Its undebatable that Mariah's career has seen a steady decline in recent years and its a question worth raising. Will she ever see success again? Recent albums have showcased lack lustre songs, a rather under whelming vocal ability and a musical direction that's not pushed her to the top of charts. Is it further downhill from here?
Maybe after her enormous success, she doesn't feel the need to maintain that level anymore, and is content to do things which are personally satisfying rather than commercially appealing?
The ONLY way she can really be successful is if she does dance-pop or electropop, and I don't want her to do that. So I'd prefer her to flop and get an amazing album from her tbh.
Her last album (the xmas one) went top 5, she's had a career thats span 22 yrs..she's got the awards, number 1s, respect. I would hardly say she's gone wrong OP
And I for one am glad that she hasnt jumped on the dance bandwaggon for a few number 1s and is instead making the music she likes. props to her for not selling out
For me there was a definite noticeable decline in her music when she started teaming up with rappers and adopted her "look" to that of a ten dollar hooker.
For me there was a definite noticeable decline in her music when she started teaming up with rappers and adopted her "look" to that of a ten dollar hooker.
Not really. Some of her biggest hits ever are rap collaborations. Her remix for Fantasy featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard completely changed the face of popular music. I mean, that kind of collaboration was completely unheard of. You wouldn't have songs like Crazy In Love, and artists like Beyoncé and Rihanna wouldn't have done as well as they have.
The only thing that has affected her music was innovation. She stuck to the rapping formula for too long, but quality music speaks for itself. It's Like That is classic Mariah+rapper...without being classic Mariah+rapper. But at this point she probably didn't feel the need to innovate her music: she was making music that she wanted to make and fortunately for her it was selling. Whilst it's true that every album since Butterfly has been a carbon copy of the album, Emancipation of Mimi was the only one with any true innovation; but I don't think she did it on purpose, I think she had great support and wanted to come back with a *bang*. Without L.A. Reid, It's Like That and We Belong Together wouldn't even exist... She had planned to release Say Somethin' as the first single, and that ended up being an unsuccessful final single from the album, but L.A. Reid carted her off to Los Angeles to write with Jermaine Dupree (yet people still whine about his input on her work... When Mariah and JD make magic, they make ****ing magic).
While the OP is completely right that Mariah's commercial career has seriously declined in the last few years (Merry Christmas 2 U charted at #101 and Memoirs only just scrapped a poor Silver certificate even with an X-Factor performance), as everyone has already said the thread title isn't half badly worded!
As to why her commercial career has declined so much, as many people have said it's a mixture of the music scene changing and she refusing to change with it, poor material and a large dose of been there done that, don't care. When you've been soooo mega successful as Mariah has I imagine you a lose the excitement and interest in getting yet another #1 or another multi-million selling album.
Then there is also the fact that everyone loses mainstream and commercial popularity when they've been around a certain number of years and the general public just lose interest; even Madonna is experiencing that now for example never mind Mariah.
If Mariah were to ever want to become a force in the charts and sell million of albums again though then she will either have to change her style to become relevant or wait until her style becomes popular again.
Not really. Some of her biggest hits ever are rap collaborations. Her remix for Fantasy featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard completely changed the face of popular music. I mean, that kind of collaboration was completely unheard of. You wouldn't have songs like Crazy In Love, and artists like Beyoncé and Rihanna wouldn't have done as well as they have.
The only thing that has affected her music was innovation. She stuck to the rapping formula for too long, but quality music speaks for itself. It's Like That is classic Mariah+rapper...without being classic Mariah+rapper. But at this point she probably didn't feel the need to innovate her music: she was making music that she wanted to make and fortunately for her it was selling. Whilst it's true that every album since Butterfly has been a carbon copy of the album, Emancipation of Mimi was the only one with any true innovation; but I don't think she did it on purpose, I think she had great support and wanted to come back with a *bang*. Without L.A. Reid, It's Like That and We Belong Together wouldn't even exist... She had planned to release Say Somethin' as the first single, and that ended up being an unsuccessful final single from the album, but L.A. Reid carted her off to Los Angeles to write with Jermaine Dupree (yet people still whine about his input on her work... When Mariah and JD make magic, they make ****ing magic).
I don’t know where you get that information from but you are very wrong, it wasn’t unheard of at all. fantasy didn’t come out until 1994 and there were loads of popular r&b /rap collaborations before then.
Whodini & Tashan - Yours For A Night – (1983)
Chaka Khan feat Melle mel – I feel for you (1984)
Jody watley feat Rakim – Friends (1989)
Dee-Lite feat Q-tip – Groove is in the heart (1990)
Janet Jackson feat Heavy D – Alright (1990)
Michael jackson feat Heavy D – Jam (1992)
Its widley acknowledged that the queen of hip hop soul is Mary J blige she is the one who really popularised R&B/Hip Hop and made a whole album of rap collaborations in 1992 whats the 411? remix
featuring..
Grand Puba
CL smooth
Notorious B.I.G
Heavy D
Craig Mack
Kid capri
Greg nice
Tim Dog
I think Mariah surrounds herself with 'yes' people now, hence the decline in quality. At least with Sony she had a bit of guidance. That Walter guy had a lot to do with Mariah's 90s success.
When they parted her ballads were never the same afterwards, Butterfly worked because she kept the old and mixed it with new.
I don’t know where you get that information from but you are very wrong, it wasn’t unheard of at all. fantasy didn’t come out until 1994 and there were loads of popular r&b /rap collaborations before then.
Whodini & Tashan - Yours For A Night – (1983)
Chaka Khan feat Melle mel – I feel for you (1984)
Jody watley feat Rakim – Friends (1989)
Dee-Lite feat Q-tip – Groove is in the heart (1990)
Janet Jackson feat Heavy D – Alright (1990)
Michael jackson feat Heavy D – Jam (1992)
Its widley acknowledged that the queen of hip hop soul is Mary J blige she is the one who really popularised R&B/Hip Hop and made a whole album of rap collaborations in 1992 whats the 411? remix
featuring..
Grand Puba
CL smooth
Notorious B.I.G
Heavy D
Craig Mack
Kid capri
Greg nice
Tim Dog
I'm aware of the majority of collaborations you speak of, but those are all hip-hop/heavy R&B artists. I've been a fan of Mary J. for ages and she's always been pure, heavy R&B. Mariah was a complete pop artist at that time, and that kind of pure pop-R&B/HipHop rapper was completely unheard of. Especially in the mainstream charts--the Billboard hot 100.
I'm aware of the majority of collaborations you speak of, but those are all hip-hop/heavy R&B artists. I've been a fan of Mary J. for ages and she's always been pure, heavy R&B. Mariah was a complete pop artist at that time, and that kind of pure pop-R&B/HipHop rapper was completely unheard of. Especially in the mainstream charts--the Billboard hot 100.
There are pop/rap collaborations that came before that as well
Beach boys and the Fat boys – Wipeout (1987)
Salt N Pepa Ft En Vogue – whatta man (1993)
New Kids On The Block & Nice & Smooth - Dirty Dawg (1994)
Madonna and 2pac – Rather be your lover (1994)
Dee- lite groove is in the heart reached number 2 in the uk pop chart I wouldn’t say they are R&B.
janet jackson and michael jackson are not ‘heavy R&B’ ..MJ is known as the king of pop!
Mariah wasn’t even the first artist to do a collab with a member of wu tang on a remix …SWV remix of Anything features most of the clan and that also came out before fantasy.
The Emancipation Of Mimi was the perfect album to re-launch Mariah Carey's music career, every single off the album was brilliant, however since that album she has released another two albums that were quite simply average and showed little versatility or progress.
I had hopes for her forthcoming album, however judging by the the lead single 'Triumphant' it seems like we're going to have to wait a while longer until Mariah gets her act together musically and gives us another classic.
The Emancipation Of Mimi was the perfect album to re-launch Mariah Carey's music career, every single off the album was brilliant, however since that album she has released another two albums that were quite simply average and showed little versatility or progress.
I had hopes for her forthcoming album, however judging by the the lead single 'Triumphant' it seems like we're going to have to wait a while longer until Mariah gets her act together musically and gives us another classic.
I thought that Memoirs was one of her best albums. I think what went wrong was selecting poor single choices such as HATE U and I want to know. With the latter, it seemed like the record company felt it would be a huge hit because it is a classic ballad. This song did however go on to have huge success in Brazil. If she had released "It's a wrap" or "Ribbon", she could have made much greater chart impact.
I was surprised when her revamped "Up outta my face", released as a collaboration with Nicky Minaj ,flopped badly. I do not know what went wrong.
Unfortunately, Triumphant performed badly. However, for her upcoming album, she has reunited with Walter Afanasieff who co-wrote and produced some of Carey's biggest hits back in the 90s - so I am hopeful for her next project.
the Emancipation Of Mimi was a good album imo she had a big comeback with that album just never really followed it up after that tbh i think a couple of her singles since then have been a joke (Touch My Body / Obsessed ) wtf they were not Mariah songs
Mariah's main problem now is she is not a good live performer and does so only rarely. Eventually with all older artists, radio won't play them regardless of what they release. But they keep their iconic status going with amazing tours and live performances. Mariah doesn't seem capable of or interested in doing that for whatever reason.
It may well be, but for me that was when I didn't care for Mariah Carey anymore. We all like different things.
How come? :eek:
Her 90s work is what she should go back to with a strong Fantasy and Make It Happen style track. Slaydele showed AC still can survive. Also MC....change the style (look wise). Bring class back!
Well, I wouldn't exactly label her a flop. Her last album bombed quite spectacularly, but she was still getting smash hits 6 years ago, so it's not like she's completely faded into obscurity.
The problem with Mariah, well, actually the problem with Mariah's fans is that they think she has more to offer, while she doesn't. She's a legendary vocalist -and I'm not even a huge fan-, she had plenty of smash hits and she was successful for almost 2 decades. She's done pretty well.
If anything, I would just like her to stop with the r 'n' b stuff that nobody cares about and go back to her 'Emotions' music. Soulful ballads and great vocals
There are pop/rap collaborations that came before that as well
Beach boys and the Fat boys – Wipeout (1987)
Salt N Pepa Ft En Vogue – whatta man (1993)
New Kids On The Block & Nice & Smooth - Dirty Dawg (1994)
Madonna and 2pac – Rather be your lover (1994)
Dee- lite groove is in the heart reached number 2 in the uk pop chart I wouldn’t say they are R&B.
janet jackson and michael jackson are not ‘heavy R&B’ ..MJ is known as the king of pop!
Mariah wasn’t even the first artist to do a collab with a member of wu tang on a remix …SWV remix of Anything features most of the clan and that also came out before fantasy.
The point of whch the original person was trying to make was someone such as Mariah in the 90's was america's sweetheart and before that people like her steered away from Rappers and heavily influenced R&B/Hip-Hop as it was seen as a niche market that would alienate her mostly white audience by doind what she did so broke down that stereotype and allowed Hip/Hop influenced music into the pop charts. She was only a small part but a part none the less
The point of whch the original person was trying to make was someone such as Mariah in the 90's was america's sweetheart and before that people like her steered away from Rappers and heavily influenced R&B/Hip-Hop as it was seen as a niche market that would alienate her mostly white audience by doind what she did so broke down that stereotype and allowed Hip/Hop influenced music into the pop charts. She was only a small part but a part none the less
Comments
Maybe after her enormous success, she doesn't feel the need to maintain that level anymore, and is content to do things which are personally satisfying rather than commercially appealing?
And I for one am glad that she hasnt jumped on the dance bandwaggon for a few number 1s and is instead making the music she likes. props to her for not selling out
Not really. Some of her biggest hits ever are rap collaborations. Her remix for Fantasy featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard completely changed the face of popular music. I mean, that kind of collaboration was completely unheard of. You wouldn't have songs like Crazy In Love, and artists like Beyoncé and Rihanna wouldn't have done as well as they have.
The only thing that has affected her music was innovation. She stuck to the rapping formula for too long, but quality music speaks for itself. It's Like That is classic Mariah+rapper...without being classic Mariah+rapper. But at this point she probably didn't feel the need to innovate her music: she was making music that she wanted to make and fortunately for her it was selling. Whilst it's true that every album since Butterfly has been a carbon copy of the album, Emancipation of Mimi was the only one with any true innovation; but I don't think she did it on purpose, I think she had great support and wanted to come back with a *bang*. Without L.A. Reid, It's Like That and We Belong Together wouldn't even exist... She had planned to release Say Somethin' as the first single, and that ended up being an unsuccessful final single from the album, but L.A. Reid carted her off to Los Angeles to write with Jermaine Dupree (yet people still whine about his input on her work... When Mariah and JD make magic, they make ****ing magic).
As to why her commercial career has declined so much, as many people have said it's a mixture of the music scene changing and she refusing to change with it, poor material and a large dose of been there done that, don't care. When you've been soooo mega successful as Mariah has I imagine you a lose the excitement and interest in getting yet another #1 or another multi-million selling album.
Then there is also the fact that everyone loses mainstream and commercial popularity when they've been around a certain number of years and the general public just lose interest; even Madonna is experiencing that now for example never mind Mariah.
If Mariah were to ever want to become a force in the charts and sell million of albums again though then she will either have to change her style to become relevant or wait until her style becomes popular again.
I don’t know where you get that information from but you are very wrong, it wasn’t unheard of at all. fantasy didn’t come out until 1994 and there were loads of popular r&b /rap collaborations before then.
Whodini & Tashan - Yours For A Night – (1983)
Chaka Khan feat Melle mel – I feel for you (1984)
Jody watley feat Rakim – Friends (1989)
Dee-Lite feat Q-tip – Groove is in the heart (1990)
Janet Jackson feat Heavy D – Alright (1990)
Michael jackson feat Heavy D – Jam (1992)
Its widley acknowledged that the queen of hip hop soul is Mary J blige she is the one who really popularised R&B/Hip Hop and made a whole album of rap collaborations in 1992 whats the 411? remix
featuring..
Grand Puba
CL smooth
Notorious B.I.G
Heavy D
Craig Mack
Kid capri
Greg nice
Tim Dog
There are pop/rap collaborations that came before that as well
Beach boys and the Fat boys – Wipeout (1987)
Salt N Pepa Ft En Vogue – whatta man (1993)
New Kids On The Block & Nice & Smooth - Dirty Dawg (1994)
Madonna and 2pac – Rather be your lover (1994)
Dee- lite groove is in the heart reached number 2 in the uk pop chart I wouldn’t say they are R&B.
janet jackson and michael jackson are not ‘heavy R&B’ ..MJ is known as the king of pop!
Mariah wasn’t even the first artist to do a collab with a member of wu tang on a remix …SWV remix of Anything features most of the clan and that also came out before fantasy.
I had hopes for her forthcoming album, however judging by the the lead single 'Triumphant' it seems like we're going to have to wait a while longer until Mariah gets her act together musically and gives us another classic.
I thought that Memoirs was one of her best albums. I think what went wrong was selecting poor single choices such as HATE U and I want to know. With the latter, it seemed like the record company felt it would be a huge hit because it is a classic ballad. This song did however go on to have huge success in Brazil. If she had released "It's a wrap" or "Ribbon", she could have made much greater chart impact.
I was surprised when her revamped "Up outta my face", released as a collaboration with Nicky Minaj ,flopped badly. I do not know what went wrong.
Unfortunately, Triumphant performed badly. However, for her upcoming album, she has reunited with Walter Afanasieff who co-wrote and produced some of Carey's biggest hits back in the 90s - so I am hopeful for her next project.
JLO says hi.
I disagree. The Emancipation of Mimi was one of her biggest selling albums and that a mixture of rnb and rap.
It may well be, but for me that was when I didn't care for Mariah Carey anymore. We all like different things.
How come? :eek:
Her 90s work is what she should go back to with a strong Fantasy and Make It Happen style track. Slaydele showed AC still can survive. Also MC....change the style (look wise). Bring class back!
The problem with Mariah, well, actually the problem with Mariah's fans is that they think she has more to offer, while she doesn't. She's a legendary vocalist -and I'm not even a huge fan-, she had plenty of smash hits and she was successful for almost 2 decades. She's done pretty well.
If anything, I would just like her to stop with the r 'n' b stuff that nobody cares about and go back to her 'Emotions' music. Soulful ballads and great vocals
The point of whch the original person was trying to make was someone such as Mariah in the 90's was america's sweetheart and before that people like her steered away from Rappers and heavily influenced R&B/Hip-Hop as it was seen as a niche market that would alienate her mostly white audience by doind what she did so broke down that stereotype and allowed Hip/Hop influenced music into the pop charts. She was only a small part but a part none the less
What a load of nonsense.