*shudders at the thought* Her tone is simply spectacular and her stage presence is 2nd to none.

PlayboyOriginal said:

Slow songs and mid-tempo songs for female artists became a staple on r&b/pop video for the next 15 years if not more. Possibly the success of r&b girl groups with ballads too. She didn't do anything for hip hop, she started incorporating that later on. Female artists incorporating rap/hip hop artists with their music could arguably be credited to Jody Watley though many also say Mariah Carey since she was overdoing it in the late 90's.

[Edited 2/1/12 0:00am]

I had already heard Anita in Chapter 8 though. I don't think Whitney when I hear early Anita. I had already been listening to Anita before Whitney even came out singing, when she was still modeling. I Just Wanna Be Your Girl, Angel, No More Tears, were the songs back then prior to Whitney.

Whitney's success may have accelerated things but earlier in the eighties we were already heading towards a very watered down/middle of the road style of r & b so if she never existed I think things would have ended up pretty much the same.

rialb said:

Whitney's success may have accelerated things but earlier in the eighties we were already heading towards a very watered down/middle of the road style of r & b so if she never existed I think things would have ended up pretty much the same.

People have said similar things about Lionel Richie as they have about Whitney I think.

Oh Vainandy....

How did she open the door for hip-hop? I never saw any link between her and hip-hop.

Whitney is pure pop.....not hop

Meh.

If you think about it, Whitney Houston as we know her, is just as much

as the result of Clive Davis's marketing machinations than it is her

pure talent or her own artistic merits.

So, I would surmise that music wouldn't be any different if there

wasn't a Whitney Houston around: the machine can pick the talent,

market the talent and sell the talent; and folks'll gobble up anything

that looks and sounds good.

Her voice/act isn't non pareil: we've got Obscene Dion, Christina Fattylera,

Pariah Scarey and a motley crew of other big voiced broads singing pop

songs written by faceless tunesmiths hired by record labels.

Now that I think of it: who gives a fuck about Whitney Houston?!

MadamGoodnight said:

I had already heard Anita in Chapter 8 though. I don't think Whitney when I hear early Anita. I had already been listening to Anita before Whitney even came out singing, when she was still modeling. I Just Wanna Be Your Girl, Angel, No More Tears, were the songs back then prior to Whitney.

Anita had already released two albums (one with Chapter 8 and one solo "The Songstress") long before Nippy came along. She was only known in R&B circles until 1986.

You might not want to pose the question that way considering the state of popular music today!

Whitney wasn't doing anything different than Barbra Striesand was doing before her.

smoothcriminal12 said:

Oh Vainandy....

I think this thread was intended to bait Vainandy.

There would be alot more crack in the world.

lazycrockett said:

Honestly? I don't think things would be *that* different; plenty of other singers with big voices came out before her, around the time she did, and after her. The 'diva' concept didn't begin with her.

Terrib3Towel said:

lazycrockett said:

There would be alot more crack in the world.

You must have her confused with Billie Holiday.

I don't think anyone had yet invented crack while Billie was here with us. From my understanding, crack wasnt developed until the 80's? Around the same timeline when Nippy was starting to become popular. Hmmmmmm.

Maybe the better diva for this would be either Barbra or Diana...

It would have been soooooooo much better.

alphastreet said:

rialb said:

Whitney's success may have accelerated things but earlier in the eighties we were already heading towards a very watered down/middle of the road style of r & b so if she never existed I think things would have ended up pretty much the same.

People have said similar things about Lionel Richie as they have about Whitney I think.

Funk acts continued to dominate even after Lionel Richie went solo. There wasn't a whole crop of adult contemporary male R&B singers coming out after he went solo trying to achieve what he achieved. Plus, as weak as a lot of his solo stuff was, a lot of it was still decent. Shitney's was absolutely horrible.

Although Nippy is mostly a Pop artist, I think this is probably the most Soulful performance I've heard from her. I'm surprised Clive even allowed it on the "Whitney" album!

robertlove said:

How did she open the door for hip-hop? I never saw any link between her and hip-hop.

Whitney is pure pop.....not hop

Funk filled the "rebellion" void that young people long for. With all the "parent friendly" newcomers flooding the R&B airwaves after Shitney such as Anita Baker, Freddie Jackson, Mikki Howard, Regina Belle, etc. funk was becoming scarce. Something had to come in and fill that "rebellion" void and shit hop was there to fill it. Unfortunately, it may have had a hard rebellious attitude but, unlike funk, the music underneath the attitude was as dull, lifeless, and weak as Shitney's. Actually, it was even duller than Shitney.

.

.

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[Edited 2/1/12 11:41am]

kitbradley said:

MadamGoodnight said:

I had already heard Anita in Chapter 8 though. I don't think Whitney when I hear early Anita. I had already been listening to Anita before Whitney even came out singing, when she was still modeling. I Just Wanna Be Your Girl, Angel, No More Tears, were the songs back then prior to Whitney.

Anita had already released two albums (one with Chapter 8 and one solo "The Songstress") long before Nippy came along. She was only known in R&B circles until 1986.

I've heard she was around before 1986 but I had never heard her on the radio until 1986 and there's a reason for it. She was too boring to be played on it. It took someone like Shitney to open the doors and get extremely dull artists played.

vainandy said:

robertlove said:

How did she open the door for hip-hop? I never saw any link between her and hip-hop.

Whitney is pure pop.....not hop

Funk filled the "rebellion" void that young people long for.

I thought it was hard rock and goth music.

MickyDolenz said:

vainandy said:

Funk filled the "rebellion" void that young people long for.

I thought it was hard rock and goth music.

You know damn well I'm talking about on R&B radio. Those genres have nothing to do with R&B radio.

lazycrockett said:

There would be alot more crack in the world.

MickyDolenz said:

Whitney wasn't doing anything different than Barbra Striesand was doing before her.

That's true and Barabara Streisand was not a staple on R&B radio either and I think it was damn racist of them to play Shitney on R&B radio and make her a staple on it just because she was black but didn't fit the format. You never saw Barbara Streisand being played on heavy metal stations did you?

Dren5 said:

Honestly? I don't think things would be *that* different; plenty of other singers with big voices came out before her, around the time she did, and after her. The 'diva' concept didn't begin with her.

The "diva concept" isn't the problem. The "dull concept" is the problem.