Whitney Houston dies at 48

[DarkToph]

http://music.yahoo.com/news/whitney-houston-superstar-records-films-dies-005927033.html

Though I never followed her much and really only knew the druggy aspect of her as a person, it always sucks when someone dies. Shocked the hell out of my mom when I told her.

RIP

[Kenji]

I'm not as bothered by the fact a celebrity died (yes, so heartless), regardless of how they went out, but it always sucks to see someone die before they can hit their 50s or 60s. I consider anything before the 50s an early death.

[EHW]

I probably sound like a bit of a b*stard for this, but I don't see how this is such a big deal. The only reason it's such a big news story is because she was a celebrity, and while she was a brilliant singer once upon a time, it doesn't have any emotional impact on me whatsoever because you never really heard anything pleasant about her. Certainly not the impact that a loved one's passing can have on people, anyway.

Still, nonetheless, my condolences to her loved ones, and I hope that they can eventually deal with her death in time.

[DarkToph]

The reason everyone's making such a fuss is because she was a big-time celebrity who died suddenly and while people still knew her name. If she died of old age or something there would be little to go on about. Take Michael Jackson's Death, everyone and their brother made fun of that guy. Weirdo, pedophile, crazy, drug abuse, addicted to plastic surgery etc. yet he died suddenly so it was treated like a national tragedy. I never heard much of anything about Heath Ledger, then he dies suddenly and he's on every news channel. Amy Winehouse, another druggy (I think the first warning sign would be her song 'Rehab' but that's just me...) bad press or never heard of her then she dies suddenly and poof, media magic.

I also never heard much about Whitney aside from her druggy days, but since she died suddenly it's big news.

Many people do get emotionally attached to these people either due to nostalgia (Like songs, movies, TV shows from back when they were kids) or just because they're insanely huge fans or maybe just because they hate to see such talent wasted. And when they die, especially all of a sudden, fans come together to mourn. Or in some cases, people who knew them (not personally, by name or whatever) come together to gossip.

Personally, all I can think of now whenever I think of her death is just 'god a lot of celebs die of drugs...' I was surprised when she died, but then you take a second to think and go 'Oh wait, no I'm not. She was a drug addict.'

I'm getting completely off the mark here and I may be ranting due to a personal issue I'm dealing with right now, so sorry if I'm sounding like a jerk. The point is people will always make a fuss if you die suddenly and were a household name. Even if you were a drug addict/alcoholic what have you, they'll just never believe that someone everyone knew and so many people loved could actually die out of the blue. Shame how so many people don't believe drugs/alcohol/smoking whatever won't kill them until it happens.

EDIT- Pedophile is censored? What the flapjacks? -.-

[Doru]

I agree with EHW, MJ was still in the news/current/doing tours, and Ledger was still a star with the Batman movie on it's way while Amy Whinehouse was still pretty young. I haven't heard anything about Whitney for a long time, and I also haven't really seen anything big of her recently other than the tribute stuff on MTV that one night and a "brace yourself" picture.

[DarkToph]

I agree with EHW, MJ was still in the news/current/doing tours, and Ledger was still a star with the Batman movie on it's way while Amy Whinehouse was still pretty young. I haven't heard anything about Whitney for a long time, and I also haven't really seen anything big of her recently other than the tribute stuff on MTV that one night and a "brace yourself" picture.

Still, back in the day Whitney was a huge star and an idol to many people. Even though she may not have been doing a lot of current stuff or been in the news in years, she was still big to many people and she died suddenly in a timeframe where she was still a household name (and by that I mean you could mention her and most everyone in the room will know who you're talking about.)

[EHW]

Actually, I wasn't too overwhelmed by Ledger's, MJ's or Winehouse's deaths either. Ledger hit hardest for me, but only because he made a decent Joker and was partway through a film, so hardly any real reason. Certainly nothing to the extent the media try to push upon you.

Celebrities are big-names from time to time, but the thing is, of all the celebrities who have died over five years before now, the only ones I instantly recall are Freddie Mercury, Elvis and Princess Diana. And Princess Di annoys me to no end - the news are still trying to swing that "it's a conspiracy! A conspiracy I tell you!" here in the UK. For f*ck's sake, she died almost 15 years ago now, get over it. She didn't even DO anything - she's just famous for being a princess and being killed in an ignoble car accident. Even as a British citizen who loves his royalty, simply because we British are quirky like that, I hate Diana because she was no different from anyone else - but for some reason, there are always ruddy conspiracy programmes about her death.

And yes, I sound like a ruddy douch'e for that, but celebrities are people too. And since it's only when it's a truly unique death that I'll care about a celebrity dying, the fact a drug-abuser probably ODed doesn't make me give a cr*p personally.

Thing is, until MJ died, I didn't really care about him. Sure, there were rumours circulating about him being a paedophile, or whatever, but I liked his music. When he died though... I just didn't want to listen to it, because it was playing 24/7 in "tribute to such a brilliant man". Which is completely pulled out of their asses. And I reckon that it'll happen for Houston, and for the next five celebs to die too.

[DarkToph]

Celebs are big things to people. Idols, heroes, etc. The bigger you are the harder you fall and the sound will echo throughout the world until it's lost its steam. In most cases it's after the autopsy comes in, in some it's until criminal charges get settled in court, blah. The media will milk the people's love of celebrities for all they're worth. Hell, look at all the stupid celeb related posts on Yahoo that get tons of hits. (I am not kidding on these BTW) Oh Miley Cyrus cut her hair again! Nicki Manaj wore a *gasp* $28 dollar dress in an interview!....And I don't even know who she is!

Celeb death is something the media eats like Pistachios and the bigger the name the more they milk it. And because people love celebs so much, they feed the trolls--err media. And it will only get worse as we become more involved in the entertainment industry. To the average person, yeah, it's annoying as hell and you just wish people would change the subject. I know I got sick to death of MJ's tributes. Every freakin' time you turn on the TV it was another MJ tribute...But you just have to wait until the people grieve and get over it and the media loses steam.

...Oh Ffs half of the Entertainment section of Yahoo is Whitney related. >:|

[Weirdo]

I think it has more to do with the fact that Death is a powerful subject, and can have an effect on people, but only if you know the person who died (Whether personally or not). And so when famous people die they can use that as loads of people know them and are suddenly shocked into "Oh yeah, death's a thing". You either need 1 famous death or thousands of unknowns (like in the case of earthquakes etc).

What's sad is that usually the famous death would be broadcasted for way longer than one involving a natural disaster, but hey, the media wants to make money.