The Whitney Houston Story
Whitney Houston. This woman is continuously hailed as one of the greatest singers of all time. Rising to fame in the 80s, she took the world by storm. She revolutionized the what it meant to be a singer in popular music, and along with Michael Jackson they showed how black artist can be worldwide phenomena. However, just because she had an enormous talent, she was still human, and just like so many global stars that attain enormous amounts of fame, she lost her way. Many people attribute her loss in fame as solely due to drugs. However, one’s life is drastically more complicated than the generalizations humans like to make. One thing the public does understand, is that after Bobby Brown entered Whitney’s life, something changed, and one can see that after Bobby Brown entered Whitney’s life he created an unbalanced triangle in her life. I have no doubt that Whitney, and Bobby loved each other which makes their relationship undoubtedly positive, and the public’s view on Whitney Houston was enormously positive also. Yet, Bobby Brown’s connection with the public was not positive. Just like we learned in class, having two positives and one negative relationships in a triangle does not work as it is unbalanced, and this can be seen in Whitney Houston’s fall from fame.
Bobby Brown was a star in his own right, and had the best-selling album of 1989, but when he married Whitney Houston, his image was completely changed. He married the biggest female star on the planet, and the public did not like that. He was heavily looked down upon as the ugly bad boy who married America’s beautiful sweetheart. Whitney was clearly more famous than Bobby, and she realized how the public was not particularly fond with her marrying Bobby Brown. She even discussed in a interview with Oprah, how the public’s view of her as this enormous talent, and their view of him as just a husband, tarnished their relationship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4jB0FBxQw . The public viewed Bobby as Mr. Houston, and not Whitney as Mrs. Brown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7HF9dsGfo . Whitney attempted to dim her legacy, so her husband could still be in the limelight. However, that did not work. Her fame continued to rise in the 90s, and Bobby’s fame continued to degrade Bobby was arrested numerous times for assault and drug use, and this negative public image began to influence Whitney’s own public image.
During the Grammy’s in 2000, Whitney hailed her husband as the “original R&B king”, and the public began to think Whitney was showing erratic behavior for this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3IEOXqfSTM . Slowly, Whitney began to defend her husband to the public, and even performed less to help diminish her career so her husband did not feel insignificant. This began to have a toll on Whitney’s public image, and finally in 2005 her career took its biggest hit. Whitney agreed to do a reality show for her husband Bobby Brown, which ultimately led the public to believe she lost her last shred of dignity. However, even this show was still all about Whitney Houston as the Bravo network would not continue it for a second season, because Whitney no longer wanted to partake in it. Further showing how insignificant others thought of Bobby Brown when being compared to Whitney Houston even as the show was called, Being Bobby Brown. Whitney tried to balance her two positive relationships which ultimately did not work. Her career fell significantly after marrying Bobby Brown.
Whitney is a perfect example of how unbalanced triangles lead to stress in one’s life. Whitney desperately tried to maintain both positive relationships between her husband, and the public, but ultimately this led to the downfall of both. Her legacy with the public was being tarnished, and her marriage with her husband led to divorce. The constant stress both of these relationships caused on Whitney led to her loss in fame. However, once she divorced him in 2006 she was able to reach the global stage again. In 2009, her first album after leaving Bobby Brown debuted at number 1, and once again Whitney was on top of the world. You can see once she got rid of Bobby Brown, this ended the stress his relationship with her caused, and she was able to make a comeback to the public.
Sources: Three youtube videos mention in blog
Additional: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/04/whitney-houston-real-bodyguard-interview