Starred review from November 8, 2021
In this stirring work, journalist Kennedy (Parental Discretion Is Advised) reexamines “all that Whitney was and all that she was never able to be.” Raised in a family of musical, devout Christians and trained by her mother Cissy, a talented gospel singer, Whitney Houston was discovered by music executive Clive Davis in 1982 and fashioned into an “All-American, Miss Beautiful.” Kennedy explores how, up until her 2012 death, that image took from Houston as much as it gave her, denying her from expressing her personality and sexuality, and leading her to end her “tender and loving” friendship with Robyn Crawford, which didn’t fit into “the music industry... an intolerant place where homophobia openly thrived.” He also points out how despite rising to meet “the moment”—from making history as “the first woman to debut atop the Billboard 200” to singing the “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1991 Super Bowl—her Blackness was wielded against her. By telling Houston’s story alongside those of contemporary Black celebrities including Beyoncé—who, Kennedy writes, have spent their careers walking the high wire between being “too Black” and “not Black enough”—the author both celebrates the legendary singer’s inimitable talent and offers a rousing critique of oppressive systems still at work today. This is a must-read for fans. Agent: William LoTurco, LoTurco Literary.
November 15, 2021
A former Los Angeles Times music journalist reevaluates the life and work of pop star Whitney Houston (1963-2012). For Kennedy, author of Parental Discretion Is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap, Houston's untimely demise demonstrated how "we continue to confront the psychological toll of being a Black superstar in America." In this book, he deliberately eschews a "straightforward cradle-to-grave" biography by examining Houston in the context of her time and cultural milieu. Born in the early 1960s, when "the Black American dream was as much about surviving as it was upward mobility," Houston had a gospel-singing mother who recognized her daughter's gift early on and helped train the voice that would be Houston's "ticket out of poverty." White music executive Clive Davis later transformed her into a wholesome pop-music confection that stripped her of erotic appeal during the MTV-dominated 1980s, when singers like Janet Jackson deliberately played up their sexuality. Kennedy suggests that the pressure to conform to heterosexist norms haunted Houston, whose strict religious upbringing frowned upon the queerness she hid from public view. Considered "a sellout, an Oreo: white on the inside, Black on the outside" by some other Black artists, Houston married hip-hop bad boy Bobby Brown and began revealing an edgier artistic persona, both musically and onscreen. But private shame about her identity led Houston to follow Brown into a spiral of violence and substance abuse that irreparably damaged her career. The great strength of this book is that Kennedy--who sees Houston through the lens of the Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and LGBTQ+ movements of the last decade--refuses to pass judgment. Instead, he seeks to understand Houston's struggles as evidence of a woman who shouldered an enormous burden--not just as a pop icon, but as a deeply devout queer Black artist forced to inhabit an unforgiving premade identity. Thoughtful reading for Houston fans and music historians alike.
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November 1, 2021
Leaning on his personal relationship to Whitney Houston's music and extensive musical knowledge, Kennedy (Parental Discretion Is Advised, 2017) constructs a then-and-now cultural analysis of the narratives attached to Houston and her singular voice and reaches a resounding conclusion: When she was alive, we got it wrong. The tear-down scrutiny Whitney endured left nothing of her life untouched: her Blackness, her relationship with Robyn Crawford, her marriage to Bobby Brown, her musical choices, her drug use, her famous family connections, and her appearances, whether carefully orchestrated or painful displays of illness. The thematic rather than chronological structure of the chapters results in some repetition. Even so, Kennedy's winning argument invites readers to focus on Houston's triumphs: the ceilings she broke and the pathways she paved. Particularly impactful is Kennedy's work to locate Houston's legacy in a historical-cultural context, retrieving, for example, the no-longer-sung, racist third verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner"--which she breathtakingly performed in 1991--and contemplating the meaning of a Black woman performing the national anthem at such a profound level.
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June 17, 2022
Journalist and cultural critic Kennedy (Parental Discretion Is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A. and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap) presents a different take on the highly scrutinized legend Whitney Houston, focusing on her humanity and her vilification by mainstream society. Kennedy offers a well-researched background on the talented Drinkard family, whose members included Cissy Houston and Dionne Warwick. Whitney Houston was guided--first by mother Cissy and then by producer Clive Davis--to be a crossover star. In their haste to market Whitney as an innocent ing�nue, they erased all that made her who she was--her love for another woman, her Blackness, her addictions that began when she was still a teenager, and the abuse she suffered. Kennedy studies the evolution of Whitney's music, her genius at manipulating her voice and the words, and the downward spiral her life and abilities took. It was her inability to deal with the overwhelming shame consistently heaped upon her that led to her tragic demise. VERDICT An empathic and heartbreaking account of a woman haunted by her past, in a society that refused to accept her despite her amazing accomplishments.--Lisa Henry
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