Mariah Carey is a diva. Soaring to the top of the charts with her incredible 5 octave vocal range, her rapid ascension to the pinnacle of Pop music remains a feat unmatched by any other solo act in history. From her 18 #1 hits to her outstanding record sales, she truly is a phenomenon. Yet, in recent years, it seems that Carey’s impact has begun to wane.
With the exception of her now 6x platinum ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’, Carey has been unable to produce a record in the last 10 years that captured renowned public appeal. In fact, she only accomplished 4 chart-toppers since the year 2000, a dramatic decline from the 14 she had in the 1990’s. Indeed, the demand for Carey’s material has now reached an all-time low as her latest LP, ‘Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel’, took an embarrassing 4 months to achieve a gold certification; a noticeable decline for an artist whose previous 11 studio releases all went platinum or higher.
The real question is: what can Carey do to rejuvenate her career? While ‘Memoirs’ received the best reviews of any album she released since ‘Butterfly’, it is blatantly apparent that Carey is remaining in her comfort zone of mid-tempo R&B and finger-snapping radio material. Most of her records capitilise on the same formula she used to re-establish her career in 2005. However, this is 2010.
Unlike her peers such as Madonna, Beyonce or even Christina Aguilera, Carey seems reluctant to experiment with her image and material in the same way that she does with her voice. She remains steadfast in her effort to hold on to her youth by crafting Sesame Street-quality material such as ‘Touch My Body’ and ‘Up Out My Face’. Even her ballads have begun to sound the same; almost all emulating the piano-driven productions of her monster hit ‘We Belong Together’.
If Carey does not reinvent herself soon, she runs the risk of slipping into irrelevancy like many of her counterparts including Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez before her. She certainly has both the skill and the talent to reposition herself at the helm of the game. Nevertheless, Carey needs to think ‘outside the box’ or her career may end up in one.
Oh Trent…. PLEASE!!!! Can you stop writing these pointless articles.
I dont really care about her… I find Madonna, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera more interesting.
I know that she has lots of stans but like her last 2 albums are major flops she needs to do something new or just give up and live happily with her husband.
MARIAH CAREY SUFFERS FROM THE CINDERELLA SYNDROME AND ALCOHOLISM. SHE NEEDS HELP ASAP!
I dont really care about her… I find Madonna, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera more interesting.
I know that she has lots of stans but like her last 2 albums are major flops she needs to do something new or just give up and live happily with her husband.
I think the downfall of Mariah’s career was the album E=MC2, FIRST she came back out too soon after the Emancipation and tried to follow up on the its success but the quality of music wasn’t really there. Then people just slept on Memoirs which, in my opinion was a much better out than E=MC2 and should have been the follow-up to Emancipation. People just were not satisfied with the material from E=MC2 and as a result, her latest album flopped. But whatever she was sipping on during the Emancipation era, I am sure she will find it again!
Amen I’mYourStar talk about over-exaggeration, you are clearly a talented writer Trent but every article you’ve written recently seems to ask if someone’s career is over. Are you not noticing the trend? The record industry these days, thanks to the web, is a mess, hardly anyone is selling. Mariah has an established fanbase that will never go away, shown by her ‘measly’ Gold-certification with little-no promotion of this album. She doesn’t care about sales anymore she’s clearly just enjoying making the music she wants to make and IMO ‘Memoirs’ is her best work since ‘Butterfly’ (yes even better than ‘Emancipation’ despite its commercial success) please stop writing such over-dramatic articles and change the record!
do you think Dion’s latest works are irrelevant?? Taking Chances is a good album IMO.
Excellent article Trent and true on every point. First things first. Image: Mariah needs a credible stylist that is going to keep her in the latest duds that can be s*** but sophisticated and appealing (a-la Rihanna). At 40 (in March) its time to present herself in classier way appearance wise AT ALL TIMES, just not sometimes on the red carpet and she even gets h**-ish on that sometimes. Second – Singing Ability: Mariah needs to sing FOR HER LIFE on every public live performance. I truly think the nail in her coffin this era was the Michael Jackson Tribute that everybody saw and had everyone thinking that she could no longer sing. Point blank if she’s going on Oprah, Ellen, BET wherever she needs to BRING IT VOCALLY or else go home. Now there are many theories about the state of her voice but she did have some good vocal outings this era but they were few and far between and sometimes she just showed up for interviews and didn’t perform. No-No. Third. Keep Nick at home: It was cute at first but people are exasperated about hearing how wonderful your marriage is and we don’t want to see him in your videos, directing them , and so on and so forth its corny, played and we really don’t care about him we want YOU. Finally, Trent there was one thing you were wrong about on Memoirs she didn’t 100% duplicate the Emancipation formula because there were no rap cameos which Emancipation were filled with. I think the main thing is she needs to work with a myriad of producers who are not only going to give her good tracks but are going to push her outside of her comfort zone and only except the best from her. This is something that Jermaine Dupri does and her once longtime collaborator Walter Alfansief does. Oh and one more thing, she must come up with videos that have a concept and story to tell besides highlighting her body and hair, and etc. There is a reason she has NEVER won an MTV Video Music Award because her videos suck. I truly pray that Mariah can get it together.
She needs to make grown up music. When everyone was going to autotune, finger snaps, radio ready, black drivel, she should have gone live instrument, orchestra, adult soul.
real melodies, big girl lyrics, no rappers. it’s not a boring step backwards, its solid differentiation from the other garbage out there.
and i don’t care how many “reviewers” thought memoirs was okay. just because it was better than Ciara and Rihanna, doesn’t mean it was a good album. It was reheated leftovers.
Mariah has been releasing quality material since “Mimi”, but the public today is so effing interested in image, clothes, styling, etc. Mimi doesn’t do anything wild or outrageous, so despite the fact that she has quality music, she STILL falls by the wayside. I love her, and I love Memoirs, and it’s nobody’s “fault” per se that Memoirs isn’t a huge seller – it’s just the state of the music world today…
Mariah can revamp herself either way. Like you said Trent, she a diva!
please, celine is doing just fine. her vegas show was a MASSIVE success, last time i check. sure, she’s not selling as many albums. but when it comes to touring, she’s still a monster.
not to mention that she’s the only one out of the 90s divas who still manages to keep her voice intact.
lol @ this post. you need to get your FACTS straight.
another pointless post….give us a f****** break!
I think Mariah is fine the wasy she is!!! She has done it all from Ballads,Inspirational songs,S*** songs,Moody songs,Women Empowerment songs ,Male bashing songs,Collaborations etc. She is definitely a LEGEND! So what if she wants 2 act ghetto and have fun 4 a min, We Mariah Fans should let her! She should get a pass cuz she has already done it ALL!!!! If Mariah kept up with Classic Mariah all the time she would get labeled as boring and people would say she’s not doing anything new. Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel was an Amazing Album! At first i was like Mariah need 2 work on her vocals when singing live,but shes progressing. I love the New,Creative Mariah!
Mariah needs to retire
She needs to work with some different producers and mature her image a little. I understand that she is more comfortable singing R&B that the pop hits she did before, and that is fine. But like you said, the “finger-snapping” songs need to go. This is why I am getting tired of Dream and JD, they make childish beats. However, I liked Memoirs a lot more than her last two albums to be honest. It was real subtle, but lyric wise, it is awesome. You’d be surprised that sometimes an artist’s least promoted material can be some of their best. But yeah, she needs a new dream team, and maybe a new label as well, cause Rihanna is all Def Jam cares about when it come to their female talent, which is why even Janet Jackson and Amerie fell short on their last releases on that label, because Rhia is their main attraction.
And it also wouldn’t hurt for her to sharpen that voice up a little. We all know that once 10 octave, or whatever it is, range is not there anymore, and that is a key problem.
I agree that Mariah still has the talent to still be a force to be reckoned with 20 years later. However, what MC needs to understand is that the industry today is totally different from when she first started out. Hell, its different from how it was 2 years ago. These days, you have to “think outside of the box” to capture peoples attention, visually and musically. People are tired of her “whispering” the same lame r&b records. I also think people are sick of her image. I’d like to see her adopt a “s*** but classy” age appropriate wardrobe. She doesn’t realize that a woman can be s*** with clothes on instead of boobs popping out everywhere and dresses so short and tight that she can’t walk. Lastly, she needs to work on her live performing. She doesn’t have to be doing flips or acrobatics like Beyonce or Pink but exude a little confidence and stage presence. Hell, IMO, Whitney’s voice is not up to par yet but her energy and confidence on stage makes up for it. I just think that the people around her are too afraid to tell her that she needs work…..
OMG! Im going to kill myself. these articles do my n** in!!! ARGHHH
Didn’t you know that Celine Dions was named Artist of the Decade last month by Pollstar, in terms of tickets and album sold? Gee, I don’t think you know what “irrelevant” really means! Celine doesn’t care about following the latest stupid hip hop crap… She does her thing and is still the best selling female artist in the entire World. Wake up!
kelly confirmed she won a grammy..thats all!!
You know what I think that Mariah needs to get a lil more edgy before she gets too old to do so. I mean I love Mariah and she is the bomb don’t get me wrong! I just feel she needs to be inspired by some of the futuristic type setting like everyone else but switch it up idk.. You guys know what i mean though? Like cut her hair, dress edgy, she has never done or been through like a high fashion dark type phase I guess that might be good! She is always sooo barbie like and like queen of butterfly land she needs to work it out a lil more she got the skills i think she can pull it off well!! You guys remember the ‘OH BOY’ video she should do somethin in that style but like wayyyy wayy edgier ..she needs to surpass lady gaga and rihanna’s style at the moment and just kick it up a notch!!! Even Janet is workin it out yoy know??? I denno i know i might get alot of HATERS! but i don’t care haha if you understand what im talkin bout then your cool!! =P
“she runs the risk of slipping into irrelevancy like many of her counterparts including Celine Dion”
celine dion isn’t irrelevant; she went platinum with her last record off of one so-so hit. her fans are still there, it’s just that the climate of radio has changed.
i’d love for mariah to experiment, but i swear to god, if she just follows the sound of today to get her fans back, i may have to relinquish my stan crown. i pray she doesn’t go toward the euro-dance trend, only because it’ll be very tired in a short amount of time.
but honestly, she has NOTHING left to prove. i’m glad she made memoirs, only because it seems like she made a record for her fans and NOT for radio.
Mariah did go outside her comfort zone with Glitter. it bombed, people hated Mariah more than they do now, so people forced her to go back to what they want from Mariah, which was The Emancipation of Mimi: if you ask me, people don’t want anything different from Mariah, she does what she does way better than anyone else. What people really want, is a break from Mariah…..she just needs to chill for 2/3 years and let people miss her.
Trent shut the hell up!!!
This is always the case with Mariah.
She has a hit and sometimes she doesn’t.
Butterfly (HIT)
Rainbow (Mediocre)
Emanciapation (HIT)
E=MC2 (Mediocre)
Charmbracelet (mediocre)
Glitter (Mediocre)
Soooo it’s not like she’s dying out
Sometimes Mariah is a hit
and sometimes she is a miss.
Honestly Mimi has always had it a difficult time other than Whitney, Mary and now Beyonce she is held under a microscope. When butterfly was released critics called the album a new direction but daydream started the transition into the R&B/ hiphop territory. I feel like Mimi needs balance she needs to go bk to trusting herself and make music for your fanbase and damn the kids the music today is weak. Even though I find myself loving memiors I feel like Mimi is still capable of solid material but I feel she needs a strong team of producers that can capture the brilliance that is Mariah and trust her pen again because songs like IAW,AC 100 percent shows Mimi can still put it down with the pen. All in all I will never bet against talent because it will win at the end of the day.
Mimi keys to success
1. Write and sing meanful songs
2.build a strong team label, manager ect
3.Create a strong image
4.find balace btw the music
5.trust in yourself
6. Stay true to yourself
Mariah does what the hell she wants to do.
She has already proved that she could sell this and that.
Like she said on Larry King.
That big ballad stuff gets boring after a while.
And she doesn’t want to do it.
She’s having fun and making the music
she wants to make.
And I don’t fault her for it at all.
Or see it as a fail.
Mariah will never be irrelevant.
She has DIE hard fans who care
about her like crazy.
‘Memoirs’ received the best reviews of any album she released since ‘Butterfly’
Really??, That Means all Her albums must be HORRIBLE then, That E=MC2 is way better than Memoirs. I mean Both suck though. But Memoirs is 100% DISPOSABLE GARBAGE, Every Song is Mediocre, & its so Funny how (some of) her Fans thinks it good. MIMI is dead.
I am the biggest MC fan out there, but I do have to agree with Trent. Mariah needs to do something different with her career – otherwise her pop culture significance will soon burn out. First things first – she needs to take a break. Though I was excited (and subsequently disappointed) for Memoirs, I did think that the album was released too soon. She did not give the public enough time to miss her voice – and by the time Memoirs was released, no one was missing her! But if you take ‘Emancipation’ in 2005, for example, Mariah had not released a CD since Charmbracelet (2002) and Glitter (2001) – (Charmbracelet and Glitter were both terrible and released one year after the other!! Déjà vu!). By the time she released Emancipation, her commercial failures (Charmbracelet and Glitter) were long forgotten and the public accepted her with open arms.
Secondly, MC needs to grow up! Sure she’s been embracing her playful side with the past two albums, ie ‘Touch My Body’ and ‘Obsessed’ – but she’s getting older and her music needs to develop with her age. She can’t go on singing about ‘mechanics under her hood’ and ‘flying like united’.
Emancipation was such a mature, well-produced and well-written album – which she should use as a template each time! The lyrics were great, she had live instruments, and there were no gimmicks like auto-tune or the overused ‘o-o-o’ crap! In Emancipation, Mariah gave the people what they wanted to hear – they wanted to hear her sing – just like with her first few albums – and she delivered. Unfortunately, her last two albums tried to appeal to the younger, pop crowd – and failed!
U call CELINE DION “irrelevant” are U STUPID OR WHAT???? do U live in some kind of parallel universe?????? CELINE can fill a stadium of 50.000 people ANYWHERE on this planet!!! Mariah can’t do that!!!
sitting it down..thats wut i say
Mariah needs to realize that she’s not always gonna be #1 with new albums. She lucked out with Emancipation but its time to take a break, enjoy married life and start a family and get inspired by that. Sappy heartbreak love songs are so 90’s. She’s not always gonna be on top. Look at Mary, Alicia, Britney, Christina, Usher, JoJo, Kelly Clarkson, Kelly Rowland etc….they know that they’re not always gonna be the “it” artist at the moment or always #1 but they know when it time to take a break and they know that no matter how hard you push for a rerelease or remix album it may not be on top. Christina Aguilera is probably the only artist this past decade who has never re released or done remix albums.
I love mariah and love her music but i think she must has got more power voice and work with producer: jd, Walter affanaiseff, akon, ne-yo,brian michael c**,redime or darkchild for do songs r’n’b, electric pop, regeatton and big big ballads.rebirth her music. She is great, pretty, funny, good person and powerful voice in the world and she will change and will be on top the charts. Mariah forever!!!!!!!!
Wow , I didn’t think so many people could souund stupid all at once. Mariah has cemented herself as a legend, Many artist will never achieve what she has. Yes Memoirs sold slowly & Yes it gained her some of the best reviews of her career, getting placed before ” The Emancipation” and next to “Butterfly”. Butterfly initially sold slowly as well but will go down as one, if not her best album. E=MC2 has went 3x platnium in the US , and got her a #1 hit, and a top 20 hit.To call that Medicore is a joke. Trent you went on and on all the while sounding all the more stupid. Memoirs is almost all R&B, nobody is checking for that, not how the music industry is now. Her voice sounds very much mature and more soulful. For anyone to call that album medicore obviously hasn’t listend to it. You can throw around tracks Obsessed & Up out my face all you want but you can not deny that everyy track on that album is more than just a filler. Even when she does do fun songs like that , she let’s you know her voice is still very much intact. I don’t think she’s worried about the sells of Memoirs, I mean just knowing many crticics sat it next to butterfly is an accomplishment all its own.
I’m sorry but mariah carey doesn’t have to prove S*** these days, she has her 18 number ones and platinum albums. Im not a stan by the way i just see sense. Why would she want to w**** herself out like madonna n beyonce. She is married and settled down, she can do whatever she wants. She doesn’t need to prove anything tbf!
What i dislike about this article is the selective use of information. Mariah had 14 #1 in the 1990’s because she released an album almost every years. She doesn’t do that anymore and the chart climate as changed since the days when Mariah, Janet and Madonna were ruling the charts. Furthermore, Celine Dion irrelevant? Since when? If you want to say that Celine doesn’t cater to the same chord as Mariah say that, but she’s far from irrelevant. She’s an Adult Contemporary artist and she does pretty well in her field.
Celine slipping into irrelevance? She was the top paid musician of the decade, just because you think she’s irrelevant doesn’t mean anything.
http://www.moviecola.com/2010/01/billionaire-singer-celine-dion-named.html
ughhhh Mariah… maybe it’s time to hang it up
While I do agree with some sentiments of the article posted, I want people to realize that artists at the caliber of Mariah, Celine and Whitney don’t have anything else to prove. I think pushing Gold is a feat within itself especially in these days and times. I think these artists (the artists I mentioned) know that they aren’t the TOP ARTIST anymore, and they know that they’ve achieved much success that has created a fan base that will ALWAYS support what they put out. Of course they want it to be successful, but for that album to receive any type of certification from the RIAA is a feat. We get way too caught up in whether someone hits #1 the first week or how much they sell within the first few weeks or months. We are in a fickle world, where the main music consumer gets bored very quickly (which is unfortunate). I mean really, can we expect an artist to have 5-10 million selling albums their ENTIRE career? NO! That’s a bit extreme. Every artist will probably have an album that sells lower than others. I expect it to happen for Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna and all of the other artists that are HOT right now. By the end of this decade, there will be an entire new crop of artists that are gonna rule the charts just as they are right now. So let’s just appreciate the music if we like it. If we don’t let’s just simply not support it!
JOSE AND ROB..THE COMMENTS U MADE..ARE MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY…TAKE A BREAK..SHE IS A LIVING LEGEND,DOES NOT NEED TO SING ANOTHER NOTE AND WILL STILL HAVE 150 MILLION SOLD UNDER HER BELT…PEOPLE LIE NUMBERS DONT!!!!BUT WITH THAT BEING SAID I ALWAYS RESPECT AN ARTIST WHO CREATIVELY WAITS AT LEAST A YEAR OR TWO BEFORE RELEASING AN ALBUM ..JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, ALICIA KEYS, USHER,..CURRENT ARTIST WHO SPACE OUT THEIR RELEASES..MJ,JANET,MADONNA,WHITNEY DID IT ,–EVEN SADE AND MAXWELL COME BACK AND FANS APPRECIATE THE ABSENCE WHEN THEY DO RETURN!!!
I would love to see her do a “Back to Basics” like album with live instrumentals. I think the talent is still there and it would be something different. While I do think she needs to grow up(i.e. no rap cameos and no more “Touch My Body”) it would be quite a feat. If she does that she loses some of her fanbase. She’s clearly trying to balance her older fans, pop, and younger audience…and as evidenced by her latest album she didn’t quite do it this time. Janet is clearly struggling with the same issue. It seems to be hit women artist hardest when they hit 40. It’s interesting that Mary J. Blige still thrives but then again she has always had an older female fanbase. Anyway, if anybody can do it it’d be Mariah but if she were to pull it off and have another blockbuster she’d make history. I admit I’m not sure whats going on with her voice the MJ performance I can understand b/c she was choked up but there is no excuse for her other outings.
Manny
E=MC2 only went platinum in the United States, sorry to break it to you Bub. But even that went practically gold in its first week. Thats what makes the sales of Memoirs so flagrantly dreadful. All MC fans should be worried. I don’t think her fans realize the enormity of the situation here. These are the LOWEST SALES OF HER CAREER. If we dont do something and support its over for her. But I did my part. I bought Obsessed on itunes, called my radio stations to play her songs, and bought several copies of Memoirs on the first day. But there is only so much I can do as a lamb. Mariah needs to do her part as well.
It’s funny you mention Christina when she’s one of the most Diverse artist out of the others you listed, so for you to say “Even”, was lame. But, whatever, because you just want someone to get mad & get a negative response, oh well..
Like others said, I agree with some parts of this article. However, to say Celine Dion is irrelevant now is dumb! Just because you don’t listen to her doesn’t mean she’s irrelevant. SMH!
It’s sad when an big artist like Mariah can’t sell out a 4,000 seat theatre! Whoa! Somethings wrong. That tells me the tweens, little boys, youth that she caters too are too broke to go see her. They’ll support her by voting for her on these silly polls, calling the radio stations to request, purchasing a song on Itues but they’re too broke to buy the album or a $60 ticket.
The older people are turned off by her tarty, sexed up image, airheadedness etc and they have stayed away from her tour and buying the album.
Prescription:
Go away for a while
Get inspired
Take a 2 yr break
Work with different producers,
Stop with the silly whispering tecnique- most don’t like it
Get into A.A.
Cut down on the drinking
Get some stage confidence- somebody said earlier that even though Whitney’s voice is not 100% back when she performs, she has great energy, doesn’t lipsync and will work a stage like nobody’s business
Stop with the highschool lyrics- No grown person want to hear about someone up in her hood
Work on her live singing- cd sales will continue to decrease and artists are realizing that they will make more money touring but Mariah couldn’t sell out the O2 in England right now and that’s sad- she should be a Patti LaBelle or Prince or Madonna or Whitney- no big hit records but they can still tour and make their money- not sure what happened with Janet’s last tour but she use to be able to tour as well.
Please!
Before I begin, I want to say that I am a lamb if there ever was one. I buy all of the music that I have from her %100 legally, and stream her music videos on Yahoo whenever I can, so as to raise her Billboard ratings. I have all of her CD’s and listen to all of them. As a matter of fact, Memoirs is in my car’s CD player right now.
my suggestions for taking mariah carey’s name back on top (a lot of these are copied from others’ posts)–
It’s a uphill battle for her. she is still cranking out amazing music, but single choices (H.A.T.E.U. and IWKWLI were AMAZING songs, but terrible singles) were NOT good for the radio. They’re flopping left and right, except for Obsessed, which got old, fast, because people got bored of it. Her whole mentality on music has to change. She’s not the same as the 90’s. She (along with those around her!) cannot simply assume that her name on an album will be enough to get people to buy it. She can’t be trying to make others’ careers, she has to be humble and get hits the old fashioned ways.
Before coming back to her music career, first get into a movie that’s more crowd pleasing. After her amazing bout of acting in Precious (granted, it only lasted for 10 minutes), casting directors are sure to take her. Precious was good, but not a lot of teenagers went to see it.
When back to music she should…
1. leave IDJ. right away. no way that relationship can go on. It’s like they are TRYING to get Mimi to leave them.
2. JOIN Columbia. AMAZING artists signed to Columbia, including Beyonce and Susan Boyle. Any big label would work, but there’s a specific reason Columbia’s the way to go.. (see #3)
3. Mariah Carey and Beyonce Knowles on an up-beat break-up single (something like Standing O). If I were L.A. Reid, I’d have gotten Beyonce on Standing O for Angels Advocate and released THAT as a single. But, that’s why she should leave IDJ (see #1!). There is a reason that she won 6 Grammys, it’s because EVERYONE loves her. Listen to interviews, they always praise each other, so I’m sure they would be excited to work together.
4. Kick Tricky Stweart and The Dream to the curb. There comes a point where the same process of overlapping choruses so that she appears to have a duet with her own voice on nearly every song gets really, really old. Go back to Jermaine Dupri. Mimi and JD need to collaborate again, because they make hits. Jermaine Dupri is history’s most successful R&B producer for a reason, and Mimi needs the best.
5. Once the proposed Beyonce single was out, get Lil’ Wayne on board for another single. OR if she and her label were feeling super ballsy, get one with Eminem. I think they are both atrocious to the highest degree, but they are really, really popular. Obviously, a single with Eminem would have buzz, because of their overly publicized feud (since when has buzz done a single bad?). Hell, they could even have a song that’s about forgiveness or something, alluding to their forgiven feud. That sounds corny, but with 3 GREAT song writers (Mariah, JD, and Eminem), I think that they could make it work. Lil’ Wayne is featured on tons of songs (Down by Jay Sean, for one), and If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If she had Eminem on a song, Mimi should still get Lil’ Wayne on the album, just not as a single.
6. Assuming that those two singles did AT LEAST moderately well, (TOP 10 would be a BLESSING, for the way she’s been doing so far) put out a JD-produced song without a featured artist.
See how that goes. If that fails, put out a greatest hit CD with some new singles, go on a goodbye tour and call it quits. Keep acting, but don’t go crazy. IMO, if that 6 part plan weren’t to work, I literally have no clue what could bring her success, musicaly.
Trent, I love you dearly, but have you checked “Up Out My Face” ‘s stats? Its bound to be a hit!
::snores:: why state the obvious? I think these articles are dumb.. i’ve said that for the longest time now.
I don’t know why Trent seems to think that one has to have a series of consistent top hits, #1 albums and a lot of buzz (aka lady gaga and beyonce, who he seems to worship) in order to be called successful. Real artists focus more on the quality and the truthfulness of their work rather than making them sell. Having said that, I think Mariah is o n the right track. You said it yourself Trent, she’s already a diva and has 18 #1’s. She can afford to rest now and show us her artistic side because she’s on the effin map, while the mainstream artists that you seem to be crazy at are still trying to solidfy their impact in the biz.
Mariah got lazy after Butterfly and settled for mediocre material for her next three albums. When her career slipped, she regrouped and came back hard with Mimi. She surrounded herself with new management and created a classier sound and image. She combined hip-hop with a healthy dose of old school soul, ditched the whispering, toned down the squealing, and dropped the embarrassing fairytale album titles for something striking and conceptual. With E=MC2, she turned on the autopilot and fell back into her mediocre ways. When that album underperformed, she rush-released Memoirs a year later. No one seemed to notice, which is a shame. Memoirs is a significant improvement after E=MC2, but it has no knock-out moments. She may never reach 2005 heights again, as the industry ignores most artists once they hit 40, but a diva like Mariah Carey can still have a hit if she takes time to regroup and build a new, classier look and sound.
I love Mariah ( I am obsessed with her! I will be going to concert) BUt what she needs to do is…
1. Get vocal sugery (I know its a risk but she needs it)
2.take a break
3. Sing!
4.Break out thr comfort zone image + music. she needs to do electro pop, quality power ballads and mature lyrics.
5. Leave Nick at Home! Im sick of him! I dont want to hear about how much you guys love each other! blah already…
6. for God sake lose the weight and keep it off! exercise! your beautiful regardless, but still.
Lmao@all the comments
Mariah needs managers like you!!!
She needs to do this,she needs to do that,work with beyoncé,sing electro pop,blahblahblah…Gwarls puh-leazzze!!!
She just needs a break,she dont have to be follower!
I’ve became a real Mariah fan when she released “honey” from then on i bought every album & single she releases…
Yes, i am happy that she still around and actively releasing album after album…
However, i felt that she has to focus now on her marriage & making a baby with Nick…
I will truly miss her if she does that but i want to see Mariah winning on a new role as a wife & a mother…
She has cemented her place on the music industry… She place a benchmark so high for all female artist to top…
She doesn’t need to prove anything anymore!
Mariah is great for what she does so actually i think she needs to take some steps backwards and almost tone down to way she first came -out (NOT SO DRASTICALLY).
The problem with her is that she started out old and got younger as she aged, image and song wise.
It’s now time to find the balance of chic to go with the sexiness and show the maturity in her style.
Mariah needs not to re-invent too much because she found her new lane with emancipation.
“We Belong Together” is what Mariah is.
Voice ahead of entertainment is her so she needs to get those big songs back in her as well as have fun but with relevance rather than what’s the in thing here and now.
MARIAH when she broke through was setting the trend as a SANGER inspiring others to want to properly sing there hearts out.
More times than not, when people audition for singing things the Women in particular are singing, Mariah, Whitney or Celine, so that just shows where she needs to be.
Mimi is timeless with the amount of hits she has churned out so all she needs to do is be what she knows makes her and correctly fine-tune it with what she wants to be as a person.
“All MC fans should be worried.”
What for?
Mariah has been in the business for 20 long years.
Honestly, there is nothing left to prove.
In 1996, Rollingstone said no one will remember her in 10 years.
—–10 years after, WBT became the decade’s biggest hit.
in 2001, people said she shouldn’t do acting anymore.
——then she received an acting award.
In 2002, people said she should retire from music biz.
—– then TEOM became 2005’s biggest seller.
Vocal surgery would be ludicrous.
OF COURSE she has set the bar with musical talent, but I, just like everyone else, still want her to do well and have her music touch the masses. She’s not, and Memoirs didn’t get it done. She didn’t need to prove anything after the Glitter mess, but she came back stronger than ever with Emancipation.
I want her to do better and better, to go past what she NEEDS to do and to what she wants to do, because you and I both know that she wants to sell as many records as possible.
Keep in mind that she is 2 #1 singles away from tying the Beatles. Can you imagine being a lamb, and actually living to see her either tie or beat the BEATLES!?
For the NeXT álbum…. One duet with beyonce, other with Michael Jackson and work with jd, quincy jones, brian Michael c**, redone, and Walter affanaiseff for do songs… 100 percent, for the record, i stay in love, slipping away and we belong togeter or leas the way
SHE NEEDS WALTER. A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND SHE SHOULD GET HER NODULES REMOVED!
Well, to these who say that Mariah should dress in a more mature way – NO!
No,no,no,no… What’s wrong with her Barbie-like look? I would say – NOTHING!
I like it just that way… S*** & hot… No short hair, please…
And the music? Whatever Mariah does, I like it… I like her great ballads a lot, but I sure like her RNB and HIP HOP songs as well… 🙂
I think she should be making more hot songs like “Side Effects”, “Migrate”, “Obsessed” and “Standing O”, as well as experiment with some harder sound like a rock ballad or something… Something darker… Like a collabo with Courtney Love that they almost did, but didn’t record… Put some original elements in… And then have the same sweet candy pop songs she does… Whatever… I know that she’ll do it in her next album and I’m gonna love it… :)))
http://Mariah-Carey.rules.it
Earth to Mariah!!!! HELLO
1) STOP DRINKING!! GO DRYOUT LIKE YOU DID BEFORE THE EMANCIPATION
2) ACT YOUR GODDAMN AGE!! YOU are over 40 and dress worst than a teenager!!!
3) do the above and just SING!!!!!!
Trent! It’s getting BORING.
You and Sam got money from one of Mariah’s rivals to write always about her, and mostly negative things? It’s really boring that you two have a MARIAH-PHOBIA, or addiction to hate Mariah or I don’t know.
And Celine Dion??? WTF??? She doesn’t want to top the charts, she has a wonderful faimily life, she has on of the greatest voices, she finished that ” I WANNA COME FIRST” thing, she made unbelievable success in her carrier and she saw that it is enough, she has everything, se needs no more chart topper albums and singles and fame, etc.
AND INSTEAD of it, her latest tour, TAKING CHANCES was one of the most sucessful world tours of the decade! She made more than a hundred concerts filled with 20-30-40-50-60k people! So she is still fantastic!!!!
This is a double standard blog, and i don’T understand it. You have some nameless artists (Cassie, etc) who sell 2000 albums, and than she is an OMG SUPERSTAR, and you have Celine Dion with one of the most sucesfuill tours of the decade, and more than 250 MILLION records sold (huge amount in this decade) and you talk about her like a shamless, no name singer from the pub in the corner.
I am very sad. This was a good blog once. But now it’s one of the worst blogs on the web.
IM SUPRISED NOBODY HAS CALLED FOR THIS BISH TO TAKE BREAK!! SHE RELEASES ALBUMS EVERY YEAR!!… AND PEOPLE WANT BEYONCE TO TAKE A BREAK??? SHAME….
SHE NEEDS TO BE APPROPRIATELY DRESSED, HAVE SUITABLE LYRICS FOR HER AGE, SING WITH A DESIRE/PASSION, & QUIT HER CHILDISH ANTICS. I’M HER #2 FAN, BUT I TOO CAN’T STAND HER AND HER IMAGINARY WORLD. REALITY CHECK! SHE NEEDS TO QUIT LYING TO US, TRY TO SOUND/APPEAR INTELLIGENT, QUIT TRYING TO CONDUCT UNNECESSARY DRAMA, & KEEP IT STRAIGHT UP. I FEEL SHE’S A BIT FLAKEY. I ADORE YOU MARIAH!!! BUT YOU NEED TO STOP! (Don’t collaborate with the Dream anymore! He’s real booty.)
I think it all has to do with which songs are released and the manner in which they are promoted. For example, MIGRATE should have been the first single of E=MC2 instead of touch my body, or at least released at some point during the album. Instead, tracks such as I stay in love were promoted and well, it wasnt the time music wise for songs like that to do well on radio. I think the latest cd should have featured guest spots instead of being a strictly mariah release with the features release on a seperate album.
but she is a very hard worker, and will find a way, one way or another, to get back on top.
These articles are always are great read, whilst sometimes I disagree with some of your points, i always find that they actually make sense
You need to do one for Amerie!
her artistry vs the label
that would be great
Wow some great advice on here hope she reads it.
I am a true Mariah fan since vision of love I buy all her CDs and singles the day of release.
I also met and was photographed with her during the charmbraclet era.
That being said some great points kevin all u said is true. In addition I beleive she needs to leave def jam plus I just heard jlo was heading over there we don’t need a mariah circa 2001.
Please get rid of the dream he doesent contribute to u growing as an artist IMO
I enjoy the memoirs disc but anyone who compares it to butterfly should be shot.
Mariah hitting 40 with all that she has accomplished really this is a pivitol point but as stated before I don’t think she’s as driven, she has done it all now is Nicky poo time( well deserved on her part). I am so proud of the Mimi discbut her motivation was beyonce and all these young chicks she wanted to show the world she still got it point well taken.
I would like her to put out some quailty stuff though 100 percent shows she can.
I also agree with the person that said Emc2 came out way to soon lacking preperation. Migrate and cruise control and a few others would have done well for her.
Whoever said surgery that’s ridiculous lol
she just needs to be hungry like on the Mimi disc.
She sounds great in concert and I know when folks be lipping it.
Its amazing how much more attention I aquire from the opposite s** now that I have a beachbody coach!