A ‘refresher course’ on Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey. AFP FILE PHOTO

Celine Dion’s concert may have been cancelled in the Philippines. But don’t fret, there is still one global superstar diva set to perform here soon. That is none other than Mariah Carey. She will have her long awaited second concert in the Philippines on October 28, 2014, at the Mall of Asia Arena.

With a few more months to go, fans can get the chance to see her perform one more time from our side of the globe. And from my end, I would like to give some sort of a “refresher course”, if you will, on why an artist like Mariah Carey is still important, on the global impact she has made in popular culture in general, and what ultimately could be the legacy she would leave behind if she moves away from the limelight of the music industry.

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A thought to ponder on 

Even to this day, Mariah Carey is still considered to be “head-above-heels” over some of her younger and talented contemporaries. But just imagine if the Mariah Carey of yesteryear had debuted in this era of popular music, she would flat out blow away the majority of her competition. She was that good. In fact, that is an understatement; she was almost like an embodiment of perfection especially in her younger years during the mid-90’s.

And that is no exaggeration at all. I was lucky to be around already at the prime of her career so that I can make that ruling now. To add to that, sometimes people forget that the competition was much tougher and harder in that era because of the caliber of superior talent that was around then.

But did that intimidate her? Absolutely not. Mariah Carey was no pushover. Don’t let her goddess-like beauty fool you. She stood her ground and was not afraid to defend herself from unfair criticism and below-the-belt attacks coming from both the media and a few fellow artists.

In fact, Mariah Carey was already active when other iconic female artists were still in their prime as well like Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, the late Whitney Houston, Madonna, and so on. Mariah Carey proved she could not only hang with them but that she could also outperform them in most cases because of her vocal prowess when it was still at its full strength in those years.

Generational gap among fans?

Admittedly, even sadly, despite all the accolades and awards given her, for some reason Mariah Carey’s name recall isn’t as strong as it once was among younger music aficionados who now follow the likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Adele, at the time Mariah began to slow down already from doing concert tours and releasing albums due to personal reasons.

That is why in some cases for young music aficionados, when you mention Mariah Carey, her name would either sound vaguely familiar to them or they have only heard of her albums that came out in the early-to-late 2000’s. It would really require teens now to do some research and listen to her extensive back catalog of work to discover her biggest and most memorable songs.

Above scenario would only be the natural course of things because these young fans were not born yet or they were too young to have listened to any of her songs when it was released way, way back in the 90’s. For someone like me who was already “musically aware” then, I can say with certainty that most of Mariah’s best works were taken from that decade. And who can argue with that fact when you list down all her Number 1 hits and a majority of them shows they came from those said key years of Mariah Carey’s illustrious career.

Even at the time of her major label debut, she was pretty much already a certified superstar to begin with. This may sound a cliche but it is fitting to say that she was a “complete package” with her eye-catching good looks, natural charm about her, and the most important of all traits, her God-given musical talent. She was every A&R executive’s dream and a prized artist to have in any talent roster among major labels.

An icon

There is no doubt in my mind that Mariah Carey is not only a global superstar diva but more significantly an icon at this latter stage of her professional career. That is a no-brainer. Why so? For you to be even referred to as an icon, you must necessarily have had to make a sizable and influential impact in the entire music industry. And it is not just based on the number of chart topping hits you have amassed throughout your career as is commonly—and falsely—believed by some.

The process is a little more complicated than that. It would mean that you actually did something that has left an indelible artistic impression among music aficionados—almost like an imprint of your body of work—that would be used as a guideline for future artists to listen to and even study. That, in effect, would make young and upcoming artists emulate you and pattern their musical style after you. It is safe to say Mariah Carey has accomplished all of these, and more, already.

That is why if Mariah Carey retires from making music in the future, and even chooses to live a life away from it, everything she has done and accomplished thus far would have been set in stone already.

Indeed, only an icon will be able to do that.

Mariah Carey is an icon.