Whitney Houston's New Album: Will She Bring the Dormant Power Ballad Back?

When most people heard about Whitney Houston working on a comeback album more than a year ago, some probably thought she'd go the route of 100% Hip-Hop just to have a chance at competing logically on the charts with Beyonce, Mariah and all the rest of the current Pop Divas who took Houston's torch in the 2000's. And, yes, we all still expect at least a few of those Houston melismas and power notes to come back. If you don't know what a melisma is, then you need to read my article about them (see second source link at bottom) and know that Whitney Houston took it and those mentioned power notes to whole new levels in the realms of pop music 25 years ago. Now, as we see the melisma still staying very active in most Top 40 and in the "American Idol" universe today, the power note has become slightly archaic.

All of those above musical elements existed in the extinct power ballad which Houston once took to a level that everybody thought would have infinite staying power in the music industry.

Well, it turned out that edgier Hip-Hop and Rap became the musical genre with the longer staying power. In fact, it may reign longer on Billboard's charts than the power ballad genre did during its heyday of roughly the mid 1970's up to the time of its apotheosis with Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On (and On)" in 1996. But while perhaps people thought Barry Manilow created the power ballad in the 70's and Celine Dion took it to its most histrionic in the 90's, I doubt you'll see much arguing that Whitney Houston made it the most accessible during the 1980's and early 90's.

Anybody who remembers her first three albums between 1985 and 1991 would recall the power ballad was given a new sound that seemed to fit right in with the slightly less cynical 1980's. Back when one of her first major singles ("The Greatest Love of All") was released, the public warmly accepted this heartfelt power ballad about self pride and the value of children as our future--catapulting it all the way to the #1 position on Billboard's Hot 100 chart during the late spring of 1986. Had the single been released twenty years later, it would have been laughed and kicked off into oblivion during an era when edgier Rap/Hip Hop fare was dominating the Top Ten.

Yes, "Greatest Love of All" was very much a telling societal product of its era, both for its original use in the 1977 movie "The Greatest" (with a George Benson instrumental) and in Houston's better remake. It's ironic then that her producer, Clive Davis, didn't want her to record the song originally. Perhaps he sensed the power ballad wouldn't last forever and that his superstar client shouldn't get pinned down as a power ballad artist. Nonetheless, no artist or producer wants to think too deeply about those things when the public is accepting the musical wares you're offering.

There isn't any question then that across-the-board cynicism in America eventually killed the power ballad. Fortunately, Whitney Houston was a singer who could sing virtually anything--including much hipper fare. You could already see signs of it on her 1991 comeback album (after a four year absence) "I'm Your Baby Tonight." There, we heard only a smattering of her famous power ballads until bringing a grand finale to it with "I Will Always Love You" a year later off "The Bodyguard" soundtrack.

Then, almost fittingly, Whitney Houston temporarily crashed and burned right when the power ballad went down with Celine Dion's Titanic song...
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In those ensuing years of trouble with Bobby Brown and drug abuse, some of us still in tune with AWOL musical genres wondered what happened to the power ballad. I even wrote an article ruminating on it a couple of years ago when Celine Dion recorded a new album and changed her sound for the sake of staying relevant on the charts. By the time America hit rock bottom in a quasi depression and a blaze of other profoundly disturbing issues, there seemed to be a logic building that a power ballad with a more modern sensibility could be just what the populace would assimilate in mainstream music if allowed to have it.

Music producers, though, weren't listening. There hasn't been one successful single produced anywhere in the mainstream music industry that you could call an inspirational power ballad. No producer was willing to risk their own money to see if getting a new one out there would become an unexpected runaway hit. The only exception to that has been in the revival of singing standards for the famished romantics out there.

Perhaps the idea of having Whitney Houston sing power ballads again on her anticipated comeback album comes from the unexpected success in making standards albums. It's no secret that most standards albums are successful because many people want the magic of romance back in their stressful lives. Ironic it is then that Clive Davis suggested to Whitney Houston that she bring back the power ballad after his skepticism about the genre 25 years ago. If perhaps Davis isn't the #1 most powerful producer in the music biz now as he once was when running Arista Records, he still shows signs of an innate barometer on what people want to hear.

Nevertheless, Houston's "I Look To You" (being released this September) is still a financial risk considering the power ballads it contains are right up there with the same sentiments expressed as the ones she sang in the 80's. A logical music producer would say this is a comeback disaster long in advance. Yet I predict at least one or two of those songs will chart high on Top 40 radio. Many people have been craving those songs again whether they want to admit to it or not. The times we live in may dictate such a spike in interest surrounding a cynical world as we bare our souls and show we're ready to assimilate them again to assuage our cynical wounds.

While perhaps Houston's comeback album will get washed out slightly by other high-profile releases (including posthumous Michael Jackson material), prepare to see the psychological makeup of America make her album a modest success if not even a relative smash. After all, it won't all be power ballads, despite Houston reminding us she may still be the queen of those as well as making the melisma an art form before it got carried away.

Sources:

http://www.whitneyhouston.com/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/573405/the_history_of_the_melisma_an_american.html?cat=33