The Day The Music Died

The above title was immortalized in Don McLean's song "American Pie."  Although this phrase was originally used to describe the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper, it is sometimes put into play whenever a sad event occurs in the music industry.  I remember hearing it when Michael Jackson passed, and most recently on February 11, 2012 with the loss of Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston's death and the effect it is having on our culture seems to be playing out a little differently than Jackson's though.  Within the past week, practically her full catalog is sitting somewhere on iTunes' album chart, and "I Will Always Love You" has returned to the top ten of Billboard's Hot 100.  Everyone's Facebook news feeds and Twitter timelines have been inundated with YouTube links to all of her videos.  And overnight, the blogosphere has exploded with people weighing in with their thoughts on what went wrong with the woman who possessed one of the greatest voices of all time.  Here's a sampling of some of the statements I have come across:

"The beginning of Whitney's demise can be traced back to the early days of her career when she was whitewashed by Clive Davis."

 "We knocked her down repeatedly with our cruel jokes, and now we want to pretend we cared about her all along."

"She had it all, then threw it away.  She didn't want to help herself."

"Bobby Brown killed Whitney Houston." 

Each entry I came across sparked both my fascination and irritation.  Everyone is entitled to their own perspective, but the tone my fellow bloggers used seemed more authoritative rather than opinionated.  So I decided to take to this blog, but not to write about Whitney, rather to examine why her death has brought out the best and worst in us.

Whitney Houston's career was launched right around the time MTV was born.  You remember MTV?  The cable channel that at one time used to actually play music videos.  Although people always equate the early MTV days with Madonna and Michael Jackson, what most of you might not remember is that Whitney's videos were also in heavy rotation on the channel.  Almost overnight, people became reliant on seeing the visual of the recording artist they were listening to on the radio.  While her music might have been 80s pop-influenced and hand picked by Clive Davis, there was no attempt to pass Whitney off as white.  Everyone knew she was a beautiful African-American woman thanks to the advent of the video age.  I feel that when people use the term whitewashed to describe Whitney, it's more of a reflection of their own disappointment with her early sound.  A sound that led to many songs that are now considered classic and timeless.

Whitney Houston was music royalty and we elevated her to that status throughout the 80s and 90s.  However, once the cracks in her persona became tabloid fodder in the new millennium, we all jumped on every stand-up comic's bandwagon who had a Whitney joke.  "Her last hit came from a crack pipe," has been used and abused a million times over by now.  Society programs us to build people up only to knock them down.  So, does the outpouring of sympathy mean we're hypocrites?  Quite the opposite.  I think expressing condolences, and opting to remember someone for the good instead of the bad is our culture's way of grieving.  It also might be our way of expressing remorse for some of the cruelty we participated in.  After all, we are a society that is entrenched in pride.  No matter how verbally prolific we become, the two hardest words for most of us to say are still, "I'm sorry."

People usually instinctively like to point the finger and play the blame game whenever a celebrity tragedy like Whitney's occurs.  We search overtime for answers because quite honestly, accountability of one's self is not a concept that most people like to embrace.  Bobby, her team of handlers, or even Clive had nothing to do with Whitney's demise.  Her addiction got the better part of her.  An addiction that might have been triggered by her success or perhaps even by her marriage, but it was hers and hers alone.  And addiction is a tricky demon to remove from one's life once it's found a home.  I don't know what her final days were like... no one in the general public will ever know.  We base our conclusions on reports from gossip sites, but from my own experiences, I can tell you that the entertainment industry works overtime at keeping their secrets.  Even when we think TMZ has dug up some dirt, it's usually a planted story that's 'leaked' in hopes of steering the bloodhounds down the wrong path and away from the truth.   It's useless to speculate about what went wrong with Whitney Houston.  It's better to celebrate the great music she left behind.