23 August 2013 (Day 235) – The Battle Of The Divas

For rock pigs like myself, practically the musical term I despise most is diva.  It seems to me that the media today uses this term to describe any full voiced female vocalist who happens to court massive popularity and record sales.   But it also seems, at least to me, that these vocalists seem to misuse what are often God-given gifts in order to obtain this popularity.  For some reason it seems as though the (male dominated) record industry simply doesn’t know how to take these tools and use them to produce true works of art, settling instead on producing populist mush that is lapped up by the masses as though they’re some form of tranquiliser.

This seems to be a trend that goes all the way back to the greatest – and most listenable - diva of all, Aretha Franklin.  Her first real record label, Columbia Records, just didn’t seem to know what to do with this force of nature, seemingly attempting to mould her into a black version of Barbara Streisand.  It was only after she moved to Atlantic Records that her career took off.  Atlantic’s ploy was staggeringly simple; they ensured she had access to songs with which she felt some true empathy and then made sure sufficient control and musical accompaniment was imposed that allowed her to give true voice to her emotions whilst harnessing that power in the interest of the song.

It was a staggeringly successful approach.  But so has the approach of the last 20 years of so that gave rise to Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Celine Don among others.  All have (or in Houston’s case, had) magnificent voices that the public wanted to hear.  Yet they’ve been terribly easy to please.  Whilst Aretha’s audience refused to jump on board until the necessary adjustments were made, all the present day divas had to do was to thrill about at the upper ranges of their voices to impress.  It’s no coincidence that each of these women’s biggest hits, Whitney’s I Will Always Love You, that Titanic song of Celine’s and Carey’s impressive rendition of I’ll Be There are all numbers where their vocals were not allowed to show off and concentrated on the actual song.

From what I could hear, the failure to reign in these singers and the wannabees that have trailed in their wake, has had a number of major consequences.  First, many of the songs have been demolished by these voices.  The early Mariah Carey hits and most of Celine Dion’s are, in my view unlistenable today, owing to the songs falling apart under the eventual weight of all the vocal swoopings.  This, in turn, left the artists with precious little room to manoeuvre as they tried to stay relevant after their glory years and the audience tired of these vocal gymnastics.  Dion, for example, has effectively become a prisoner of Las Vegas; I suspect she knows she can maintain an audience there for past glories by putting on an elaborate floor show that disguises that changes that must be occurring to her voice.  It also prevents her facing the laws of diminishing returns if she were to continually release new studio albums or undertake world tours.  Whitney Houston attempted to do this and learnt the hard way.  Her live audience, seemingly with little or no knowledge about her private life or the gradual loss of power in her voice, arrived at her shows expecting the same vocal sounds of her younger days and generally did hold back on expressing their disapproval.  At least Mariah Carey had the good sense to change musical direction and attempt diversification into reality show judging, acting and motherhood.

Consequently, it should not come as any surprise that any of the present day divas figure in my collection or today’s listening.  I fitted in albums by three divas from the same era, each of whose careers have gone off into different directions.

(# 553) Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (1998)

Lauryn has not released an album since this and, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t need to release another so securely is her place in music history due to it and her work in The Fugees.  Starting with a school roll call that establishes her absence, Hill produced a seamless album that, by rapping and singing about themes that are important to her, effectively tell her life story without having to give too much specific detail away.  This is a towering achievement by any measure blending most forms of black music along the way.  Even now, after owing the album for over a dozen years, I still cannot individualise its tracks.  Just put it on, let it wash around you and you’ll feel what I mean.

(#554) Macy Gray – Oh How Life Is (1999)

How times have changed.  When this album was released, it looked as though Hill had a major challenger for the crown.  And yet, despite a number of albums since, Gray hasn’t come close to matching this.  Indeed her last Melbourne performance a year or two ago was so roundly panned, that I doubt she’ll ever return.  That’s a shame because this album just had so much promise.  Caligula, the wonderful I Try, the crazed Sex-o-matic Venus Freak and the epic I Can’t Wait To Meetchu are showed different sides to someone who threatened to re define soul in her own image.

(#555) Queen Latifah – All Hail the Queen (1989)

The cover shows Queen Latifah at 19 years of age looking confident and all knowing. This, her debut album is so assured that I swore it was the work of someone much older.  No wonder she has since branched out into so many areas of the entertainment industry.  On this catchy album she makes the most of a number of collaborations.  Dance For Me is a memorable opener, deftly utilising her samples of Sly Stone’s Dance To The Music.  Mama Gave Birth To The Children sees her provide a female voice to what is otherwise a typical De La Soul track and Evil That Man Do is a socially aware number with Boogie Down Productions’ KRS-One.