Back in the game?
Fret not, Mariah Carey fans. She will be just fine. After all, her current dust-up with Virgin Records is as much about corporate politics as it is about the 31-year-old singer's diminishing sales power. Whether she has learned anything from this embarrassing segment of her career will be determined Sunday, when she sings the national anthem in front of the millions watching the Super Bowl. If Carey handles the event well, people won't be thinking about the $28 million she received to walk away from her record contract, they won't be wondering about what happened to the rest of her outfit, they'll be thinking, "She sure can sing."
The Huntington native's voice is what launched her amazing 12-year career in the first place. Her voice, on a tape she pushed into Sony Music president Tommy Mottola's hands at a Columbia Records party in 1989, landed her a record deal. To capitalize on it, Mottola assembled a dream team of songwriters and producers to groom Carey's debut.
In 1990, the "Mariah Carey" album arrived, bearing four No. 1 singles, including trademark ballads like "Vision of Love" and "Love Takes Time". Team Mariah's early specialty wasn't blue-eyed soul, it was approximating blue-eyed soul. She crafted music for the malls - big ballads as predictable as a Gap T-shirt, dance numbers just flashy enough to match an outfit from Express. When she wanted to go in for the kill, she'd update a massive ballad like "Without You" with a gospel choir or "Endless Love" with Luther Vandross.
That success continued throughout the '90s, giving Carey a No. 1 song in each year of the decade, a total of 15 No. 1s, more than any other female artist in history. She trails only the Beatles, with 20, and Elvis Presley, with 18, for the all-time lead, and one more blockbuster album could push her past both of them. To do that, though, she needs to get past a few issues, most of which sprouted after her divorce from Mottola. Though Carey is known for her golden voice, what many forget is that she also had a golden ear, one that was in tune with what the pop market wanted to hear. Lots of singers can match up with Carey's voice, even those unnecessary dog-whistle screams. What gave her the string of No. 1's and the multiplatinum albums was her ability, with her production team's help, to tap into the American consciousness.
In her frenzy to leave behind her relationships - both business and personal - with Mottola, she fled the familiar. Carey's success, like that of many other artists, from Janet Jackson to Eminem, is strongly linked to collaborators who help execute her vision. Unlike most of her peers, however, Carey's fan base is wide, but not deep. She doesn't do a lot of interviews and tours even less, the two biggest ways an artist forges a strong bond with fans.
That means Carey has to rely on constantly rolling out enjoyable music to maintain her relationship with fans. That suffered when she strayed too far from her mall-loving, Long Island roots, strutting off in those unbuttoned Daisy Dukes and the bikini tops and cavorting with Jay-Z. Much of her fan base put up a collective hand and said, "Girlfriend, we cannot get down with that."
Rather than recognizing the warning signs (and the fact that chest-thumping Celine Dion had copped her formula and swiped a considerable part of her posse), Carey continued to move in that direction on "Glitter", ultimately falling into emotional and physical exhaustion when she realized that tactics that had worked in the past weren't going to work this time.
This is where the problems of Virgin Records, and its parent company EMI, kicked in. A stronger leader would have shipped Carey and company back to the studio for more work, regardless of time constraints and the need for a big seller to boost the company's bottom line. Instead, the album's release plowed forward, delaying only slightly for Carey's illness. The problems mounted after the "Glitter" movie flopped and the whole situation spiraled into a national joke.
Instead of rectifying the situation, new EMI CEO Alain Levy chose to eliminate it, throwing good money after bad. The $28 million payment to get Carey out the door - on top of the $21 million she got when she signed the four-album, $800-million deal in April - was seen as a way to push the matter all off on the singer and the label's previous regime. However, the move has worried some on EMI/Virgin's roster, questioning how interested the company is in music these days and how strongly the company will promote its artists in the current cost-cutting climate. An earlier sign of this came in November, when David Bowie walked out on the company after 30 years with EMI, opting to launch his own label to handle his new album.
What Levy has guaranteed is that Carey will mark her comeback for one of his competitors, as Warner Bros., Arista and J Records have all begun courting the singer, insiders say. After some much-needed rest and some also-needed strategizing, Carey will begin her comeback, aided by some good notices for her upcoming film, "Wisegirls". The word in the industry has been that Carey has surrounded herself with a good team, but she simply doesn't listen to them enough.
Part of that stubbornness, insiders say, comes from her need to prove that she wasn't simply Mottola's puppet, but a star on her own terms. Part of it comes from a belief that she could do no wrong - a belief that the "Glitter" fiasco has knocked out of her. Will she make it happen? I still believe. (Newsday.com)
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