{"id":12503,"date":"2014-07-13T00:28:47","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T07:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=12503"},"modified":"2014-07-13T00:28:47","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T07:28:47","slug":"mariah-carey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2014\/07\/mariah-carey\/","title":{"rendered":"MARIAH CAREY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mariah<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

MARIAH CAREY<\/h1>\n

The Record Industry\u2019s Focus<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not much of a Mariah Carey fan. I always thought she was more technique over soul, same with Whitney Houston. Then again, in Houston\u2019s case, she had some songs\u2014\u201cThe Greatest Love of All,\u201d \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d\u2014that had so much soul in them that technique couldn\u2019t blow it out.<\/p>\n

Anyway, a billboard.biz tweet did catch my eye: \u201cHow To Solve the Mariah Carey Problem: Former Record Exes (sic) Chime In.\u201d More than once, as a matter of fact, as they retweeted it several times over the next few days. It linked to an article with that title.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have to read it. I\u2019d already seen another tweet from another site, showbiz411.com, \u201cMariah Carey\u2019s Latest Album Crashes and Burns on Charts, Drops Off Top 100.\u201d So I could definitely see a problem\u2014if not the problem.<\/p>\n

Two problems, actually, the first being the one they want you to click on.<\/p>\n

\"Mariah\u201cDespite great reviews, [Carey\u2019s new album Me. I Am Mariah \u2026 The Elusive Chanteuse] is now number 157 on iTunes and 75 amazon.com\u201d wrote showbiz411\u2019s Roger Friedman, adding that at the time of his writing, it had sold \u201ca paltry 75,000 copies [and] probably not too many more after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billboard was up in arms over this \u201cfailure,\u201d and interviewed its panel of \u201cformer record exes\u201d to ascertain what could be done.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d have better luck deciphering the Da Vinci Code.<\/p>\n

But first they need to recognize that Carey is 45\u2014or 44 (sources differ, according to Wikipedia). Then look at Carey\u2019s current pop diva competition in Katy Perry (29), Rihanna (26), Lady Gaga (28) and Beyonce (32). Really, they need look no further.<\/p>\n

I tried to listen to Me. I Am Mariah, and made it through three full songs before hitting the fast-forward. It sounded perfectly acceptable\u2014but nothing jumping out to command pop radio attention like the hits of the younger gals.<\/p>\n

In other words, in a youth-driven pop market that Carey once dominated, she\u2019s lost the sound, if not the relevance\u2014and not many artists are able to stay big-time commercially relevant past their generational time. Cher seems to make a splash now and then, and through talent and sheer will to stay a step ahead Madonna kept it going past her prime\u2014though I\u2019d be surprised if even she can have another big mainstream hit now at 55.<\/p>\n

The only one I can think of who ever came back strong and stayed there for any length of time was Tina Turner, but she was unique in having been gone so long, and coming back with such a distinct new sound and perfect songs to match\u2014plus a dramatic back story that propelled her to the top. I don\u2019t see Carey having anything like that.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the second problem that leaves me mystified, and that is, why there would be an industry focus on a so-called \u201cMariah Carey Problem\u201d in the first place\u2014at the expense of other artists and genres who never get a shot on Top 40 in the first place.<\/p>\n

Jim Bessman<\/p>\n

\"Mariah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MARIAH CAREY The Record Industry\u2019s Focus I\u2019m not much of a Mariah Carey fan. I always thought she was more technique over soul, same with Whitney Houston. Then again, in Houston\u2019s case, she had some songs\u2014\u201cThe Greatest Love of All,\u201d \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d\u2014that had so much soul in them that technique couldn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4976],"tags":[7079],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12507,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503\/revisions\/12507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}