Mariah or Whitney?

[SexyKev]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

Oh yes, Reba is the shit, and has been since 1977. She deserves more recognition.

Whitney's deterioration is one thing, but Mariah's is another. I do not understand why she can barely sing anymore.

Yeah, me either. And not even trying to be funny or smart. But everyone knows Whitney's excuse for having a damaged voice is from the abuse of drugs and smoking. But what's Mariah's excuse for having a constantly shot voice that only "magically" sounds halfway decent in the studio? I mean, its not like she's done sung herself out of a voice when she has been lip synching it 90% of the time since like forever. Her voice SHOULD be in tip-top shape. All that lipping and preserving she's done over the course of her career. But, we can see that's clearly not the case...

 

[SexyKev]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

My fav Reba song:



Beautiful and touching. Made me cry when I first saw it.

 

[Anton98]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

I at one point in the past was a lamb, until Mariah started being slutty. I think doing her signature whistle fucked up her voice. But to be honest, Mariah voice was never that stable.

 

[QuinnRider]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

I love Reba! She's so awesome, and a great actress! And she adores Celine too, hehe. Celine is someone who has been in the biz for 30 years and can still sing the most powerful dynamic notes as well. She develouped some tonal problems cause of Vegas though, but that has been fading away

I understand Whitneys problems, but Mariah? C'mon, that really bugs the hell out of me. On her last tour she lipped parts or all of every song she sang according to a friend who receintly became a lamb as well as a huge Lamb who I know, and now a bunch of lambs are upset at her for lipping so much and how she acted on this last tour, and about the remix album etc. I get that, she can do better, and has. I loved Mariah's 1990-1995-ish voice, but from then on its been downhill and lots of studio magic receintly. Maybe people are expecting too much of her?
Never been a big fan of Whitney but definantly love the song I Look To You. Reba is awesome, as is Celine

 

[AngelFromAbove]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

Well, Mariah is a heavy drinker. Although I cannot say that is the complete cause, heavyh drinking is a contributing factor.

Why can I not see the videos above?

 

[RestlessDevil]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

My fav Reba song:



Beautiful and touching. Made me cry when I first saw it.

Funny, I never cared for that song at all... Didn't surprise me one bit when I saw Diane Warren had penned it.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPD2Ye6KpGA[/ame]

That's a song from the same album, but it plays to Reba's strengths to a larger degree that "I'll Be" does. It's one of my favorite songs of Reba's later career, but even her best songs in the 1998-present era has nothing on even her mediocre songs from her peak years 1985-1995.

 

[cinnamontea]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

errm..reba is great and all but you can't compare her to mariah and whitney, sorry.

whitney and mariah (in the 90's) hit more vocal ranges than reba ever did in her songs...they have completely different vocal stylings. there's more inflections and vocal stresses in whitney and mariah's singing style so it does affect therm over time....

 

[80KGold]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

There's no mystery about why Whitney can't thrill like she once could. I don't doubt that she'd still be The Baddest Bitch On The Planet if she hadn't toked* away a good portion of her talent.

*I use "toke" generally. She's already admitted that she fancied more than just the Mary Jane.

 

[matt1980111]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

errm..reba is great and all but you can't compare her to mariah and whitney, sorry.

whitney and mariah (in the 90's) hit more vocal ranges than reba ever did in her songs...they have completely different vocal stylings. there's more inflections and vocal stresses in whitney and mariah's singing style so it does affect therm over time....

This is true. Reba's singing style is not the same as Whitney's or Mariah's. They use much more power and belting. If you don't treat your voice right, it will give out. But besides the belting style, there are numerous reasons why their voices are shot.

Whitney's problem was drugs. She smoked her range away. By smoking heavily like she has, she's created such a amazing amount of build-up on her vocal folds and in her lungs (the same thing can be said of Dionne Warwick...Lord, is her voice shot; it comes from years and years of smoking). Whitney's going to need an extensive amount of vocal coaching and practice in order to regain even a 10th of what her voice used to be. But I doubt that happens. Can you imagine telling Whitney Houston that she needs to start vocal exercises and warm ups? There'd be wigs and hair pins flying everywhere.

Mariah's problem is sheer laziness (and one could argue alcohol). I doubt Mariah (and Whitney) warms up like she used to. No matter how big a star you are, you still have to warm up your voice properly. You are using muscles when you sing. They need to be in shape. Plus, Mariah's always had vocal nodules. And I doubt she's taken care of them like she should have.

 

[SexyKev]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

There's no mystery about why Whitney can't thrill like she once could. I don't doubt that she'd still be The Baddest Bitch On The Planet if she hadn't toked* away a good portion of her talent.

*I use "toke" generally. She's already admitted that she fancied more than just the Mary Jane.

Yessir.

errm..reba is great and all but you can't compare her to mariah and whitney, sorry.

whitney and mariah (in the 90's) hit more vocal ranges than reba ever did in her songs...they have completely different vocal stylings. there's more inflections and vocal stresses in whitney and mariah's singing style so it does affect therm over time....

That is actually true..

This is true. Reba's singing style is not the same as Whitney's or Mariah's. They use much more power and belting.

Correct.

Can you imagine telling Whitney Houston that she needs to start vocal exercises and warm ups? There'd be wigs and hair pins flying everywhere.

Funny, I never cared for that song at all... Didn't surprise me one bit when I saw Diane Warren had penned it.

Oh wow, Diane wrote that song? I didn't even know. Maybe that's another reason I like it. I'm a fan of Diane's sappy, cliche writing. I love all the songs she's done for Whitney.

 

[Anton98]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

Sometimes I can't even listen to Whitney and Mariah's old music because it a shame what happen to their voices.

 

[samsonite]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

Oh yes, Reba is the shit, and has been since 1977. She deserves more recognition.

Whitney's deterioration is one thing, but Mariah's is another. I do not understand why she can barely sing anymore.

Indeed both their voices have deteriorated considerably, however, Mariah's voice today is MILES ahead of Whitney's current vocal state. But that probably ain't saying much considering anyone that can carry a tune sounds much better than Whitney at this point. I was practically dragged to a Mariah concert (free ticket!) with a few friends earlier this year and she actually sounded more than decent. She may not be able to hit the same notes with the same strength as before, but she still can sing pretty well (as opposed to resorting to the "talk-singing" technique that Whitney relies heavily on nowadays).

As for Reba, meh. That shit is boring.

 

[RestlessDevil]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

Sure, Mariah can still carry a tune. Sometimes. But her voice is nowhere near the state it was in even just five years ago. This coming from a fan who owns all her studio albums plus various compilations, so I'm not a "hater" as some of her signature batshit insane lambs tend to label me.

Whitney's biggest problem seems to be extreme shortness of breath - during her AMA performance she had to draw so many breaths it was almost ridiculous.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2etm5LlMHA&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL-hSSZn5Pc&feature=related[/ame]

Watch those and tell me again that Reba couldn't compete with Whitney and Mariah. Though, I will admit that Whitney at her vocal peak could probably outsing Reba. But circa 1995, she was about evenly matched with Whitney. Mariah can (could?) probably hit whistle notes Reba can't and never could, but power-wise, Reba always had her beat. Just listen to the note she hits (live! A concept foreign to you for the last ten years, Mariah?) at 2:50-ish in the "Forever Love" video I posted earlier.

 

[Taurean79]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

Oh yes, Reba is the shit, and has been since 1977. She deserves more recognition.

Whitney's deterioration is one thing, but Mariah's is another. I do not understand why she can barely sing anymore.

yes mariahs voice is in bad shape considering she hasnt supposedly did any drugs or smoking to ruin it. i remember feeling bad for her when she sang at michaels memorial on tv and she was croaking her way through and sounded all hoarse and raspy. and when she performed on X Factor and sounded a hot mess and the contestants sang better than her. And sum people like to say that whtiney "talk sings" but what does mariah do? she softly and carefully WHISPERS her way through a song and then she usually lipsings the high notes at the end of a song. That has been her usual formula for a long time now. And her fans cant even tell when she singing live or when she lipsinging anymore. And whispering is not "singing".....

 

[SexyKev]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

^ Right. Mariah whispers, then the backing track kicks in when she goes for the belts or high notes. And its sad when you can't even tell if she's lipsynching anymore. You actually have to STUDY a performance of hers to find out if she is or isn't because she's become such a master at lipping it and has been fooling people (her fans, mainly) for years. That's where alot of my respect was lost for her and her talent. Fraudulent. The only one of the big divas who does all that lipsynching instead of delivering honest, raw and REAL live performances. It shouldn't even have to come to having to study and coming to the conclusion if either she is lipping or singing it totally live, or leaving confused and not totally sure. That's just sad.

 

[SexyKev]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2etm5LlMHA&feature=related

Love this song.

 

[SexyKev]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

My fav Mariah lipsynched-performance (of my fav Mariah song, btw):

 

[MCsNo1Fn]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

First off, comparing Reba to Mariah or Whitney is stupid, irrelevant, and moronic, considering their vocal styles and ranges are completely different, as well as lifestyles and time frames of album releases/performances.


I've always thought Mariah's was due to releasing an album every year for ten years straight, touring with each album, and dozens of performances of each single from each album year after year. Most artists don't release their albums so close together, but being that Mariah was Sony's cash cow, it was work work work. Most of the lipsyncing done in the late 90s was on foreign shows. Eventually she just got rediculous with the lipsyncing. Anyway, it's obvious when she is and when she isn't.
But I blame the nodules, and the fact that she's sang non-stop for over 11 years (Up until the breakdown before Glitter.)

For Whitney, had she not abused drugs, her voice would still be in tact because she didn't release an album but every 4 or 5 years or so, like most artists.

You actually have to STUDY a performance of hers to find out if she is or isn't because she's become such a master at lipping it and has been fooling people (her fans, mainly) for years. It shouldn't even have to come to having to study and coming to the conclusion if either she is lipping or singing it totally live, or leaving confused and not totally sure. That's just sad.

First off, anyone who "studies" a performance to see if its live or not, is a fucking moron. Second, its OBVIOUS when she lipsyncs to most INCLUDING fans. So don't group people together like that. There ARE delusional fans that believe everything is always live, but the majority don't. So get your FACTS straight first.

 

[axioma16]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

I don't think that Mariah's voice is utterly destroyed because of excessive singing. The real problem is that she has always sung at the extremes of her range, attempting to do things that are not within her natural ability to do. Her high belts have always been very strained, and she has never been able to sing even in the upper alto range with clarity and comfort. The fact that she has always attempted to compensate with frail whistles, makes the weakness of her upper range all the more evident.

The same could be said about Whitney. Her tone has always been infinitely better than Mariah's, and she has a much more elastic and agile voice, but I have never, ever heard her sing anything above E5 live, that didn't sound like a cat being strangled. Yet and still, her songs constantly required her to hit and sustain notes that she should have only visited very occasionally. For instance, the infamous F5 in her cover of 'I'm Every Woman' - a song that she had to transpose down two full steps, and still has never, ever been able to properly sing live. The fact that she has burned her vocal chords beyond functionality with er... smoking and other "leisurely" activities, is independent of the fact that she had always had awful vocal habits, and it is likely that she would have eventually lost her voice anyway.

Reba has always had a more linear, classical (or rather, old fashioned) style that seldom forces her to venture beyond her tessitura. She is also very careful with placement, and rarely does anything that could place much stress on her vocal chords, such as leaps across octaves and long runs.

Other good examples of people whose voices are in tatters are Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan - three vocalists who are infinitely superior than Mariah and Whitney, and haven't started to show signs of enormous deterioration until they've reached their sixties, thanks to the fact that they have always had excellent technique, even if they also had the same very bad habit of constantly hitting notes that lie at the upper end of their ranges.

By the way, I wonder when will Christina Aguilera, who strains even more than Mariah and Whitney to hit lower notes, start to lose her voice... I would say that she'll be done by her mid thirties.

 

[AngelFromAbove]

Re: For the Mariah and Whitney fans who blame age..

I don't think that Mariah's voice is utterly destroyed because of excessive singing. The real problem is that she has always sung at the extremes of her range, attempting to do things that are not within her natural ability to do. Her high belts have always been very strained, and she has never been able to sing even in the upper alto range with clarity and comfort. The fact that she has always attempted to compensate with frail whistles, makes the weakness of her upper range all the more evident.

The same could be said about Whitney. Her tone has always been infinitely better than Mariah's, and she has a much more elastic and agile voice, but I have never, ever heard her sing anything above E5 live, that didn't sound like a cat being strangled. Yet and still, her songs constantly required her to hit and sustain notes that she should have only visited very occasionally. For instance, the infamous F5 in her cover of 'I'm Every Woman' - a song that she had to transpose down two full steps, and still has never, ever been able to properly sing live. The fact that she has burned her vocal chords beyond functionality with er... smoking and other "leisurely" activities, is independent of the fact that she had always had awful vocal habits, and it is likely that she would have eventually lost her voice anyway.

Reba has always had a more linear, classical (or rather, old fashioned) style that seldom forces her to venture beyond her tessitura. She is also very careful with placement, and rarely does anything that could place much stress on her vocal chords, such as leaps across octaves and long runs.

Other good examples of people whose voices are in tatters are Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan - three vocalists who are infinitely superior than Mariah and Whitney, and haven't started to show signs of enormous deterioration until they've reached their sixties, thanks to the fact that they have always had excellent technique, even if they also had the same very bad habit of constantly hitting notes that lie at the upper end of their ranges.

By the way, I wonder when will Christina Aguilera, who strains even more than Mariah and Whitney to hit lower notes, start to lose her voice... I would say that she'll be done by her mid thirties.

While I understand your point about these three women excessively using high notes, you certainly cannot attribute that to being the main source of their problems. The fact is that there are several factors that lead to the deterioration of one's voice. To compare Chaka, Patti, and Aretha to the three aforementioned women is moot, to a certain extent.

Mariah, Whitney, and Christina have had more rigorous touring schedules than those previous singers of the early days. It's not that they sang as much as they did; it's that they sang so frequently, especially Mariah, without time for their voices to rest. In addition, Whitney and Christina have had pretty bad technique in the usage/execution; in some cases, that's led to the forced sound that they exhibit. In Mariah's case, she has not been consistent with the training of her voice, for live performances within the past three albums.

Of course, the drugs, the drinking, and/or the smoking do these women, excluding Christina as far as I know, no favors either. To say that singing high notes is their main problem is an oversimplification though.