American singer Mariah Carey has received extensive recognition for her enduring popularity and impact on popular culture and the music industry. Widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music, Carey's career has left a profound legacy.
Since her debut in 1990, Carey has been a significant figure in breaking down racial barriers for multiracial Americans within the music industry and in popular culture. Navigating challenges and the complexities of race during her rise to fame in the 1990s, facilitated broader public conversations about multiracialism and representation; especially at a time when such discussions were still emerging. Carey often faced media scrutiny for her racial background leading to Carey speaking out on the issue. Carey's success and resilience helped pave the way for greater inclusiveness in the industry, making her a validating presence for many and a source of inspiration for other multiracial artists.
Carey is also credited with revolutionizing the usage of distinguished vocal stylings including that of melisma and the whistle register. Noted as the forerunner of both techniques, journalists have noted Carey's subsequent impact on the competitors on American Idol and other artists who emerged since the 1990s. Carey is also credited with being one of the first artists to successfully merge hip-hop with pop through her collaborations and helped popularize remixes, notably with "Fantasy" featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard. Her career has been praised for its longevity and has influenced and inspired many artists in music industries all over the world. Her music has also been recorded, performed and sampled by various acts. She has also received several honours and tributes.
Throughout her career, Carey has been commercially successful and well-received by music critics. She has broken numerous records domestically and internationally. In the United States she has broken several Billboard records. She has gained 19 number-one singles, the most for any solo artist, spending 93 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. As a holiday icon, she has broken many holiday records and has since been referred to as the "Queen of Christmas". Her album Merry Christmas (1994) is the best-selling Christmas album of all time in the US.
Fame and stardom
Carey talking on a podcast in 2018
Carey is one of the best selling music artists of all time.[1] Throughout her career, she has released fifteen studio albums which were supported by a number of singles.[2] Carey has been considered one of the greatest vocalists in pop music,[3] and has been ranked and featured on various lists of the greatest singers of all time.[a] She was also ranked as the greatest singer of the past twenty years in a 2003 MTV2 online poll.[7] Carey called the result an "enormous compliment".[8]
Forbes writer Hugh McIntyre noted that during the 1990s and 2000s, Carey was "the biggest musical star in the world", noting her "talent, fame and powerful vocals".[9] In 2014, Time named Carey the "ultimate pop star" and ranked her atop their "ultimate pop stardom" list.[10][11]The New Republic writer Jo Livingstone opined that Carey became "one of the most enduring stars of our time, laying the blueprint for a generation of young singers".[12]Rolling Stone similarly cited Carey as the "architect of modern pop".[13]
At the end of the 1990s, Carey was recognised as the best-selling act of the decade by numerous organisations and award shows including Billboard,[14]American Music Awards,[15] and the World Music Awards with the latter also naming her the "Best Selling Female Artist of the Millennium".[16][17][18][19][20] In 2008, Carey was inducted into The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame,[21] and also received a special achievement award by the American Music Awards and World Music Awards for having the most number-one singles in the US for a solo artist.[22] In 2012, Carey was honoured at The BET Honors.[23]
That same year, Carey was ranked second on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Women in Music".[24] In 2015, Carey was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[25] That year Billboard also ranked Carey at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making Carey the second most successful female artist in the history of the chart.[26] At the end of the 2010s, Billboard ranked Carey at number four on their "Top 125 Artists of All Time" chart making her the top female act.[27][28] In 2019, Carey received the Billboard Icon Award,[29] and was honoured at Variety's Power of Women event.[30]
In 2022, Carey was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[31] In 2024, Carey received the Grammy Global Impact Award.[32]
Carey has been credited for her role in breaking down racial barriers in popular culture and facilitating public discourse surrounding multiracialism.[40] Carey is biracial with a mother and father of Irish and African-American / Venezuelan descent respectively.[40]Brittany Luse from Vulture noted that as a biracial pop-star Carey became the face or an "avatar" for biracial identity, adding that she became "a validating presence for some and a source of both curiosity and discomfort for others".[41] Luse also added that Carey "rose to fame as public conversations about multiracial identity were expanding in the early '90s".[41]
Carey has often spoken about the challenges she faced in the industry as a multiracial artist.[40]Today writer Ree Hines noted that music in the 1990s often segregated "white" and "black" music on the pop music and contemporary R&B charts respectively.[43] Hines felt that due to this, Carey had to "forge ahead and create her own path to success".[43] Carey herself noted that before hitting it big, she found it hard to be signed by a record label due to their lack of understanding when it came to her background.[44] After signing with Columbia Records in 1988, the media was largely unaware of Carey's ethnic background, with articles describing her as a "white soul singer" and the "white girl who can sing", affecting Carey's insecurities.[44] Carey also faced media scrutiny with articles often focusing on her racial background rather than her talent, leading to debates about her authenticity and cultural appropriation accusations.[40] Carey began to assume ambiguity for her own protection.[41]
In an article on how Carey overcame these racial barriers, Yahoo! News writer Jazmin Moore wrote that "the strife Carey confronted [...] only deepened her musical palette", which in turn made her successful.[45] Carey has since often addressed these issues of race and identity throughout her interviews, sharing her experiences and raising awareness to the topic.[43] On a podcast interview with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Carey discussed her multiracial heritage feeling that people have always wanted her to choose between being "black" or "white" woman.[46]
Representation and impact
In her book Tragic No More: Mixed-Race Women and the Nexus of Sex and Celebrity, Caroline A. Streeter, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, described Carey as one of the "ideal figures through which to consider the post-Civil Rights era's apparent rehabilitation and transformation of the mulatto/a into a biracial subject of representation".[47]
As a multiracial person, Carey's presence in the music industry has helped paved the way for others who share similar backgrounds, allowing the music industry to open its doors for conversations about race, representation and encouraging more inclusiveness.[40] Luse quoted,
Carey's experience of fame could have happened only once; her stardom punched a hole in the sky. Her career matured as current conversations about mixed identity were still forming and while the passing narratives of the past, both brilliant and clumsy, had yet to fade from pop-cultural memory. There was a time when she might have been considered the most famous mixed person of Black and white parentage in America, but now the field's far more crowded.[41]
In 1997, Carey released the ballad "Outside" from her sixth studio album Butterfly which covered Carey's experience being biracial and not belonging.[48] Carey's 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, has also been praised for its work as a direct conversation about "stories about the concealment, or the possibility of concealment, of one's Black parentage".[41] Luse called it a "punctuation mark on a previous era" where being biracial was not understood by the general public.[41] In 2021, Carey performed the theme song for the television sitcomMixed-ish (2019) which followed the life of a biracial girl living in an American suburb in 1985.[41]
Musicianship
Vocal styles
Melisma
Carey's vocal style, as well as her singing ability, have significantly impacted music.[49] Multiple media sources have referred to Carey as the "Queen of Melisma".[50][51][52] According to Rolling Stone, "Her mastery of melisma, the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love", inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B singer since the Nineties."[53] In a review of her 2002 Greatest Hits album, Devon Powers of PopMatters called Carey a living legend and that she has since gone on to influence countless female vocalists with her melisma.[54] Chart historian Tom Breihan from Stereogum, chose "Vision of Love" as one of the chapters in his book The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music, stating that Carey "established melisma-heavy R&B as a powerful commercial force".[55] Author Bruce Pollock said the song led "to a generation of aspiring belters from Beyoncé to Rihanna to Christina Aguilera".[56]
In 2008, Jody Rosen of Slate wrote of Carey's influence in music industry, calling her the most influential vocalist of the last two decades and the person who made rococo melismatic singing.[57] Rosen further exemplified Carey's influence by drawing a parallel to American Idol which to Rosen, "often played out as a clash of melisma-mad Mariah wannabes" adding that "nearly 20 years after Carey's debut, major labels continue to bet the farm on young stars such as the winner of Britain's X Factor show, Leona Lewis, with her Generation Next gloss on Mariah's big voice and big hair".[57]New York magazine's editor Roger Deckker further commented that "Whitney Houston may have introduced melisma (the vocally acrobatic style of lending a word an extra syllable or twenty) to the charts, but it was Mariah—with her jaw-dropping range—who made it into America's default sound".[58] Deckker also added that "every time you turn on American Idol, you are watching [Carey's] children".[58] Professor Katherine L. Meizel noted in her book, The Mediation of Identity Politics in American Idol, that "Carey's influence [is] in the emulation of melisma or her singing amongst the wannabes, it's also her persona, her diva, her stardom which inspires them".[59]
Whistle register
Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range,[60][61][62] and is known for popularizing the use of whistle register in popular music.[63][64][65] Carey gained the honorific nickname "Songbird Supreme" by the Guinness World Records due to her ability to sing in the whistle register.[66] She first incorporated whistle notes in her debut album on various songs including "Vision of Love",[67] garnering positive reviews.[68] She became well known for her 1991 song, "Emotions" which heavily incorporated Carey singing in her whistle register.[65]TheThings writer Michael Ibrahim noted that Carey "is easily the first person who comes to mind when high notes".[65] American singer Ariana Grande began to receive heavy comparisons to Carey after using the whistle register in her song "The Way".[65][69]
Popularizing remixes
In the mid-1990s Ms. Carey pioneered a subgenre that some people call the thug-love duet. Nowadays clean-cut pop stars are expected to collaborate with roughneck rappers, but when Ms. Carey teamed up with Ol' Dirty Bastard, of the Wu-Tang Clan, for the 1995 hit "Fantasy (Remix)," it was a surprise, and a smash.
—Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times commenting on the influence and impact of the song's remix.[70]
Carey is well known for the remixes she releases of her singles, and has been called the "Queen of Remixes" by multiple media sources.[71][72][73] Princess Gabbara of MTV News wrote that it is "no secret that [Carey] goes to great lengths to deliver a spectacular remix, often re-recording vocals, penning new lyrics, shooting new music videos, and recording different versions to satisfy pop, R&B, hip-hop, and EDM audiences".[71]
Carey has since helped popularize rappers as a featured act in the pop music genre, particularly with the remix of "Fantasy" and other post-1995 remixes.[74] Judnick Mayard, writing for The Fader, noted that Carey was the main champion of the "R&B and hip-hop collaboration" movement.[75] In 1995, after the success of Carey's song "Fantasy", a remix featuring rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard was released to polarizing responses.[75] The remix has gone on to retrospectively receive positive acclaim with Mayard adding that "To this day Ol' Dirty Bastard and [Carey] may still be the best and most random hip hop collaboration of all time", adding that due to the remix of "Fantasy", "R&B and hip-hop were the best of step siblings."[75]
Sasha Frere-Jones, editor of The New Yorker commented that because of Carey, "it became standard for R&B/hip-hop stars like Missy Elliott and Beyoncé, to combine melodies with rapped verses. And young white pop stars—including Britney Spears, 'N Sync and Christina Aguilera—have spent much of the past ten years making pop music that is unmistakably R&B".[76] She concluded that "[Carey's] idea of pairing a female songbird with the leading male MCs of hip-hop changed R&B and, eventually, all of pop.[76] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times also noted that, "in the mid-1990s [Carey] pioneered a subgenre that some people call the thug-love duet", writing that in 2005, "clean-cut pop stars are expected to collaborate with roughneck rappers".[70]Slant writers Sal Cinquemani and Eric Henderson opined that "Carey is the quintessential crossover artist, with a catalog of hits that bridges the gap between pop, R&B, hip-hop, and house music".[77]
Carey pictured in 1990 (left) and 2018 (right) has been praised for her longevity in the music industry.
Carey has been praised by various journalists for her career longevity.[78][79] In 2019, Anne Branigin from The Root commented that "there's longevity, then there's Mariah Carey".[80]Revolt writer Lauren Williams referred to Carey as the "blueprint for longevity" stating that "very few singers can hold a candle to [her]".[81] Williams went on to say that Carey's "record-breaking career makes her one of the most decorated artists of all time".[81] When reviewing her fifteenth studio album, Caution, Eddino Hadi wrote, "In the last three decades since she made her debut, many female pop stars have scaled the heights that Carey has reached but very, very few have matched her longevity".[82]
Carey has set and broken numerous Hot 100 records.[83] She has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 93 weeks, the most for any artist in US chart history.[84] On that same chart, she has accumulated 19 number-one singles,[b][86] the most for any solo artist (second behind the Beatles) and she is also the only artist to have a number-one song in each year of a decade (1990s decade).[87] In 2020, Carey became the first solo artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 over four decades (1990s–2020s).[88] Carey was the first woman to debut at number-one in the United States, with "Fantasy", and the first act to debut at number-one multiple times after "One Sweet Day" and "Honey" also debuted at the top spot.[89] "One Sweet Day" spent sixteen consecutive weeks at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1996, setting the record for the most weeks atop the Hot 100 chart until surpassed in 2019 by "Old Town Road".[90] "One Sweet Day" and "We Belong Together" became the best performing songs of their respective decades (1990s and 2000s), making Carey the only act to accomplish the feat twice.[91] She also holds the record for the most consecutive years topping the chart (eleven).[92]
Carey's song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" alone has broken multiple Billboard records and was ranked by the magazine as the greatest holiday song of all time.[93] It is the longest running number-one song on the Billboard Holiday 100 chart (57 cumulative weeks, of the chart's 62 total weeks) and the longest-running holiday number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[94][95][96] It also holds the record for the longest span of a song's first and last week at the summit of the Hot 100, a record that's annually extended,[97] and the only song to return to number-one in more than two separate chart runs.[c][99] With the song, Carey became the first artist to reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the physical, digital, and streaming eras.[100] On December 25, 2023, Carey's the song broke the record for the most Spotify streams in a single day (over 23 million plays), originally held by herself with the same song (21 million).[101][102] The record was eventually beaten in 2024 by Taylor Swift's "Fortnight".[103] Carey previously claimed the record for most daily Spotify streams in 2017 (10.8 million), in 2018 (10.82 million), and again in 2019 (12 million).[102]
In 2008, Billboard listed "We Belong Together" as the ninth all-time top song on the Hot 100,[104] and second of their list of R&B songs on the same chart.[105] On November 19, 2010, Billboard magazine ranked Carey at number four on their "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" chart.[106]
Other achievements
As of March 2022, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists Carey as the best-selling female albums artist, with shipments of 72 million units in the US, and one of the best-selling digital singles artists.[107] She is the second female singer to amass both diamond-certified albums and singles, with the albums Music Box and Daydream,[108] and the single "All I Want for Christmas Is You".[109] With sales of over 28 million copies worldwide, Music Box and Daydream rank among the best-selling albums of all time.[110] In 2021, The Emancipation of Mimi and "Fantasy" were included on the new editions of Rolling Stone magazine's lists of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", respectively.[111]
International
Carey has also experienced success internationally. She is the best-selling Western artist in Japan selling over 14.5 million records.[112] Her #1's compilation album was certified with a triple-Million award from the Recording Industry Association of Japan and holds the record as the best-selling international album in the country;[113]Music Box, Daydream, Butterfly and Merry Christmas have all sold over 2 million copies in the country, with the latter being the fourth-best-selling international album.[114] Her song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is also the third-best-selling song by a non-Asian artist.[115] In 2018, Sony Music Asia–Pacific presented Carey with a certificate of achievement for 1.6 billion sales units in Asia–Pacific.[116]
The album's lead single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", became the first holiday song to be certified Diamond by the RIAA,[123] and the only holiday ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the US.[124] With sales of over 14 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling physical singles in music history and the best-selling holiday song by a female artist.[125] It is also the highest-certified and the longest-charting song by a woman in the UK.[126] On November 24, 2019, the song won three Guinness World Records.[127] In 2021, the song earned one billion streams on Spotify, making it both Carey's first song and the first holiday song overall to do so.[128] In 2023, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry, due to its "cultural, historical and aesthetic importance" in the American soundscape.[129]
Several artists have cited Carey as an influence including those pictured above.
Throughout her career, Carey has inspired numerous singers and songwriters in the music industries all over the world.[130][131] Music critic G. Brown from The Denver Post wrote that Carey's "five-octave range and melismatic style have influenced a generation of pop singers".[132]Stevie Wonder noted that, "When people talk about the great influential singers, they talk about Aretha, Whitney and Mariah. That's a testament to [Carey's] talent and her range is that amazing".[133] Various artists who have cited Carey as an influence include:
^Zwecker, Bill (January 22, 2002). "Who Can Carey a Tune?". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
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