I find I have more kinship with female singers than with legendary male pop icons. As a consummate consumer of pop music I have indeed turned these divas as extensions of myself.
So Jessica, who is your diva?
February 14th, 2012 at 17:51
These are some of my favorite Whitney performances:
Her first TV performance, being introduced by Clive Davis on the Merv Griffin Show, singing Home. This is God’s voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_8SguJTgHA
Pure pain and soul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOM1n2y8oDU
Utter sublimeness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrTuV4Szxzo&ob=av2e
The best rendition of the Star Spangle Banner ever, from the 1991 Superbowl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jeUINzHK9o
After MJ, Amy, Kurt, Elvis, Marilyn, etc. and now Whitney, it does seem like the cliche of selling one’s soul to the devil for great talent, fame and fortune has basis, like all cliches, in truth, at least figuratively. Please don’t go there, Adele.
February 14th, 2012 at 20:24
My father bought those multiplex tapes back in the day and I would notoriously sing “All at once” on the top of my lungs, although “Greatest love of all” was the first Whitney Houston song I sang and memorized (it was a school thing).
Then came Saving all my love, which became an instant favorite, before I ever knew what it meant. National anthem ng mga kerida according to my cousin.
She was slated to do a sequel to Waiting to Exhale, according to reports. Loved her character there.
February 15th, 2012 at 12:32
“Whitney Houston has delivered songs that have been the anthem of those romantically attached and those who are joining singing contests in the Philippines. ” Agreed 100%.
Aside from the classics (Greatest Love of All, One Moment in Time), I also like her songs from the “My Love is Your Love” (late 1990s).
February 16th, 2012 at 00:35
Who would’ve thought Axl Rose would outlive both MJ and Whitney?