There is a specific key factor that is crucial and it is not being discussed.....her dedication to her work and how dedicated she is to promoting her own work. Mariah is famous because of her vocal technique but she worked hard in the 90s to keep her name in the press. She was everywhere...TV, Record Clubs, Billboards, commercials, countless performances for every single all over the world for each song. She was dedicated to her work and promoted her projects like cockroaches that you cant get rid of. She was everywhere in the 90s, every year, every song and every album. She honestly was more popular than Taylor Swift is now Internationally and treated her work as such. She wasnt relying solely on a record label during that time and mid 2000s. In my opinion her focus is not solely on her music career as it once was when she was single with no kids.