The Forthcoming Tricked Out Reissue of Teenage DreamKaty, interrupted: midway through a performance of her single “E.T.”, just minutes after head Foo Fighter Dave Grohl speechified about celebrating the human element in music-making (specifically learning how to sing and play instruments); in the same Grammy Award broadcast that at once celebrated the power of one particular voice (the late Whitney Houston) while also inexplicably celebrating the spectacle of loathe-able mediocrity that is Chris Brown; in the middle of a performance that itself seemed, or might have seemed, aided by backing tapes, those presumable backing tapes started to skip. Or something. Something was wrong. Katy struggled – or seemed to – for a second. Live television! Recorded backing malfunction! What to do? Cross your fingers and hope the sound guys can find a quick fix? Pull an Ashlee Simpson and pretend it’s all the band’s fault? Slink off stage and announce to the nearest Entertainment Tonight correspondent that you’re entering rehab?
The lights went out. And Katy started to…
…sing her new single. O. M. G., Grammy audience! We’ve been punk’d! By Katy Perry!
Unfortunately, the song itself couldn’t live up to the cleverness of its introduction to the world. It’s called “Part of Me”, and is easily spotted as a kiss-off to her freshly exed husband Russell Brand (just as “E.T.”, the song aborted mid-performance to make way for the new single, might be easily spotted as a loopy tribute to Brand, dating back to the couple’s courtship). But the break-up aspect of the song is really the only thing newsy about it. The song doesn’t signal a new album – it’s merely being tacked on to a deluxe edition reissue of Perry’s sophomore album Teenage Dream (which has already sent a record setting six songs to the top of Billboard’s Pop Songs Chart) called The Full Confection, set for release March 27.
I was a fan of Katy’s first album One of the Boys, but I’ve found most of Teenage Dream to be, at best, generically likeable. This song is both less and more of the same. On one hand, where Teenage Dream was generally a cotton candy album (the LP edition even came out on cotton candy-scented, pink-flecked white vinyl!), this song wants to be a jawbreaker. On the other hand, as jawbreakers go, this one’s just not that tough. Think Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” in reverse. Max Martin and Dr. Luke can toss off hitbound pop singles like this in their sleep, and it appears that’s what they’ve done here. “Part of Me” might just as well have been called “Katy Perry Radio Single #11” and come with black stripe, white block letter thumbnail artwork. But you needn’t take my word for it – hear it here:
Whitney HoustonIt’s the 54th edition of the Grammy Awards. And with the sad passing yesterday of Whitney Houston, I imagine it’s a much more somber celebration than usual. Our own Paul Lorentz wrote a nice piece on Houston earlier this morning. I participated in Popblerd’s appreciation piece earlier today as well.
They always say the show must go on. And it will, though I’m not sure I’m ready to remember Houston yet.
LL Cool J is the host for the show. Yes, a guy who was one of the first hip hop stars is hosting the music industry’s most celebratory day. I don’t imagine many would’ve predicted that when DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince won the first ever Rap Grammy in 1989, that 23 years later, a hip hop star would be hosting this show.
(While this show has already happened since it started 3 hours ago and I get the West Coast tape-delayed version, I’m going to pretend this thing is live.)
7:59 – How many times will LL lick his lips tonight? I think the over/under is 100. I’m going over.
8:00 – The Boss opens up this show. I count three earrings. I once had an earring too … when I was 18. Come on Bruce, the gray hair, receding hairline, and earrings together aren’t a good look. Plus, you don’t need them bruh.
8:04 – In a matter of seconds after the Boss finished his song, the cameras cut to Katy Perry with blue FU Russell Brand colored hair, Lady Gaga wearing a veil, and before I could anticipate it, Fergie’s face popped up out of nowhere. I could take Perry and Gaga, but I haven’t been that scared after seeing Fergie’s butter-face since watching The Poltergeist.
8:08 – LL just gave a classy speech about “his sister” Whitney. Who says hip hop can’t be classy?
(I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through this show with all these Whitney clips.)
8:15 – Holy ****! Bruno Mars just sold a whole lotta albums tonight with his performance.
8:16 – And can we just be clear about one thing? Mars’ pompadour is nothing more than the Brandon Walsh/Dylan McKay hairdo from 1992. I may have to bust that out too. It’s coming back.
8:23 – The first Grammy Award is for Best Pop Solo Performance and it goes to Adele. I think Miss Adele is going to have a big night tonight.
8:25 – I go away to check on my dinner and I miss Chris Brown’s performance. Oh the horror. Chris Brown has a very special talent. His talent is to do some pretty impressive and athletic dance numbers and make them seem so unimportant. I don’t remember any MJ performance ever being so insignificant.
8:36 – Kanye West and Jay-Z win for Best Rap Performance and you’re telling me Kanye isn’t there? Well, he did get screwed by not being nominated for Album Of The Year. I guess I’d skip too.
8:58 – I could say that Rihanna’s wig is very Tina Turner-esque, but I’m going with Farrah Fawcett’s dry perm. I think I just dated myself twice. By the way, if you didn’t know based on the hook that was repeated about 75 times, “We found love in a hopeless place.”
9:14 – The Foo Fighters win for Best Rock Performance. New York Giants wide receivers Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham presented them with the award. I wish they had numbers on their suits so I could tell who was who.
The Grammys, where Maroon 5 does “Surfer Girl” and everyone dies a little inside.
9:37 – From Paul McCartney to Common shouting out Gil-Scott Herron? This must be 2012.
9:37 – Chris Brown wins R&B Album Of The Year and shouts out Team Breezy. Yawn. El DeBarge was robbed.
9:45 – Give out more awards, give us less Taylor Swift performances.
9:51 – Adele and producer Paul Epworth win Song Of The Year. Epworth says that he couldn’t have done it without Adele. Really Paul? You mean you couldn’t have won this without Adele’s star power and voice?
9:59 – Lady A won for Country Album Of The Year and I’m happy just so that we don’t have to see Hillbilly Taylor come up with her banjo again.
10:10 – So Adele performed and she put boots to asses on everyone. It’s her night. She better win the whole damn thing.
10:24 – Talk about catchy. “Like a rhinestone cowboy…” From @IAMJericho:
Watching McCartney clapping along to Glenn Campbell is true class. #rocknrollisfamily
10:31 – Carrie Underwood is on stage singing “It Had To Be You” with Tony Bennett. Another Tony, Tony Romo just pointed at the TV and said, “Me?”
10:33 – That’s how you pronounce Bon Iver? And I’m so confused how they are a new artist, but oh well.
10:45 – I really wanted to like Jennifer Hudson’s performance and I’m sure it came straight from the heart. But I don’t think it was very good and it was the wrong song to sing. Also, Melanie Amaro channels Whitney better than Jennifer does.
11:04 – Common presented earlier and now it’s Drake’s turn. Sweet. I mean, um, yeah.
11:08 – I think Nicki Minaj thinks this is her Lady Gaga moment. Sadly, it’s not.
11:11 – This is Adele’s year. You can’t stop Adele. You can only hope to contain her. She also wins Record Of The Year.
11:21 – And she wins Album Of The Year. She gives a raw reaction and not something preconceived or prepared, unlike a lot of what’s wrong with music in 2012.
11:25 – Sir Paul McCartney goes HAM to end the show. See you next year.
My First Whitney Houston CDA few years ago, I was having a conversation with a woman at work about Whitney Houston. I had just heard news that she was in the studio working on the album that would eventually be released as I Look To You in 2009. It had been more than half a decade since she’d released a new album, and a full decade since she’d had a bona fide hit. I was excited. I wanted this new album to be great. I was rooting for Whitney. But my friend told me, “I don’t even want to hear it. She’s ruined. She’s not going to come back from it. Bobby ruined her.”
As unfair and, frankly, unnecessary as it is to pin Whitney’s ruination on her ex-husband, the fact that Houston’s voice was a cracked shell of its former glory became apparent in live performances following the release of what turned out to be her final album. The album itself wasn’t bad, but it’s hard to hear a song like “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” right now.
“I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” (2009)
I came late to loving Whitney Houston. I was in junior high when she released her first two albums. By that time, I was becoming less interested in what was playing on the Top 40 radio and more so in what Kevin Seal was playing on 120 Minutes. Besides, Whitney was a “VH-1 artist”, which, in the 80s, meant approximately that her music was for grown-ups. My mom bought her CDs. I avoided them. Or tried to. But how could one have possibly avoided “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” in 1987? Or “How Will I Know”? Or “So Emotional”? Or any of the other 11 songs she sent to #1 in the first ten years of her career?
It wasn’t until I saw Whitney Houston performing the title track of her 1998 album My Love Is Your Love on the American Music Awards with Wyclef Jean (who wrote and produced the track) that I was finally able to open myself up to loving Whitney’s music. What I remember more than the song itself in that performance was the uncontainable joy Whitney brought to it. (It reminded me of an old In Living Color sketch called Whitney Houston’s Rhythmless Nation – a hilarious re-imagining of the Janet Jackson “Rhythm Nation” video with Houston replacing Janet, Houston’s wild movements knocking over the lockstep military back-up dancers around her.) I was a Whitney-hater no longer. I bought the album the next day.
Whitney Houston at the American Music Awards
I eventually went back and bought all of Whitney’s albums – the ones my mom loved when I was a kid, the 90s movie soundtracks, and later, I bought the 2002 flop Just Whitney on the day of its release. (I still think “Love That Man” should have been a bigger hit!) I eventually saw The Bodyguard. And The Preacher’s Wife. I retroactively picked up 12″ singles of “Love Will Save the Day” and “How Will I Know”. I finally learned to stop worrying about “alt-cred” and learned to love those big ballads – not just “One Moment In Time” and “Saving All My Love for You”, but album cuts like the gorgeous “Just the Lonely Talking Again” from her 1987 album Whitney.
“Just the Lonely Talking Again” (1987)
The thing about Whitney is that in an age where pop stars reinvent themselves for every new album, every new single, every new video; in stark contrast to the other pop icons of her time, and maybe in stark contrast to what was going on her personal life, Whitney’s pop persona remained fairly constant and steady. Her voice was strong. Her phrasing was extravagant. One of my friends derisively noted that she didn’t sing words – she sang notes with words attached to them. I think there’s some truth to that, but so what? She scarcely needed words. She had a voice. She could tell stories and she could preach sermons with her vocal dynamics alone.
Listen to the way her rendition of “I Will Always Love You” builds from a whispery a capella contemplation to its iconic final declaration of love, and tell me you need to speak English to understand what’s going on in that song. It’s easy to get trapped into choosing between loving Dolly Parton’s original (which is deeply heartbreaking in its own right) and loving Whitney’s performance. I don’t think this is a mutually exclusive choice, but it seems to me that, while they’re both great performances (and props to Parton for the words and music), Whitney’s version is, for better and/or worse, more universal.
“Love That Man” (2002)
Whitney was not a costume-changer. She sang songs as herself. When you hear a Whitney Houston song, it feels like she’s letting you into her life a little bit. As RuPaul might have said, she always brought the Whitney realness. Even in her movies, you got a sense she was playing a version of herself, however idealized. She could be unabashedly dorky (see her video for “How Will I Know”). She could be deeply corny (see her cover of “The Greatest Love of All”). She could be your sweetest pal (see “Exhale”), and she could play the tough, wronged woman like no one’s business (see “I Learned from the Best”). But she was always “Just Whitney”.
She wasn’t a lip-syncer either. So when it came down to promoting her last album, she let her broken-ness show in ways that she probably didn’t intend to. At a time when the industry and the audience might have accepted an Autotuned diva doing live performances backed by vocal-doubling tapes, Whitney had the courage to, y’know, sing. In doing so, she demonstrated her frailty and her ruin, and was rewarded for it with punchlines.
“I Learned from the Best” (1999)
In 1998, Whitney sang “If tomorrow is Judgment Day, and I’m standing on the front line, and the Lord asks me what I did with my life, I will say that I spent it with you.” Even then, it seemed a love song to her audience. Thanks, Whitney, for sharing your life and your talents with us.
