Mariah vs. Whitney: Is this shit even a contest?

Um, Whitney is/was obviously a better singer than Mimi (do you not remember "When You Believe"? lol).... but Mariah's material is much better imo so she gets my vote...

but both of them are great, there's no need to put down one in favor of the other... and a lot of Mariah's #1s were achieved because of shady tactics so I wouldn't really point to them as proof of her superiority or anything like that

First, define "better".

*runs away*

What shady tactics? And a track that they both appeared on isn't really proof of anything. If it was some kind of live recording, sure, but so many things could've happened in the writing/recording process to make it sound like Whitney's better.

And of course there's not a good definition of "better," it's art yo. I just wanted to know folks' thoughts.

it's a conspiracy mang

selling singles for 50 cents, suppressing downloads so that when it finally is released for download the first week sales are so huge that it gets to #1 for 1 week ... it's smart business definitely, but c'mon...

and they performed it live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yswSoztfGQ8

Whitney dragged her all over that stage....

What I heard is that the label priced Mariah's singles ridiculously low to push a high volume of them? I'm sure someone else has more detail...

Fine, the singles thing is kind of stupid anyway, and doesn't really speak to quality. But one performance at the Oscars doesn't really prove anything, and I don't think Whitney even sounds that good in that clip. I mean, they both have tons of recordings from which to judge.

I read the thread title as Marva vs. Whitney.

Post videos then! I mean, this can go back and forth, but find me a Mariah performance as stunning as this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI3YrAv0C-I

The last minute is a revelation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FhO7NHsviI

i voted mariah, i prefer her career

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEkBcU7YZvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsAIYJVLEHA

That one doesn't really pick up until 2 minutes in, but in it she just displays a ton of power. "Fly Like a Bird" at the end is clearly the better part of the performance, and I think it's objectively sort of amazing. Unless u a hater.

anybody who says that mariah isn't the greatest artist in the history of the world is a fucking idiot. Shakespeare is a chump compared to mimi you fucking bitchezzzzzzzzzz

never heard much talk about her plastic surgery but she looks like 2 diff people in those clips

Whitney's voice is incredibly powerful(or it used to be) but mimi seems more willing to play with her voice in very interesting ways which yields fascinatin results.

yeah, otm. i disagree that "whitney's voice is/was obviously better." it was just more BOOMING, and to be honest, i don't always want boom. plus, mariah can definitely boom when she wants to.

so no, bigger is not better, in this case.

and in terms of success, or cultural relevance, i don't know that there's much to say

and never forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2URy6CFxLM

just the QUALITY of her voice is more intriguing, and nuanced

have found Whitney less annoying overall and much prefer her vocals

Is this shit even a contest?

At least you concede that it's actually shit.

I love "Exhale (Shoop)" more than any of Mariah's ballads, and I'm no fan of either, but I'll take Mariah's career.

whitney did some good songs in the 80s. don't think mariah's made a single listenable record.

mariah's from the more-melisma-is-always-better school of singing. I think that school of singing is terrible. when she dials it back she's phenomenal, obviously her natural gift is stunning and her tone & range are inarguably great - didn't people used to claim 4 octaves for her or something? but her singing is like yngwie's shredding. sure it's impressive. it also does nothing for me. whitney on the other hand is hendrix or page or whatever shredder you want to name who has more character & taste than yngwie.

whitney houston sounds like a trumpet.

trumpets are awesome.

Yeah, a butt trumpet.

Agree with J0hn, though, at least Whitney doesn't needless showcase the melismatic plague as much as Mariah does.

Still, gah, who needs either?

Mariah sounds like a trumpet with the spit valve open.

ahahahaha "butt trumpet"

Trumpet vs. oboe reed

butt oboe reed, that is

for melisma, mariah is the best they come, in terms of vocal quality. and tbh, i never even notice it. sounds very natural.

sad how both these ladies seem to have destroyed their voices. the second act of mariah carey's career is so improbable; would have seemed impossible to me to choose mariah in the mid-90s.

so

improbable

Whitney Houston's 80s output towers miles and miles and miles over anything Mariah Carey has ever done. And she has never released anything as tuneless and downright horrible as the awful "Empancipation Of Mimi" album.

lol

I mean, both have released a lot of horrible crap throughout the years, but Whitney Houston started her career with two great, and stylistically very different, singles in "Saving All My Love For You" and "How Will I Know", and has also later come up with some great moments in "Exhale", "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and a great version of "I'm Every Woman".

"I Will Always Love You" was of course horrible, as was most of the tuneless "My Love Is Your Love" album. But overall, she is obviously better than Mariah Carey. Less annoying voice too.

Whitney Houston's 80s output towers miles and miles and miles over anything Mariah Carey has ever done.

geir hongro otm

"saving all my love" is what you hear at daffy's shopping for a tie.

"I Will Always Love You" was of course horrible
GEIR OTM. Way to butcher a gorgeous song.

Also I love you Alex in NYC but I don't get the "showoff" crit w/Mariah. That's the *entire point* of being a coloratura. Three words. Minnie fucking Ripperton.

As someone who gets a lot of raised eyebrows for my defense of eighties pop, I don't have any fucking use for Whitney's first two albums.

Forget her voice -- the songs are just lousy ("So Emotional"? "Didn't We Almost Have It All"?).

Which Whitney material DO you have use for?

"Exhale," the Thunderpuss remix of "It's Not Right," that's about it. Her greatest moment, though, took place years before she was a solo act: her cover of Hugh Hopper's "Memories" on an okay Material album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCiJYWKPLcQ

I feel I'm the only one who thinks the Jerkins version of "It's Not Right" is the only listenable version. Then again, I've never thought Thunderpuss was anything but the sort of music that drove me away from gay bars in my formative years.

Actually, I've never heard it at a gay bar! Lots of bad Madonna remixes, though.

"It's Not Right" is so tuneless there cannot possible be a good version of it.

Forget her voice -- the songs are just lousy ("So Emotional"? "Didn't We Almost Have It All"?).

Right. But you can say the same about Mariah. And it's difficult to hear how lousy a song "So Emotional" is when Whitney soars effortlessly through "See, I remember the way that we touch/I wish I didn't like it so much."

But right again, her two greatest songs are "Exhale" and "Memories." Do proggers/jazzbos know Whitney Houston covered a Soft Machine song with Archie Shepp on sax? And wouldn't eighties pop have been even more amazing were there more improbable meetings like this?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Basement Jaxx did a mashup of It's Not Right with Flat Beat that's weirdly good. But I don't think it'd be your cup of tea, Geir.

Voted for Mariah although the Brainwasher made a good case.

as tuneless and downright horrible as the awful "Empancipation Of Mimi" album.

― Geir Hongro, Sunday, July 5, 2009 12:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

what a confusing opinion wrt geir's persona

lol replying to geir

― zzz (deej), Monday, July 6, 2009 10:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Gainsbourg would've voted Whitney:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMdXi6f5KRg

Anyway, the correct response to this poll, as stated upthread, would be Minnie Riperton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE0pwJ5PMDg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

a travesty

Justice!

Not that I'm big on either, mind you.

Didn't vote but would have gone for Whitney also.

i keep thinking about this, and questioning the cultural impact of both singers. it seems like whitney's influence was concentrated in a shorter timespan than mariah's, who it seems has had an anthemic smash almost every year of her career (albeit an exaggeration). i mean, i think a lot of people could chronicle the events in their lives based on what mariah carey song was blaring on the car radios at the time.

also, i think whitney's album fillers can sound very like Vanessa Williams

still a tragedy

read this as mariah vs. whiney