MARIAH CAREY

Born: Long Island, New York, 27 March 1970

Genre: Pop, Disco, Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Music Box (1993)

Hit songs since 1990: "Hero," "Dreamlover," "Fantasy"

As one of the most successful artists of the 1990s, Mariah Carey has reached the same pop star status as other females such as Celine Dion, Janet Jackson, and Whitney Houston. Known for a singing style that draws on soul and rock, Carey has had a number of dance-pop hits.

Raised in a musical family, with a mother who was a former opera singer and voice coach, Carey started her career at a young age by singing on R&B sessions while still at school. Having moved from Long Island, New York, to New York City at the age of seventeen, she started writing songs with arranger Ben Margulies. Her songs fused pop, gospel, and soul in a way that maximized her vast vocal range. Carey's break came when she signed with Columbia Records and started on her debut album, Mariah Carey, in 1990. With a string of top hits, "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday," and "I Don't Wanna Cry," the album became a great success, winning her Grammy Awards for Best Female Artist and Best New Artist.

Carey's talent as a singer became obvious to millions of fans. With a strong soul vocal style that exuded exuberance through its wide register, and a stylishly sexy image, she continued to produce albums that sold well. Her next two releases included Emotions in 1991 and MTV Unplugged in 1992. The latter included a live performance recorded for MTV within an intimate setting where the audience was able to respond to her spontaneously. Backed by a group of talented musicians, Carey managed to pull off a mannered and reflective performance that was epitomized by tracks such as the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There."

In 1993 she released her best-selling album, Music Box, with which she went on tour. This album consists of two of her most memorable hits, "Hero" and "Dreamlover," which reached the top of the charts all around the world. In both of these songs Carey's delivery is overdramatic and impassioned with her squeezing out every drop of sentimentality in a style not unlike that of Barbra Streisand. While the songs on the album are stylishly performed and well produced, there is a lack of imagination in the lyrics, which mainly deal with themes of love and yearning. In addition, Carey's vocal parts are not profiled enough in the mixes of these songs. As a result, the songs lack a sense of conviction and direction. It was perhaps the oversentimentality and excessive performance that resulted in mixed reviews during her first tour.

Following her marriage to producer Tommy Mottola in 1993, her next album, Merry Christmas, was released, featuring the number one single "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The appeal of this song lies in its clever production with catchy chords, overdone bell sounds, and sleighbell connotations. Even more success was enjoyed by Carey with her next hit single, "Fantasy," from her 1995 album Daydream. The other big hit from this album was "One Sweet Day," a collaboration with Boyz II Men, which topped the U.S. charts for sixteen weeks. For many, the material on this album signified a maturity in her style, not least for an adult-oriented public impressed by her musical craftsmanship.

In 1997, having separated from Mottola (whom she later divorced), Carey released her next album, Butterfly, which showed a determination to succeed alone. All sorts of references are found in the songs that relate to the theme of her survival and freedom at the breakup of her marriage. Not as up-tempo as her previous dance-style hits, these songs are intended for listening, hence their ballad style. Tracks such as "Butterfly," "Babydoll," "Break Down," and the Prince cover "The Beautiful Ones" are all poignantly delivered in a controlled and sensual manner. With this album, Carey finally sealed her credibility as pop diva.

Her star status was evidenced by the recording of a duet with Whitney Houston in 1998, "The Prince of Egypt (When You Believe)," for her forthcoming greatest hits album, #1's. The chemistry of these two stars visible in the promo video was enough to confirm Carey's standing as pop diva. In fact, Carey's peak in terms of fame came at the end of the 1990s. With the hit "Heartbreaker," from her 1999 album Rainbow, she became the only artist to ever have topped the charts each consecutive year of a decade. Stylistically, this hit is a blend of hip-hop and R&B, with a melodramatic expression forcing its sassy delivery. In contrast, the duet with Snoop (Doggy) Dogg on the track "Crybaby" shows off the groove-based panache of Carey's material and represents one of the high points on this album.

During the early 2000s Carey's popularity waned. Her next album, Glitter (2001), the soundtrack for the film of the same name, in which she starred, struggled to achieve its intended commercial success. As it was her Virgin Records debut, a breakdown between artist and record company resulted. She subsequently formed her own label, MonarC. With her ninth album, Charmbracelet, released in 2002, there was little sign of a comeback as a disappointing collection of tracks characterized a notable decline through a jaded performance.

Having become one of the best-selling female artists of the 1990s, Carey's success at the beginning of the new millennium dwindled. Negative critical response to Glitter and Charmbracelet did not help her career, and only time will tell whether she can make a comeback to her previous superstar status.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Mariah Carey (Columbia, 1990); Emotions (Columbia, 1991); Music Box (Columbia, 1993); Merry Christmas (Sony, 1994); Daydream (Columbia, 1995); Butterfly (Columbia, 1997); #1's (Columbia, 1998); Rainbow (Columbia, 1999); Charmbracelet (Mercury, 2002). Soundtrack: Glitter (Virgin, 2001).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

M. Cole, Mariah Carey (Bear, Delaware, 1997); C. Nickson, Mariah Carey Revisited: Her Story (New York, 1998); M. Shapiro, Mariah Carey (Ontario, 2001).

stan hawkins

Mariah Carey

Singer, songwriter

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

Pop vocalist and songwriter Mariah Carey set the music world ablaze when her self-titled debut album was released in 1990. Featuring the hit single “Vision of Love,” the disc provoked critics to rave over Carey’s seven-octave vocal range and gospel-toned voice, and eventually sold more than seven million copies worldwide. She has been compared to the late pop soprano Minnie Riperton, the Peruvian singer Yma Sumac, and, most often, to superstar Whitney Houston. As reviewer Ralph Novak asserted in People, Carey “sings with extraordinary control, driving power, lovely pitch, and wide range.”

Carey was born to a mother who had sung with the New York City Opera and remained a vocal coach throughout Carey’s childhood. Carey’s mother influenced her a great deal, the singer revealed in Seventeen. “I knew from watching and listening to my mom that singing could and would be my profession.” She recounted further that her mother “had to tear me away from the radio each night just to get me to go to sleep.” Carey also enjoyed listening to the record collection of her older brother and sister, especially albums by Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder.

When Carey was 17 she left her family home on Long Island, New York, to live in New York City. Sharing an apartment with another aspiring musician, she waited on tables to earn her living while making demo tapes of original songs to give to music executives. Carey eventually got a job as a backup singer for a small record label. One of the vocalists she sang for, Brenda K. Starr, was sufficiently impressed with her abilities to introduce her to Tommy Mottola of Columbia Records. At Starr’s insistence Carey gave him one of her demo tapes. Mottola listened to it in his car on the way home from the party where the meeting had taken place; he called Carey to sign her the next day.

Carey worked on recording her debut album for the next two years. Mariah Carey was released by the time the singer turned 20. Carey co-wrote and arranged all of the songs on the album, though critics have not been particularly impressed by her non-vocal efforts. Novak called the tunes “uniformly forgettable, both melodical-ly and lyrically”; Alanna Nash of Stereo Review commented that “none of the ten songs sticks in the mind.” Nevertheless, Carey’s single “Vision of Love,” raced up the pop and adult contemporary charts, eventually reaching Number One. She gained further exposure on national television by singing “America, the Beautiful” before the first game of the National Basketball Association finals at Michigan’s Palace of Auburn Hills. Carey’s debut album also contained the tracks “Someday” and “There’s Got to Be a Way,” which Nash described as “social-consciousness raising.”

For the Record…

Born c. 1970; daughter of a vocal coach and former opera singer.

Worked as a waitress and backup singer c. 1987. Recording artist, 1988—.

Awards: Two Grammy Awards; one for best new artist, 1991.

Addresses: Record company —Columbia/CBS Records, 51 West 52nd St., New York, NY 10019.

“What you remember” about Carey, however, said David Gates in Newsweek, “is the voice—all seven octaves or so of it, from purring alto to stratospheric shriek.” Likewise, in spite of her criticism of Carey’s songwriting, Nash did affirm that Mariah Carey “is as exhilarating as a ride on the World’s Tallest Roller Coaster.” Amusement parks came to the mind of a Seventeen reporter as well, who noted that the “lissome diva carries the listener away on a riveting … roller coaster of sound.” Not surprisingly, in light of such comments, Carey’s efforts on the album garnered her a Grammy Award for best new artist 1991. As Novak concluded, “She is just about a lock to become pop music’s biggest sensation since Whitney Houston.”

Selected discography

Mariah Carey (includes “Vision of Love,” “There’s Got to Be a Way,” “I Don’t Wanna Cry,” “Someday,” “Vanishing,” and “All in Your Mind”), Columbia, 1990.

Sources

Glamour, October 1990.

Newsweek, August 6, 1990.

People, July 16, 1990.

Rolling Stone, August 23, 1990.

Seventeen, October 1990.

Stereo Review, October 1990.

—Elizabeth Wenning