Modern Anthem 002 Charting The Songs We Love So Well

Feature: Music Whitney – My Love is Your Love – Gay Rumours

By 1998 Whitney Houston had already been a pop icon for 14 years, with a voice that was regarded as the gold standard, but celebrated as she was, she was also struggling to revamp her sound. 1998’s My Love Is Your Love, Houston’s first studio album in eight years, saw her embrace new textures a world away from the power-balladry that had become her trademark. Of the album’s singles, ‘It’s Not Right But It’s Okay’ was one of the most contemporary. A shuffling, intricate beat from producer Darkchild (aka Rodney Jerkins), whose work with Brandy, Destiny’s Child and Jennifer Lopez would cement their star status, was aided by Houston’s powerful vocal performance.

However, it was the Thunderpuss remix of ‘It’s Not Right…’ the same year that would truly cement the song’s camp classic status. The ’90s had seen club culture burst into the mainstream and pop acts frequently turning to high profile DJs both for dance hits and credibility. DJs like Junior Vasquez and Frankie Knuckles re-invented tracks from the likes of Madonna and Toni Braxton for the clubs.

Enter Thunderpuss, a DJ duo who landed the plum gig of helping Whitney Houston appeal to the new dance floor trends. Chris Cox and Barry Harris had enjoyed success with a remix of Billie Myers’ hit, ‘Kiss the Rain’, which lead to Houston’s label taking them on board.

“We scrapped everything but the vocal, put her ad-libs in the forefront, and rethought the entire song,” Harris told Out magazine for a 2000 cover profile of Houston (an issue which her first ever interview with the gay press). The magazine noted that the remix gave the track new life on gay dancefloors.

The remix would go on to top the US dance charts and in 1999 she made an apperance at a Pride event in New York, performing Thunderpuss’ remix to a rapturous audience.

In footage MTV News aired of the performance the crowd sings back every word. MTV News anchor, John Norris asked Houston about the power of these remixes for her career. She replied: “It’s about the clubs, the clubs are happening. The gay community keeps them happening, it’s where they go to release, it’s where they go to get their stuff off.”

The remix would lead her label to do a dance disc on her Greatest Hits double album that arrived in 2000. In an interview with The Fader, Chris Cox of Thunderpuss discussed how the spurred her label on. “She was selling more singles than albums at the time, and she was on this amazing run of dance hits,” he said. “Arista were very forthright in recognising her success in the dance scene, and wanted to jump in on it.”

As a larger-than-life diva enduring dramatic ups and downs in her personal life, Houston ticked every box on the almost-clichéd gay icon list. But gay rumours also floated around Houston for much of her career. Her relationship with friend and assistant Robyn Crawford was the source of much speculation. Nick Broomfield’s recent Whitney: Can’t I Be Me? documentary leans heavily on the idea that Crawford and Houston were lovers and that radio station bosses were uncomfortable with the idea.

Houston’s steadfastly denied the rumours particularly in her interview with Out magazine. “I know what I am,” she said. “I’m a mother. I’m a woman. I’m heterosexual.”

She added: “If I was gay, I would be proud to tell you, ’cause

I ain’t that kind of girl to say, ‘Naw, that ain’t me’. The thing that hurt me the most was that they tried to pin something on me that I was not.”

Houston also recalled in Out magazine how her mother Cissy, a successful performer in her own right, often played sold-out shows to gay audiences, saying “she somehow made you feel like you’d come out triumphant, no matter what. This had a strong hold for gay people.”

Cissy however, didn’t seem enamoured of Whitney’s possible romantic relationship with Crawford. Promoting her book Remembering Whitney, she was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, who asked about Whitney and Robyn’s relationship. Cissy, said she definitely would have had a problem with Whitney being gay and wouldn’t have condoned it.

With that kind of attitude in her family, it’s no surprise that Whitney stayed in the closet, if she was indeed gay. One way or the other, her gay following was loyal, and the Thunderpuss remix of ‘It’s Not Right But It’s Okay’ cemented it for all time.

As Chris Cox noted in his interview with The Fader, the message of the song endures even now. “Lyrically, the Whitney song says a statement that every woman and gay man has felt,” he says. “Whitney just slayed. She was at the top of her game, her performance is so clear.”

There are things in Houston’s life that may always remain unclear – her sexuality, how she may have struggled privately with her demons – but on the dancefloor, where her voice still sounds so alive, her message is still clear: you can make

The Verdict

The return of Kesha

On her first album in five years, Kesha has plenty to prove. Her legal battles have started a conversation around how the establishment treats sexual assault victims, and shone a light on the levels of sexism in the music industry. With her music career seemingly in limbo, it’s miracle that Rainbow even exists at all.

Kesha was dismissed by some as a hollow and manufactured pop starlet at the start of her career, but here the folk and rock and roll references that just peppered previous albums properly take off. Kesha’s voice displays powerful versatlity, whether it’s the show-stopping vocals of ‘Praying’ or the winsome and heartbreaking title track. There’s a gorgeous duet with Dolly Parton on ‘Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To’, originally a country hit for Parton written by Kesha’s mother. There are moments of joy too: the swaggering ‘Woman’ is glorious singalong, ‘Learn To Let Go’ offers sweet pop satisfaction while ‘Let ‘Em Talk’ is bratty pop rock that’s hard to resist. Some tracks don’t stick like they should, but Rainbow is a powerful, ececltic and triumphant collection from a voice that was sorely missing from pop.

“It’s about the clubs, the clubs are happening. The gay community keeps them happening.