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Divafication: The deification of modern female pop stars

Linda Lister
a a

Voice faculty of Shorter College

Available online: 24 Jul 2008

To cite this article: Linda Lister (2001): Divafication: The deification of modern female pop stars, Popular Music and Society, 25:3-4, 1-10 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007760108591796

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Divafication: The Deification of Modern Female Pop Stars

Linda Lister
The adoration of female singers appears to be something of a cyclical phenomenon. In the mid-nineteenth century, prima donnas were celebrated and revered in operas of the bel canto ("beautiful singing") style, which showcased their vocal abilities. When the bel canto operas were revived, featuring soprano Maria Callas, in the mid-twentieth century, diva worship resurfaced. Now, the millennium has brought diva deification to popular music. Supplanting the sometimes derogatory term from its classical roots, the music video channel VH1 used the star power of five female pop singers to help raise money for the venerable "Save the Music" campaign. The result was the concert VH1 Divas Live (1998), favoring singlename monikers on the marquee: Celine, Gloria, Aretha, Shania, Mariah. Thanks to the event's success, VH1 staged another extravaganza the following year, albeit with some stars of more dubious vocal talent (Cher) and diva-worthy status (diva-in-training Brandy). The kitschy inclusion of Elton John aside, these concerts reveal the overwhelming popularity of diva adoration. For the most part, the divos seem to be overlooked. With the exception of pretty-boy pop stars like Latin sensation Ricky Martin, male singers seem to be finding their success in "boy bands" such as the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and 98. Meanwhile, their female teenaged counterparts, former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera and the ubiquitous Britney Spears, stand alone in recycling the vapid, bubblegum pop popularized in the previous decade by Debbie Gibson. In the realm of country music, there are also teen idols, like Le Ann Rimes and Lila McCann, but lately female artists with crossover or mainstream pop appeal are stealing the spotlight, as evidenced by Shania Twain and Faith Hill. In both genres, fans seem eager to place their chosen divas singly on their pop pedestal for "divafication." For the purposes of this discussion, the new brand of divas will be delineated by three different designations. The first category is comprised of Prima Divas, singers in the true tradition of the operatic prima 1

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donna who are recognized primarily for sheer vocal talent, however wisely or inanely utilized. The prototype for this group is "the voice," Barbra Streisand, whose "vocal chops" cannot be disputed regardless of whether you love her or hate her. In the second category are the late-twentieth-century innovators, the female performers who gave birth to new aspects of pop music and thereby paved the way for future progress. The obvious exponent of this type is the appropriately named Madonna. Although her flair for titillation no doubt outweighs her talent, one cannot deny Madonna's "imagegenius" (Wurtzel 215). The third group of divas displays the renaissance of the singer/songwriter/artist as epitomized by the hugely successful Lilith Fair Festival. This category may reveal the most positive prospects for women in pop music. Instead of simply being celebrated for their physical or vocal beauty, these performers are also revered for their songwriting, thereby also their introspection and imagination. In the words of Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan, "there's a beautiful abundance of women in music out there who are incredibly diverse" (Woodworm 17). Uniting female singers in a music festival may help to combat the prima donna labels of "virago, shrew, or bitch" (Christiansen 9) and prove that the more divas there are, the better. Prima Divas If Ella Fitzgerald is the queen of jazz, Billie Holiday first lady of the blues, and Aretha Franklin the queen of soul, then who is the queen of pop? In the 1990s, it would seem to be a three-way tie between Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion. Certainly all three have their devotees and detractors, but their presence has been inescapable. The first prima pop diva actually appeared in the mid-1980s, when gospel singer Cissy Houston's daughter Whitney turned from modeling to singing. With her self-titled debut album, Whitney Houston quickly garnered attention not only for her cover-girl looks but for her powerful, wide-ranging vocals. While acknowledging her talents, many critics immediately slighted her tuneful yet monochromatic ballads and fluffy dance tunes as pop soul lite, a blend of "ersatz gospel and supper-club soul" (Frber, "Unison") with overblown vocalism. In her defense, her pop packaging may have been the work of her early producers, because later albums reveal more R & B elements (Waiting to Exhale) and truer gospel influences (The Preacher's Wife and "Jesus Loves Me" from The Bodyguard). Her most recent release, My Love Is Your Love (1998), includes hints of hip-hop and even reggae, but no doubt Whitney Houston will always be remembered as the first of the late-twentieth-century

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pop queens and the transitional figure from Diana Ross and Whitney Houston's own cousin Dionne Warwick to Brandy and Monica. Houston's supposed rival in the war of the pop divas has been her Prince of Egypt duet partner, Mariah Carey. Carey burst onto the scene in 1990, winning legions of fans with her "rangy, flexible, and beautiful pop gospel voice [that] soars like her stylistic predecessor Minnie Riperton [to] find expression in the flageolet register" (Edwin 55). Since then Mariah Carey has proved to have pop staying power, becoming the topselling female artist of the 1990s. Despite her more recent collaborations with hip-hop and rap artists on Butterfly and Rainbow, Carey is most often remembered for the "all conquering bombast [of] gushy, sky-high ballads" (Browne, "Winging It") such as her great debut single, "Vision of Love." While some critics give Carey extra credit for writing her own material, her work has also been dismissed as monochromatic and homogenized. Nevertheless, rarely does anyone find fault with her powerful voice. In fact, her vocal talent is so esteemed that reports of her range have become egregiously exaggerated, so much that even the New York Times (Goodman, "The Marketing Muscle behind Mariah Carey") erroneously reported that her vocal range surpassed that of a piano. Also admired for her wide range is our final prima diva, Celine Dion. After entering the American market singing duets on successful film soundtracks (the title track from Beauty and the Beast and "When I Fall in Love" from Sleepless in Seattle), the French-Canadian singer has become the undisputed queen of overblown power ballads. This position was forever secured by the huge success of the theme song from Titanic, "My Heart Will Go On." Nevertheless, Dion at times seems to suffer from an identity crisis. Early in her career, she aspired to be something of a female Michael Bolton; she even served as his opening act for a period of time. Some of her vocal effects can only be described as pseudogospel Stylings emulating the likes of Houston and Carey. On her Christmas album These Are Special Times, she begins to sound eerily similar to her admitted idol, Barbra Streisand, with whom she recorded the duet "Tell Him." Despite her intense, self-flagellating performances, there is a distinct uniformity and lack of subtlety to Dion's singing, which may stem in part from an inability to fully express herself in something other than her native tongue. Although she inevitably "gives it her all, sounding hurt or empowered as each number demands, her voice has so little personality that it too is lost amid its ornateness" (Browne, "White Noise"). But just as in the heyday of bel canto opera, audiences still react to the visceral thrill of ornate vocal feats.

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The year 2000 ushered in the retirement of Dion. Ironically, her premature exit from the industry may have ensured her position as a deified diva, for nothing arouses more fascination and devotion in rabid fans more than a glorious career cut short. Vivid examples of this phenomenon range from Maria Callas to Janis Joplin. But Dion's departure was also cut short. She returned in 2002 with a new album, A New Day Has Come, and an upcoming residency in Las Vegas. Both Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey have remained in the spotlight more for their personal problems than for their singing. Yet this also befits a diva's behavior. Most likely all three Prima Divas of Pop will continue to be celebrated for their vocal endowments.
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Madonnas The second category of divas is comprised of pop music's modern innovators and "earth mothers." These female artists have earned their fame not on the basis of their vocal talent. Some may indeed have fine voices (and some may not), but unlike the first category of Prima Divas, their vocal talent is not the primary factor in their fame. Regardless of their various talents and the varied genres which they occupy, all of these women are notable for finding new niches for themselves when they may not have fit neatly into any preexisting molds. The mother of modern pop music is the aptly named Madonna. Selfadmittedly she is not the most gifted vocalist or dancer, but the veracity and tenacity of her expression cannot be denied. Madonna has seemingly mastered the pop medium, reinventing herself and modifying her image to find new audiences and modes of expression. After debuting as a denim-and-lace-clad "boy toy" in the mid-1980s, she became the inimitable dance music diva with "Vogue" in the 1990s. Exploring every possible hair color, Madonna garnered attention, including doubts about her true talents, by her seeming preoccupation with sex as witnessed by her album Erotica, her book Sex, and her controversial video Justify My Love, which was banned from airplay in certain markets. In fact, Madonna's whole career is stylistically symbolic of woman's ability to use her sexuality to express liberation (Wurtzel 24). Only she knows if her exhibitionism is sincere self-expression or carefully engineered selfpromotion. Detractors cannot deny Madonna's business acumen or her staying power. Madonna's talent has even earned some newfound respect since her Golden Globe Award-winning performance as Evita. And her postpartum album Ray of Light (1998) was highly lauded by critics for its unique mixture of techno music and Eastern spirituality. Despite the debates about her method or musical talent, Madonna has proved the merit of her mtier by cultivating the mystique of the female pop icon.

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Another controversial groundbreaker is the Madonna of grunge, Courtney Love. What is most remarkable about Courtney Love is that she did not succumb following the tragic suicide of her husband, Kurt Cobain. Instead of going the way of The Bell Jar, she effected her own public transformation. Emerging from Cobain's death, the frontwoman of the band Hole metamorphosed into a glamorous Versace model and movie actress. Certainly Love is not revered for the beauty of her voice. The harsh, "amelodic howls of the caterwauling ex-stripper" (Browne, "The Hole Truth") reflect the overwhelming power of her brash personality and circumstance. As with Madonna, much of Love's image hinges upon her sexuality, but her fame also stems from the public's grim fascination with her real-life tragedy. An uncomfortably thin line exists between expression about and exploitation of Cobain's suicide (as witnessed by Ask For It's cover photo of scarred wrists). Nonetheless Courtney Love is the perfect exponent of the power of the diva persona in popular culture. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Suzanne Vega. Favoring what she calls "T. S. Eliot's aesthetic of impersonality" (Woodworm 158) over Love's histrionics, the folksinger/songwriter illustrates the power of understatement. Who can forget the stark intensity of Vega's a cappella "Tom's Diner?" Her vocal delivery is straightforward and unadorned, thereby drawing the listener's ear to the content of the lyrics. Solitude Standing epitomizes the mesmerizing subtlety of her art. Although she continues to record, Vega is no longer a predominant force in the music industry. Yet she paved the way for the 1990s trend of the "girl-with-theguitar" that led to Lilith Fair. Furthermore, the recent publication of her song texts {The Passionate Eye) is testament to her advancement of the concept of the poet as diva. Also known for her potent, often obtuse poetry is Tori Amos. This alternative diva is a complex amalgam of contradictory characteristics. She is the rebellious minister's daughter and piano prodigy turned Curtis Institute dropout and rape victim. She plays the harpsichord while singing obscenities ("Professional Widow" from the Boys for Pele album). Half-standing, she straddles the piano bench while undulating at her beloved Bsendorfer and wailing in "orgasmic soprano moans" (Browne, "Loon Service"). Just as Suzanne Vega paved the way for the female singer/guitarist, Amos drew interest to the singer/songwriter at the keyboard. Like a latter-day female version of Billy Joel, she brings classical training to the popular idiom. Her pedigree grants her musical legitimacy but also distances her from some listeners who shy away from her peculiarities. Nevertheless, Amos maintains a cultlike following of devotees, and her angst-ridden outpourings begat the work of later artists such as Paula Cole and Fiona Apple.

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In some ways Amos also begat Alanis Morissette. (Their joint concerts in 1999 must have been intense events indeed.) With her wildly popular anthem for the modern scorned woman, "You Oughta Know," Morissette struck a palpable chord with infatuation junkies everywhere. While the song may seem like every guy's worst nightmare realized, it is very significant as unabashed expression: "Alanis' complete lack of shame about how crazy and bereft she feels, combined with a frightening fury, is what is so new" (Wurtzel 32). Like Amos, Morissette has her own share of odd mannerisms that make her a Jagged Little Pill for some to swallow. Unlike Amos, Morissette is not a consummate musician: her guitar-playing is weak at best, and she proves to be an excruciatingly bad flutist on "That I Would Be Good." She may not have been the first female to swear or sing about oral sex. Indie-darling Liz Phair beat her on both counts with "F*** and Run" and "Shatter," from Exile in Guyville (1993). Not unlike Phair, her raw voice could hardly be described as beautiful, but her "elastic-ecstatic vocals [and] Zen chattiness" (Tucker) have given vivid expression to the passion and frustration of fm-de-sicle feminists everywhere. The final two Madonna figures are perhaps the most unlikely to be mentioned in the same breath: Shania Twain and Lauryn Hill. Both, however, have been integral in increasing the mainstream popularity of their respective musical genres. With the help of her rock producer husband, Twain has evolved a neo-Nashville aesthetic of boudoir feminism and high-tech honky-tonk rock (Considine). Although her music may seem incredibly harmless and even banal to some, she shocked the Nashville establishment by daring to bare her midriff in her music videos. Grand Ole Opry purists may have objected, but Twain managed staggering sales with her album Come On Over (1997), which remained in the top ten of both the country and pop charts for more than two years. The former lead singer of the Fugees, Lauryn Hill achieved even more impressive feats with her solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Like Twain, she appealed to fans across a number of genres. Hill's album combined R & B, pop, and rap in a pioneering work that made her the dominant presence at, not to mention winner of, the 1998 Grammy Awards. Her self-righteousness may be ravishing to some, while others may find her rhetoric harsh and strident (Browne, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"). But Hill is an undeniable innovator, and her work as a record producer (for both herself and other artists) will no doubt secure her future place in the industry and has already paved the way for artis such as Alicia Keys and India Arie. The innovative artists in this category are a highly varied group. What they share, besides their popularity, is the ability to create new roles for

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themselves in the world of pop music. Madonna, Courtney Love, Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, Shania Twain, and Lauryn Hill have distinguished themselves as the respective divas of dance music, grunge, poetry, piano, postfeminist angst, crossover-country, and hip hop. Liliths Lilith is not the demonic temptress whom the Reverend Jerry Falwell censured when he called for a boycott of Lilith Fair in 1999. Instead the symbolic figure of Sarah McLachlan's Lilith represents the female singer/songwriter. Certainly the seminal artists of this genre hail from the 1960s and 1970s, including Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King (who was shamelessly mistreated by most of the megalomaniacs at the original VH1 Divas concert). But the Lilith festival served as a celebration and collaboration of female artists who sometimes have trouble finding a forum in the male-dominated world of rock music. To many, Sarah McLachlan is the goddess Lilith herself, adored for her ethereal, limpid voice and admired for nurturing the efforts of her female colleagues. McLachlan is a versatile pianist/guitarist/composer, and she "sings like an angel . . . in a voice both shimmering and omniscient" (Frber, "McLachlan Report"). Like Vega, McLachlan favors an understated sensitivity as her mode of expression, but she brings warmth and vulnerability to her lush, haunting melodies and delicate yet dark lyrics. Her finest work, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993), is an evocative blend of folk and mystical pop. A participant in the 1998 Lilith Fair, Jewel epitomizes the rags-toriches rock success story. After the huge success of her first album, Pieces of You (1995), she was transformed from Jewel Kilcher, snaggletoothed Alaskan who lived in her van, to Jewel the media sensation, the pseudopoet (A Night Without Armour), and the film starlet {Ride with the Devil). While she may naively claim that "the only thing that sold my record was sincerity" (Woodworth 220), the Jewel phenomenon owes much to publicity, politically correct viability, and the 1990s penchant for "coffeehouse-waif ambiance" (Browne, "Pieces of You"). Jewel may be an attractive woman with a decent voice who can write catchy tunes, but her singing reveals serious flaws, including pitch problems and erratic vibrato. Moreover, her poetry is rife with clichd and redundant imagery. Jewel probably would not be as widely criticized if it didn't seem that she was trying so hard to be profound. For instance, the track list of Spirit (1998) is followed by a pithy quote, presumably from the artist herself: "We are loved beyond our ability to comprehend." If Jewel wants to be taken seriously, she would do well to discard her faux newage babble and focus on sincere expression. Otherwise her tenure on the pop pedestal may be short-lived.

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Avoiding pop platitudes and preciousness is straight-shooting Sheryl Crow, a headliner at 1999's farewell Lilith Fair tour. Crow's music displays an interesting dichotomy, juggling levity with suicide (Woodworth 289). In her blend of blues-rock with classic rock overtones, she can portray the party girl, as in "All I Wanna Do (Is Have Some Fun)," as well as the tortured lover in songs like "Anything But Down" and "Strong Enough." Her gritty yet exuberant style appeals to a wide span of the listening audience, perhaps because her image is emblematic of the empowered yet occasionally fragile modern woman. Between the three Lilith exponents discussed here, fans are likely to identify with the ethos of at least one of the artists, be it the pensive romanticism of Sarah McLachlan, the syrupy idealism of Jewel, or the hard-edged realism of Sheryl Crow. Divafication The proliferation of diva worship may be due in large part to the cult of celebrity that dominates contemporary society (an issue examined by grunge queen Courtney Love in "Celebrity Skin"). In particular, female fans seem eager to identify role models both to deify and emulate. Maybe Falwell was right after all, and the Lilith cult is a form of goddess worship, of women celebrating the parts of themselves that they can see in their chosen idols. While their divas sing onstage, fans dutifully lip-synch every word, projecting their own dreams onto their idols while themselves assuming in some small part the persona of the diva. Moreover, this practice of "divafication" seems to have removed the derogatory connotation of the term "diva," thereby helping to dismiss another negative feminine stereotype. Therefore, as long as society continues to embrace female empowerment, no doubt the deification of the diva will thrive, because diva worship appears to enable both the worshiped and the worshiper.

Works Cited Browne, David. "The Hole Truth." Entertainment Weekly Online 15 April 1994. <http://www.ew.com> . "Loon Service," Entertainment Weekly Online 8 May 1998. <http://www. ew.com> . "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," Entertainment Weekly Online 31 August 1998. <http://www.ew.com> . "Pieces of You." Entertainment Weekly Online 15 August 1997. <http://www.ew.com>

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. "White Noise." Entertainment Weekly Online 21 November 1997. <http://www.ew.com> . "Winging It." Entertainment Weekly Online 19 September
1997 .<http://www.ew.com> Christiansen, Rupert. Prima Donna: A History. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Considine, J. D. "Honky-Tonk Women." Entertainment Weekly Online 14 November 1997. <http://www.ew.com> Edwin, Robert. "Rock Fach: One Extreme to the Other." Journal of Singing 51.1 (September/October 1994): 55, 60. Farber, Jim. "Unison." Entertainment Weekly Online 25 January 1991. <http://www.ew.com> . "McLachlan Report." Entertainment Weekly Online 25 July 1997. <http ://www.ew.com > Goodman, Fred. "The Marketing Muscle Behind Mariah Carey." The New York Times 14 April 1991: 28-30. Kilcher, Jewel. A Night without Armour: Poems. New York: Harpercollins, 1998. Madonna. Sex. Paris: Editions Vade Retro, 1992. Tucker, Ken. "Junkie Shines On." Entertainment Weekly Online 6 November 1998. <http://www.ew.com> Vega, Suzanne. The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings of Suzanne Vega. New York: Avon, 1999. Wbodworth, Marc, ed. Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words. New York: Delta, 1998. Wurtzel, Elizabeth. Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women. New York: Doubleday, 1998.

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Discography Amos, Tori. Boys for Pele. Atlantic, 1996. Carey, Mariah. Butterfly. Columbia, 1997. .Rainbow. Columbia, 1999. .#ls. Columbia, 1998. Crow, Sheryl. The Globe Sessions. A & M, 1998. . Tuesday Night Music Club. A & M, 1993. Dion, Celine. All The Way: A Decade of Song. Sony, 1999. . Let's Talk About Love. Sony, 1997. . A New Day Has Come. Sony, 2002. . These Are Special Times. Sony, 1998. . "When I Fall in Love." Sleepless in Seattle. Sony, 1993. Hill, Lauryn. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Ruffhouse/Columbia, 1998.

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Hole. Ask for It. Caroline, 1995. . Celebrity Skin. Geffen, 1998. Houston, Whitney. "Jesus Loves Me." The Bodyguard. Arista, 1992. . My Love Is Your Love. Arista, 1998. . The Preacher's Wife. Aritsa, 1996. . Waiting to Exhale. Arista, 1995. . Whitney Houston. Arista, 1985. Kilcher, Jewel. Pieces of You. Atlantic, 1995. .Spirit. Atlantic, 1998. Madonna. Erotica. Maverick, 1992. . The Immaculate Collection. Sire, 1990. . Ray of Light. Warner Bros., 1998. McLachlan, Sarah. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Arista, 1993. Morissette, Alanis. Jagged Little Pill. Maverick, 1995. . Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Maverick, 1998. Phair, Liz. Exile in Guyville. Matador, 1993. Twain, Shania. Come on Over. Mercury, 1997. Vega, Suzanne. Solitude Standing. A & M, 1987. Linda Lister received her DMA from UNCGreensboro. She recently joined the voice faculty of Shorter College. Her writings have been published in The Classical Singer, Journal of Singing, and American Music Teacher.