::. "Mariah Carey" vs. "The Emancipation of Mimi"


Could her mother even dreamed one day, her little baby is going to be the biggest selling female artist of all time when Mariah opened her eyes to the world on 27th March 1970? The answer to this question would be probably yes. We could all have guessed this when Mariah told her mother named her “Mariah” because it would be a good stage name. It is not hard to see she borned to be a star, but of course it was not easy for her to get the success she has now. She has been singing even before she was talking and writing songs since childhood, but her real story began when she was a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr, who gave Mariah's demo tape to the boss of Sony Music, the emperor of music business, Tommy Mottola. The fairytale had started when Mottola listened the tape in his car and was amazed by Mariah's georgeous voice. Then came the debut album ‘Mariah Carey' in 1990, the awards, and most importantly fame. As the more famous she gets more problems started to happen, like comments on her changing music, her changing style and people's expectations. As I said, her debut album was released in 1990 when she was only 20 years old. She was at such a young age that she was getting controlled by so many older people around her. She was making the music they wanted her to make, she was wearing the clothes they wanted her to wear, and she was even acting the way they wanted her to act. But we saw the biggest signs of this control from her albums which we can say “before Mottola” and “after Mottola”.

The debut album “Mariah Carey” and “The Emancipation of Mimi” was totally have different types. “Mariah Carey” album contains not only up-tempo songs but also some very deep ballads. As a result of that, her fans loved her as a pop singer and started to expect the same kind of songs from her. Her last album “The Emancipation of Mimi” was totally different from the image people created about her. In a sharp contrast to her debut album, “The Emancipation of Mimi” was almost a hiphop album. On the other hand, there were still plenty of ballads, and I think that is one of the biggest reasons people's still buying it. She doesn't understand people's reactions of her singing hiphop, so she always says that she grew up listening hiphop and it is in her soul because of her being half African-American.

Another stricking contrast between her debut and last albums are the duets. In her first album she didn't have a duet with another singer likewise, she didn't have any duet for a long time in her other albums. In “The Emancipation of Mimi” there are 4 duets, which are sung with today's biggest hiphop artists. Such as Jermaine Dupri, Nelly and Snoop Dogg.

Both “The Emancipation of Mimi” and “Mariah Carey” was succesful on the charts. Both two albums awarded with platinium. The first song that was released from Mariah Carey album was “Vision of Love”. It had stayed on number 1 spot plenty of weeks, so did “We Belong Together” from “The Emancipation of Mimi”. In other words, it is hard to compare these 2 albums by their success on the charts because of their being both successful. If we have to choose one of them that would probably be “The Emancipation of Mimi” because it got 27 awards while “Mariah Carey” got almost 25.

Mariah Carey is the world's biggest selling female artist with over 150 million album sales around the world. Her debut album sold around 9 million copies on the other hand, “The Emancipation of Mimi” sold over 7 million only in the U.S. Her debut album's record sales might seem more successful to you, but you shouldn't forget that in 1990, the internet was not in everybody's house, so it was not so easy to download songs illegaly from the internet. Nowadays everybody is downloading songs from the internet, so selling 7 million copies is a big success. “The Emancipation of Mimi” success was proved when when it was awarded as the best selling album of the year.

”Mariah Carey” album was a real success. Everybody liked it, and suddenly everybody wondered who is this young girl with the great voice. It was her biggest chance to prove herself, so she did the best she could do. Likewise, “The Emancipation of Mimi” was her last chance to prove she is still the same Diva because some people thought her time was over, and she could never be that successful again. “The Emancipation of Mimi” and the awards she got with it are the best answer she could ever give to them.

In conclusion, I think her biggest achivement is her millions of fans around the world. They are the people that will support her no matter what happens. I am one of them, and I am in touch with plenty of them around the world. We know her, we appreciate her as a singer, but most of all as a human being. In music, there can be some changes, there should be some changes. The important thing is to change things in a good way, and I think Mariah Carey did it exactly like that. According to me, both of these albums are succesful and it is hard to say which one is more.


By İpek Birkan (2005)
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