I am offended by this “You people.” :dubious:
I didn’t mind her so much until the chest-thumping in “My Heart Will Go On”. That move was so hokey and contrived that it ruined the song for me. And then I saw an interview where she talked about her new baby as if he were the second coming of the Christ and she was the first woman to ever give birth on this planet. I really began to fear for this poor little boy to ever have a normal life when his mother is so obsessed with him. Not new-mom in love, but obsessed. She needs to have a whole passle of babies so she can get over it! She needs to be a bit more grounded.
And then, trapped as I am listening to canned music at work all day, I began to hear some of the words in her songs, and have developed an unnatural hatred for “I Drove All Night” because the next line is “Is that all right?” Don’t know why that irritates me so much, but it does.
No offense taken. I’m not asking why people think her singing is crap, but why does “the meme (will) go on” if you’ll forgive the pun. I haven’t heard anyone make fun of Hanson in years (their career being over AFAIK) and Britney Spears is still in the spotlight so I’m not suprised she’s the butt of jokes.
But Celine is, as you say, a glorified lounge act. She’s not making a high-profile ass of herself as others are want to (no 72 hour marriages, no lipsynching & silly walk, no weakness for Jesus Juice, etc.). The reference to Michael Bolton comes from Office Space, I thought there was a similiar pop-culture reference for her that people have latched on to so as to prove how hip they are.
Several years ago by chance I saw Celine Dion on a talk show - maybe Oprah - accompanied by at least 10 members of her large musically inclined French-Canadian family. The family sang some folk song together, and it was wonderful. I was really suprised at what I heard - I’d not thought well, if at all, about Celine Dion’s singing before that. She has a teriffic voice. I also was suprised by how charming she was.
Some of her early, French-language recordings are good. There are several tracks on **The French Album ** I enjoy in particular, such as ‘J’attendais.’ On the other hand, a lot of her recordings are hugely overproduced, and it’s hard to find her voice amidst the synthesizers. Some of her recordings are good, and some are crap.
Did you understand the circumstances of her child’s birth? That her (much older) husband was diagnosed with cancer and at the time they didn’t know if he would survive? That she’s a devout Catholic and having a child by her husband was more important to her than all her fame and wealth? That she’s lost family members who were children and that has affected her deeply?
Give the lady a break.
That doesn’t scan right: the family members who died were children at the time of their death.
I’m speaking of the earlier French albums - pre-English success. They are not easy to find (mostly you’ll see collections culled from those early albums).
Check those out.
Hijacking here: I’d actually say they’re still not (I’m certainly not), though it depends on exactl what you mean by “modern”. Now, I admit I’m not an artist and have little interest in art history. I have no idea who writes art history books but they manage to be universally the most poorly written histories of anything in existence (hint hint if you have an exception). But if you mean art made this century, I suspect there has been little change in the public’s taste, relatively, since the easrly 20th cen.
Frankly, most of the big art movements since then produced a handful of interesting peices that everyone looked at, nodded appreciatively, and then ignored in favor of their traditional stuff. Certainly not entirely, but I’d have to say that it hasn’t caught on and the art world increasingly went off into its own little space divorced from everyone else.
I might be overstating it. Still, I’ve never seen modern art in someone’s actual home. People decorate with natural scenes, portaits, and the like.
I’m probably as far as you can get from her fanbase. I don’t care for highly-produced, dance-oriented pop music (of which I don’t own a single record), preferring pre-War blues and early country. Currently, I don’t really listen to any pop music produced after about 1960.
But I have to admit that her voice is breathtakingly beautiful. And while I know it was really overplayed, I believe Heart is a lovely, moving song. (The melody reminds me of an improved version of the melody of “Goodnight”, from the Beatles ‘White Album’).
I know a lot of music that has more emotional depth than Dion’s, but to my ears, the same thing is true about most modern pop music.
I suspect that anyone makes it as big as she has gets a lot of ‘backlash’ antipathy. (I remember a similar thing happening with Michael Jackson in the early 80’s – he turned out to be a human trainwreck, but was once a brilliant performer).
Michael Bolton, on the other hand, I do not care for at all – criticism that he sings without really feeling the music seem more grounded than with Celine Dion.
YMMV.
Stop by some time, I’ll show you around my very small collection…
I dislike her singing because she screams unintelligibly in order to demonstrate her range.
A prime example: Her cover of “All By Myself.” If you didn’t know the words, you would never be able to discern them in the midst of the screeching.
I don’t hate her, but I heartily dislike her singing. Her voice might be very nice if she toned it down about four thousand notches.
I don’t like her overblown, Liberace-like singing style and productions at all. (I don’t like any of Mariah Carey’s songs for the same reason - never have.) And she does seem rather full of herself, but in reality she’s probably a nice person. She kind of has a lot of “new parent-itis” - one of those people who have a baby and can never thereafter speak without bringing the kid into the conversation.
That whole marrying-her-manager thing, after he practically raised her, is majorly creepy. Today father figure, tomorrow lover. Ick. I’m sure they are happy but it’s still ick.
What’s with the chest-thumping, anyway? Anyone know why she does that?
To show she is the dominant female in the territory (the Pina Colada Lounge at Caesar’s Palace).
Please note:
- I am not commenting on her personal charm during interviews.
- I am not commenting on her struggles, with her husband, to have a baby.
- MOST “no talent ass-clowns” (to quote the Office in describing MBolton) are, in fact, incredibly talented. It is WHAT THEY CHOOSE TO DO WITH THE TALENT.
I remember watching Oprah’s interview of Michael Jackson, what, 8 - 10 years ago? At one point, she asked him a question about a song, and he launched into an acapella version, complete with beat-box percussion to do the rhythm. It was AMAZING.
Can Celine sing? Unquestionably. Did she start from humble roots, and are her original French songs wonderful? Yes, and I am open to believing that those songs are great. Is what she doing now cringe-worthly craptacular bombast? Of course. BwanaBob - you are welcome to love her early stuff - but she has clearly gone way over the top and the stuff she is doing now is just bad. Just like lots of talented people who franchise their talent and lose their art.
As a fellow sax player, I don’t mind saying that Kenny G is an insanely talented saxophonist. The man’s technical skills are outstanding, and his breath control is second-to-none. From all accounts, he’s also a really nice guy. I give credit where credit is due.
But musically, he’s the equivalent of a Celine or a Mariah or a Bolton or a (eeurgh) Groban. Overproduced, soulless GLURGE. There’s no emotion, no feeling, no soul, no art. That guy could be a beast if he played some real jazz, but he has his own little thing going on. I just find his music grating, bland, and lacking any sort of emotional impact whatsoever.
I will amend this to say that I like some of her songs but cannot stand her in-person singing or productions, and usually her interviews. That’s when her annoying “I am so wonderful! And I am so so so in love with my wonderful husband, whom I have known since I was a small child and he was an adult! And we have the most wonderful beautiful talented intelligent miraculous child in the history of mankind!” is most apparent.
I actually do like “My Heart Will Go On” and some other song, whose name I don’t know, from some CD from a few years ago. I don’t listen to commercial radio so “Heart” never went into overload with me.
A few years ago, a song called “How Do I Live” was released by two country singers at the same time: Trisha Yearwood and Leanne Rimes.
Trisha Yearwood’s version was beautiful and soulful. She sang like she had written the song and it had a deep personal meaning to her. Leanne Rimes, on the other hand, used the song to show off her range and verbrato. Sure it sounded nice, but there was no soul behind it.
It’s the same deal with Celine Dion. Her voice is fantastic, but the few songs of hers that I’ve heard on the radio had no emotion behind them, and they certainly didn’t inspire me to go search out her other stuff.
Great examples, BBVLou and Lord Ashtar.
No one questions her fundamental talent (at least within this thread so far), just what she does with it.
There’s something just so repulsive to me about singers who use the song as nothing but a showcase for vocal acrobatics. It stops being amazing after about ten seconds, and at a certain point the song just disappears. Watch the early episodes of American Idol sometime and you’ll see it taken to its ridiculous extent: reasonably technically proficient singers who never stop singing glissandi so you can’t detect the melody at all. You just have to listen to good music in order to see the comparison. If you like Céline Dion, it must be because you’ve never heard Ella Fitzgerald or Aretha Franklin, or anyone who knows how to sing.
Dion never lets up. It’s punishing to listen to. Additionally, her material is awful. Power of Love would blow no matter who sang it.
That said, I like Mariah even less.