There's a new Whitney Houston interview making the rounds in support of her latest world tour in which she answers questions about her comeback and her collaboration with Alicia Keys. However, things get quite interesting when asked her opinion on the current state of pop music. She continues by talking about her experiences coming up in "show business" and other (unnamed) artists who push the envelope and embrace the so-called "dark" side of performing:
Q. You look back on a long career. How would you say the music business has changed in the last years?
A. Music doesn't change. People change the music. Music is a gift from Heaven, I believe. As I started singing in church many years ago and many of my friends who've (sic) sing the good news of gospel, um, it does not change, people change the music, um, they become characters instead of really displaying their gifts and when if look behind a lot of people who are out there, that are like you know know, wearing these weird kind of clothing which has nothing, you know, I'm not, you know, um, talking about anyone in particular, but I've seen for myself, but they are, there are some extremely gifted women and young men out there who don't have to really put on Halloween costumes, just be themselves, I mean, a little extravagance, you know, you know, um, flair, you know, sexiness or sultryness is cool, but some of them are very dark, are very dark, and days when we are going through so much, you know, tragedies, earthquakes and things, you know, of, of, disasters and New Orleans, and the whole thing, it's, it's time time to, I believe, to sing about love and what has been here since the beginning of time, and that's been love.
Okay. Is she referring to Lady Gaga, American Idol's Adam Lambert and to some degree, Janelle Monet, or even Beyoncè? Although I disagree with her basic point, that there is no place for over-the-top characterizations or independent expressionism in terms of the artistic interpretation of "love" in popular music, I respect her opinion. But since the days of Little Richard, artists have been taking it to extremes, and I find all of that "extra" shit to be fun, indeed. We originated that look along with Rock n' Roll, which is, by its very core nature, supposed to be extra. And it is within her next answer,that I find her viewpoint to be a bit misguided:
Q. Do you sometimes look back on the old days and the weird outfits make you laugh?
A. Oh my God, how crazy, I mean, that was the 80's, you know what I'm saying? I look ay myself, I look at Madonna, I look at Prince, I look at Michael, we had costumes they weren't scary it was that we were performers, performing, you know what I'm saying, um, having artistry is one thing, but being dark and you know, different weird stuff is not becoming, but to me, it's not becoming at all.
Now this makes no sense at all. Geniuses that they were, Prince scared the living hell out of some people! He wore make up, purple high heels, ass-less pants, ruffles and sang about incest, masturbation, sex and God, sometimes incorporating all of these themes in a single song! Madonna was a self-professed Boy Toy cum shameless Material Girl, and Michael put all of his gender-bending-latent-child issues on full display. Perhaps this is a basic case of the great generation divide. As we become older, we tend to forget that the young 'uns are just expressing themselves in pretty much the same way we did whe we were younger. We just tend to think that we did it better. In some cases we're right. But I think Whitney would have better served herself by embracing the new, here. Basically, the newer artists are just channeling the ones that came before them; Lambert channels David Bowie and Gaga channels Madonna. Whitney, herself, probably channeled her cousin, the great Dionne Warwick . It's the Great Circle of Pop Life. And it makes better sense from a public relations aspect, to embrace it, especially if she herself is in full "comeback mode". After all, this is show business, you know, and attracting younger audiences is key, in most cases. That's not to say she should lie, but just acknowledge that most artists are influenced by their predecessors.
That's just my opinion.
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