R.I.P. Whitney Houston (48)

[Parodite]

An amazing singer.

Her last performance.

[Hoosiernorm]

First Don Cornelius and now Whitney. Man this has been a rough black history month.

[Simple Minded]

Damn shame. I always liked her music, her voice, and she looked great & happy on stage/screen. Seemed like a classy person.

Then if you read anything about her personal life, she seemed like a troubled soul battling internal demons.

Maybe fame just destroys people.

May she rest in peace.

[AzariLoveIran]

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She was a good girl .. wonderful voice

that asshole Bobby Brown ruined her

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[YMix]

This is... unexpected.

[Azrael]

First Don Cornelius and now Whitney. Man this has been a rough black history month.

You can say that again. Two more blacks are history and the month isn't even half over.

[Azrael]

This is... unexpected.

I'm not surprised. She's been on a downward spiral for quite a while now. I hope the young people of America learn from her mistakes -- say no to drugs.

and Bobby Brown.

[Azrael]

Damn shame. I always liked her music, her voice, and she looked great & happy on stage/screen. Seemed like a classy person.

Then if you read anything about her personal life, she seemed like a troubled soul battling internal demons.

Maybe fame just destroys people.

It wasn't the fame, it was the drugs.

May she rest in peace.

Yes. On the bright side, where she's going, there ain't no Bobby Brown.

[Enki]

Y'all forgot Etta James.

[Hoosiernorm]

Y'all forgot Etta James.

She passed in January and it was not an unexpected passing, she had been sick with leukemia for some time. It's the unexpected deaths that really catch folks off guard.

[Demon of Undoing]

Yeah, but I expect anybody can go at any time. I'm just hard to impress in this matter.


Now, how you go, there's the thing. On a toilet trying to pass a cheeseburger? Only the King can make that legendary. Drug OD, meh. But wrestle a honey badger for the right to fight a cobra in mortal combat? Now that's a celebrity death.

[Enki]

On my FB wall some people are trying to figure out whether or not to blame Bobby for her death. Some people who have family that knew her way back when say she was a druggie hoodrat back before she hit it big and that the clean image she had at first was a total fabrication.

Very sad. Great voice. Too bad she loved the crack.

[Apollonius]

With all due respect, I just cannot understand all the fuss.


It's not that I don't like Whitney Houston. I don't know a thing about her. But when Montserrat Figueras died before her time last November I don't remember seeing any headlines about it, and she was an incomparably better singer.


Are people more interested in the lives (and deaths) of pop singers than in their music?

[Typhoon]

With all due respect, I just cannot understand all the fuss.

It's not that I don't like Whitney Houston. I don't know a thing about her. But when Montserrat Figueras died before her time last November I don't remember seeing any headlines about it, and she was an incomparably better singer.

Are people more interested in the lives (and deaths) of pop singers than in their music?

The short answer is yes.

It's human nature: unlike FM, WH was a well known mass media pop culture icon with a marketable tendency to self-destruction.

Recall the great outpouring of soon-to-be-forgotten grief at the demise of Princess Diana whose greatest achievements were to look beautiful and marry Prince Charlie.

WH had a great voice, however - at the risk of poor form, when one of her songs came on the radio back in the late 1980's I would change the station as, to me, the music was irritatingly bland.

[Simple Minded]

Damn shame. I always liked her music, her voice, and she looked great & happy on stage/screen. Seemed like a classy person.

Then if you read anything about her personal life, she seemed like a troubled soul battling internal demons.

Maybe fame just destroys people.

It wasn't the fame, it was the drugs.

True enough.... I have never envied celebrities, whether entertainers or politicians. They spend so much time and effort in role playing, they often seem to have no sense of self (self-identity? self-respect?). They often end up as products or brands, rather than people.

"You are the slave of those from whom you seek approval."

"A singular strength of mind is required to enable a man to live among others consistently with his own ideas and convictions; to be a master of himself, and not fall into the habits or exhibit the same passions as those with whom he associates."
Baruch Spinoza

[Enki]

That may be true for y'all, but for some of us Whitney Houston was a cultural fixture. Whether or not we listened to her music, it was omnipresent and represents a loss of a part of our lives. I for one am not giving more attention to Whitney in death than I did in her life. I've spent maybe ten minutes talking about it since she died. That's the length of three songs, I've definitely listened to her music for more than ten minutes.

I look at celebrities sort of as mile markers in our lives. It's just like, 'Oh look, a part of my life, is now no more.'

I think it's ultimately crass when people say, "Why do we care that so and so died, such and such was a better singer...", that to me bespeaks of a vulgarity that is quite ironic especially since it comes from the proponents of high culture more often than those who are not proponents of high culture.

[Hoosiernorm]

With all due respect, I just cannot understand all the fuss.


It's not that I don't like Whitney Houston. I don't know a thing about her. But when Montserrat Figueras died before her time last November I don't remember seeing any headlines about it, and she was an incomparably better singer.


Are people more interested in the lives (and deaths) of pop singers than in their music?

The only thing we love more than mediocre art here in America is dead celebrities. We also value vintage game show footage from the Hollywood Squares more than chess masters and prefer sentimental art over actual artistic genius. But of course the cult of dead celebrities is far and above the national past time.

[Enki]

The only thing we love more than mediocre art here in America is dead celebrities. We also value vintage game show footage from the Hollywood Squares more than chess masters and prefer sentimental art over actual artistic genius. But of course the cult of dead celebrities is far and above the national past time.

That's because we prefer ascendant populism to high culture. It's all about what we can identify with as being a part of our own culture.

I don't watch vintage game shows OR chess tournaments.

[Nonc Hilaire]

First Don Cornelius and now Whitney. Man this has been a rough black history month.

You can say that again. Two more blacks are history and the month isn't even half over.

That is SO cruel I can't believe I'm still laughing.

[Hoosiernorm]

The only thing we love more than mediocre art here in America is dead celebrities. We also value vintage game show footage from the Hollywood Squares more than chess masters and prefer sentimental art over actual artistic genius. But of course the cult of dead celebrities is far and above the national past time.

That's because we prefer ascendant populism to high culture. It's all about what we can identify with as being a part of our own culture.

I don't watch vintage game shows OR chess tournaments.

Yeah but why do we honor dead celebrities? Why do we offer up sentimentalities instead of actual grief?

[Enki]

Yeah but why do we honor dead celebrities? Why do we offer up sentimentalities instead of actual grief?

Actual grief is sentimentality.

[Hoosiernorm]

Yeah but why do we honor dead celebrities? Why do we offer up sentimentalities instead of actual grief?

Actual grief is sentimentality.

Yes but we don't really offer grief we offer shallow and uncomplicated behavior. My heart is not broken by the loss of this woman and if it weren't all over the media it would probably have not had any effect on my life. It is something to talk about but not a milestone of any sort. Yet the media will generate tons of images and information and someone will probably do a tribute to the loss of this pop singer. Nothing learned nothing gained nothing risked but we all seem to set in amazement of the moments that are created by us and for us through this passing. It's gotta have some sort of purpose but I don't know what it is, we do it all of the time so there must be a reason for it.

[Enki]

Are you saying your heart will go on?

People give the amount of grief they actually feel, I am sure.

[Hoosiernorm]

Are you saying your heart will go on?

People give the amount of grief they actually feel, I am sure.

Yes but why does the media take the opportunity to capitalize on human loss. People show up to give flowers, make signs, do youtube tributes and watch shows that glorify the passing of a celebrity all based on the fact that they were a celebrity. There are cultural practices and religious practices on what is acceptable and what is considered appropriate. With pop culture and a news cycle we have pictures of people standing somewhere weeping and folks telling the audience how this is significant. It's simply odd to manufacture these moments so that people can "do something".

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Whitney Houston had an amazing voice. I think it's as simple as that.