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moar music! today, let& #39;s talk about the "Kygo & Whitney Houston" (more on that billing later) track "Higher Love" and see what it illustrates about pop music, genre, race and authorial credit 1/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTYOkcRH220">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
First off, *amazing* track - Houston& #39;s vocals, recorded in 1990, offer her singing prowess at it& #39;s height, right in the middle of her chart-dominating run from the mid-80s to the early 90s. Clear as a bell, powerful as a volcano, Houston bounds across the verses and chorus. 2/
We don& #39;t get the breathier rasp that would characterize her voice later in the 90s, but this song, and her vision for it, wouldn& #39;t be served by a torchier delivery. But before we talk more about this Kygo-produced version, let& #39;s go back and look at the *original* version. 3/
Because I think her choice of this song says something really interesting about what she thought of her body of work at the time of recording. And to understand *that*, we need to go back even further to the *original* original version - the Steve Winwood single from 1986. 4/
*And* we need to think about where Houston found herself vis-a-vis audience perceptions of her - in particular, the African-American audience perception of her - in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For a primer on that, see this article: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/07/not-black-enough-the-identity-crisis-that-haunted-whitney-houston">https://www.theguardian.com/music/201... 5/
Pull quote (from Houston herself): “Sometimes it gets down to ‘You’re not black enough for them. You’re not R&B enough. You’re very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.’” 6/
In the late 1980s the African-American audience seemed to have developed something of an ambivalence toward Houston, or at least her pop chart success. For great coverage of this, see this Slate podcast: https://slate.com/podcasts/hit-parade/2020/02/whitney-houston-pop-crossover">https://slate.com/podcasts/... 7/
So... back to Steve Winwood in 1986. Winwood co-wrote and released "Higher Love" as a single in 1986, off his phenomenal album Back In the High Life. Featuring vocals from Chaka Khan, it hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9olaIio3l8">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
There are a lot of great things to say about this song and Winwood& #39;s version of it: he sings it with an urgency and a pleading note that make it one of his best. It& #39;s a great song. But what& #39;s interesting for present purposes is exactly *who* Steve Winwood was. 9/
By the mid-80s, Winwood had been a successful musician for more than twenty years - a child prodigy who broke into the British scene in the mid-1960s when he was *14* as the lead singer of the Spencer David Group. He went on to work with Eric Clapton, Traffic and Blind Faith. 10/
He also had a successful solo career through the 1970s, confidently moving from genre to genre - but for our purposes, it& #39;s his inclusion in the "blue-eyed soul" category which is most relevant. 11/
Now, "blue-eyed soul" is basically just a polite euphemism for "white guys singing soul music" ("soul" is tough to pin down, but think of Motown). Membership required being white, a good set of pipes and flaunting the influence of African-American vocal stylings. 12/
Winwood had all of those. A top tier vocal and songwriting talent, if his version of "Higher Love" was all we& #39;d ever heard, we& #39;d have been well-served. BUT, Whitney did something audacious with his song, which would echo more than thirty years later with her own huge hit. 13/
Back to Whitney in the late 80s: stung by the insinuation that her musical choices are "too white" she - wait for it - seizes on a hit by a *blue-eyed soul* singer and then amps up the gospel notes already present in Winwood& #39;s version, emphasizing choral harmonies over horns. 14/
Now *that* is re-appropriation. 15/
Houston& #39;s original recorded version only ever appeared on the Japanese version of her third album. But this live version from her 1990 tour gives a good sense of her arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbmiyLe2OnY">https://www.youtube.com/watch... 16/
It& #39;s a period-specific mix of 80s synths and computerized drums, but once those backing vocals come in (around the 1:30 mark) - that& #39;s a gospel sensibility being pushed to the front of the mix. 17/
And then, unfortunately, Houston& #39;s version basically sat there unnoticed for the better part of three decades. 18/
Enter Norwegian DJ/producer/songwriter Kygo. He takes the Houston version and remixes it as a "tropical house" track - emphasizing bright and shiny instrumentation and sternum-rattling bass and drums. It& #39;s a great version! Might even be the best of the three. 19/
But make no mistake: it& #39;s Houston& #39;s vocals that drive this track forward, the sense of fervor found in her crisp vocal delivery that propels the song. What& #39;s really interesting is the billing that the version receives: it& #39;s credited to "Kygo & Whitney Houston". 20/
The order of the names alone gives an indication of how the role of music producer has changed over the last twenty or so years - how on earth did the guy who remixed the thing get first billing? 21/
Note that the songwriters (Steve Winwood and Will Jennings) of course get no play (unless you& #39;re the type who reads liner notes). Putting Kygo first indicates a significant shift in how credit is dispensed in the music industry - away from performers, in favour of technicians 22/
I don& #39;t want that to come off as petulant - it& #39;s not a criticism. (It& #39;s a bit of a criticism.) Though I should also note that the idea of revving up Whitney Houston songs isn& #39;t particularly original: 23/
Thunderpuss did it more than 20 years ago with their *amazing* remix of "It& #39;s Not Right, But It& #39;s Okay", which is top-shelf late career Whitney Houston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URl05jN6KrE">https://www.youtube.com/watch... 24/
(And, indicating the prevailing norms of the late 90s, that release was just billed to Whitney, with "(Thunderpuss Remix)" tagged on at the end.) 25/
Final point, which might serve to tie up the references to identity and genre which prompted this thread: when Houston released "It& #39;s Not Right...", there were *two* versions released to radio, the Thunderpuss mix (which dominated pop airplay) 26/
and the original Rodney Jerkins-produced version, which dominated airplay at "urban" stations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J538b-OLRU">https://www.youtube.com/watch... 27/
