Thursday 31 October 2002

Shedding light on Mariah's single cancellation

Mariah's "Through The Rain" single has been cancelled as a commercial release within the United States. To most artists, this is nothing major. But for Mariah, who has a history of exemplary single sales, it's a disappointment to her fans, who are used to commercial singles filled with remixes for every Mariah track promoted by her label. This announcement comes in a bid to boost album sales and it's a tactic that ninety percent of today's most popular artists use. Looking at MTV's Total Request Live, which counts down the ten hottest music videos and songs in the nation, only one of those songs has been, or will be, released as a commercial CD single, which is Kelly Clarkson's "A moment like this".

The current countdown is sprinkled with other radio superstars like Eminem, No Doubt, Avril Levigne, Justin Timberlake, and many others. And although "Through The Rain" has yet to fully catch on to radio, its airplay isn't the reason the single will not be released. Take a look at Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart. At number one is Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland with "Dilemma". At number two is Eminem's "Lose Yourself". At number four is Missy Elliott's "Work It" and at number six is "Gangsta Lovin" by Eve and Alicia Keys. None of these songs were released as a single in any format within the United States, yet they are still huge hits.

However, having a single that doesn't make the top 10, top 20, top 40, or even top 100 really doesn't matter these days. Take Britney Spears for example. The lead single from her last album, "I'm A Slave 4 U", did poorly at radio as well as on the Billboard singles charts, yet her album debuted at number one, selling over 700,000 copies. Her four follow-up singles did even worse on the Hot 100, yet the album remained a hot seller. Two less severe, but more recent examples are Faith Hill and Christina Aguilera. Faith Hill recently hit #1 on the album chart, despite less-than-usual airplay for her "Cry" single, which stalled at number thirty-three on the Hot 100. Christina Aguilera's new single "Dirrty" couldn't climb any higher than forty-six on the singles chart, but her album is expected to debut within the top 5, if not #1 on next week's album chart.

So in conclusion, the "cancellation" of Mariah's single is really nothing to get fired up about. It's not necessarily bad, either. In fact, it's extremely rare these days if anyone releases a single to stores in the United States, as Billboard's singles chart is based on seventy-five percent radio. It's a known fact that radio will play what they want. Even if Mariah is #1 in requests, if the station doesn't like her, they aren't going to play her. It's also known that people will only buy what they want, and when Mariah's album is released - that's what they'll want. And, besides, fans won't be missing much except a few cheaply produced standard club mixes. Those will be available for download on the Internet shortly, anyway. The real treat of the single, the Remix featuring Kelly Price and Joe, is also included on Mariah's album - in stores December 3rd. So, exactly what is it that we're losing? Think about it.

(MariahC.nu)



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