#46 – Whitney Houston by Whitney Houston

Despite her ubiquitous presence in American pop culture, before today I had only ever listened to a handful of Whitney’s singles.  It’s so tragic how her life ended and, indeed, how a good deal of it was lived.  You like to think that, once a certain level of fame and wealth are achieved, life becomes easy and enjoyable.  Obviously, we have a plethora of examples of how that is not always the case.  Quite often, the qualities that enable the creation of beautiful artwork are accompanied by personality disorders or mental health issues that make coping with the stresses of public life extremely difficult.  If anything, I feel like this enhances the impact of an artist’s body of work, making it all seem more prophetic and profound than it did when they were alive.  The trade-off of legendary status for a brief, but intense life of accomplishment and fame doesn’t really seem worth it.