single-phile: the latest singles, dissected and discussed
Mariah Carey is famous for (at least) two things: Her exquisite vocal high notes -- and her rather disastrous personal low notes. (Now, if that statement doesn't perfectly sum up the often sad complexities of pop stardom, we don't know what does!) Anyway, as we were gearing up for la diva ultima's 12th album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (which does feature a goodly number of those skyscrapers), we started wondering how (or if) these two markers of Mariah-dom correlated with each other. And so for this week's single-phile, we conducted this highly scientific study, comparing the most heavens-scraping single from each of her albums with what was going on in Mariah's personal or professional life at the time to see if her high notes suggest reaching for the top or hitting bottom.
Be sure to check out our playlist at the bottom of the article that includes some of the wonderful songs we've discussed. Also be sure to click through the highlighted links listen to high quality audio of all your favorite Mariah Carey songs as much as you want and anywhere with your free trial Rhapsody membership.
HYPOTHESIS
Mariah Carey's soaring vocal high notes are in some way related to her personal and professional low notes.
FINDINGS/CASE STUDIES
Single: "Someday"
Year: 1990
Album: Mariah Carey
Musical High Notes Indicator (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being either her highest note or an insane number of high notes): 7. She only really hits one super-high note, running up to the top of the musical Empire State Building just as the song ends. But oy, what a run!
Personal/Professional Life (on a similar scale of 1 to 10): 9. This is the beginning. Mariah hits the ground running with her chart-topping debut and a fistful of No. 1s. She also becomes involved romantically with label head Tommy Mottola, which, we're guessing, at the time was a good thing.
Single: "Emotions"
Year: 1991
Album: Emotions
Musical High Notes Indicator: 10. This is it, people. The piece de resistance. The song that introduced us to Mariah's incredible capabilities (not to mention the legend of her five-octave range, which is more like four and a half, but still).
Personal/Professional Life: 10. Highly respected superstardom? Check. (Almost) overcome stage fright? Check. Impending marriage to a high-powered record exec? Check. Life's looking pretty for Ms. Mariah at this point.
Single: "Dreamlover"
Year: 1993
Album: Music Box
Musical High Notes Indicator: 9. This is the track on which we get intimately acquainted with Mariah's impressive and rare whistle range, which introduces her poppiest (read: not-so-Whitney-esque) single yet. Even better, we get introduced to her pretty, real head voice.
Personal/Professional Life: This is a tricky one to compute. On one hand, Mariah was by now Mariah. On the other hand, she'd just married Mottola, whom she would later describe as extremely controlling. For the most part, though, we're guessing things were looking up, up, up.
Single: "Fantasy"
Year: 1995
Album: Daydream
Musical High Note Indicator: 7. A good deal of sirening and a nice, high general belting range, although it's starting to lose its novelty at this point.
Personal/Professional Life: By now, the diva's getting crazy good reviews and setting chart records ("Fantasy," for instance, was the second single ever to debut at No. 1 -- and the first by a female artist). The Tom Tom Club-sampling, hip-hop-dipping "Fantasy" itself is also one of Mariah's greatest tunes. But things with Mottola, whom she'd divorce two years later, aren't so good.
Single: "Butterfly"
Year: 1997
Album: Butterfly
Musical High Note Indicator: 5. Mariah's most hip-hop-steeped album to date is also the album on which she stops singing so much as just kind of breathing into the microphone. That said, her voice is still a powerful instrument: even in its new wispy incarnation, it still does some pretty interesting high-wire tricks. And there are bits of the ever-present whistling.
Personal/Professional Life: 2-9. OK, yes, that's a ridiculously wide range. But she separates from Mottola this year, so ... is breaking up always hard to do, or is it a positive thing when it's a break into independence from an unhappy marriage?
Single: "Heartbreaker"
Year: 2000
Album: Rainbow
Musical High Note Indicator: 6. Not much skyscraping happening here, but Mariah's sounding less ... gossamer-voiced and fragile than before. Some nice, high belting.
Personal/Professional Life: 6. Rainbow is her best-selling album to date, but it's also the product of a good deal of struggle with her label, particularly after her divorce.
Single: "Bringin' on the Heartache"
Year: 2002
Album: Charmbracelet
Musical High Note Indicator: 3. With the exception of some really nice, strong sirening at the end, this track -- hell, this whole album -- is woefully lacking in Mariah's trademark heavenly ranges.
Personal/Professional Life: 3. The stuff of Mariah drama legend: Glitter. Popsicles. Crazy town. This is not Mariah's happy place, and Charmbracelet was definitely not her good luck charm.
Single: "We Belong Together"
Year: 2005
Album: The Emancipation of Mimi
Musical High Note Indicator: 7. The newly christened Mimi has emancipated her high, strong belt, if not the whistle tones of yore. And it sounds good.
Personal/Professional Life: 8. Well, let's see. She's emancipated herself. So that's probably pretty good.
Single: "I Stay in Love"
Year: 2008
Album: E=MC2
Musical High Note Indicator: 8. She stays out of the dogs-only ranges but lays plenty of soaring belts on her human fans. They don't call her Mimi for nothing (that one's for the La Boheme fans in the house).
Personal/Professional Life: 9. In a somewhat shocking, slightly weird move, Mariah marries Nick Cannon. Wedded bliss looks good on her.
Single: "I Want to Know What Love Is"
Year: 2009
Album: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel
Musical High Note Indicator: 9. On an album full of mid-range, mid-tempo sleepers, this Foreigner cover almost -- almost -- sounds like the old, celestial-voiced angel of yore.
Personal/Professional Life: 8. Well, she's still married. And still mostly seems happy. Call us cynics, but maybe a little too happy? We'll just have to see how this goes.
RESULTS Forgive us for wimping out, but the results are inconclusive -- or at least, varied. The whistle range seems to accompany nearly all life events, even the Charmbracelet/Glitter/popsicle era. On the other hand, nice, strong, high-range belting does seem to be in direct correlation with Mimi's happiness, be it emancipatory or matrimonial. One thing we know for sure: Mariah's high notes tend to make us, well, high, so here's hoping she's able to keep doing whatever it is she does to stay afloat.
HYPOTHESIS
Mariah Carey's soaring vocal high notes are in some way related to her personal and professional low notes.
FINDINGS/CASE STUDIES
Single: "Someday"Year: 1990
Album: Mariah Carey
Musical High Notes Indicator (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being either her highest note or an insane number of high notes): 7. She only really hits one super-high note, running up to the top of the musical Empire State Building just as the song ends. But oy, what a run!
Personal/Professional Life (on a similar scale of 1 to 10): 9. This is the beginning. Mariah hits the ground running with her chart-topping debut and a fistful of No. 1s. She also becomes involved romantically with label head Tommy Mottola, which, we're guessing, at the time was a good thing.
Single: "Emotions"
Year: 1991
Album: Emotions
Musical High Notes Indicator: 10. This is it, people. The piece de resistance. The song that introduced us to Mariah's incredible capabilities (not to mention the legend of her five-octave range, which is more like four and a half, but still).
Personal/Professional Life: 10. Highly respected superstardom? Check. (Almost) overcome stage fright? Check. Impending marriage to a high-powered record exec? Check. Life's looking pretty for Ms. Mariah at this point.
Single: "Dreamlover"Year: 1993
Album: Music Box
Musical High Notes Indicator: 9. This is the track on which we get intimately acquainted with Mariah's impressive and rare whistle range, which introduces her poppiest (read: not-so-Whitney-esque) single yet. Even better, we get introduced to her pretty, real head voice.
Personal/Professional Life: This is a tricky one to compute. On one hand, Mariah was by now Mariah. On the other hand, she'd just married Mottola, whom she would later describe as extremely controlling. For the most part, though, we're guessing things were looking up, up, up.
Single: "Fantasy"
Year: 1995
Album: Daydream
Musical High Note Indicator: 7. A good deal of sirening and a nice, high general belting range, although it's starting to lose its novelty at this point.
Personal/Professional Life: By now, the diva's getting crazy good reviews and setting chart records ("Fantasy," for instance, was the second single ever to debut at No. 1 -- and the first by a female artist). The Tom Tom Club-sampling, hip-hop-dipping "Fantasy" itself is also one of Mariah's greatest tunes. But things with Mottola, whom she'd divorce two years later, aren't so good.
Single: "Butterfly"Year: 1997
Album: Butterfly
Musical High Note Indicator: 5. Mariah's most hip-hop-steeped album to date is also the album on which she stops singing so much as just kind of breathing into the microphone. That said, her voice is still a powerful instrument: even in its new wispy incarnation, it still does some pretty interesting high-wire tricks. And there are bits of the ever-present whistling.
Personal/Professional Life: 2-9. OK, yes, that's a ridiculously wide range. But she separates from Mottola this year, so ... is breaking up always hard to do, or is it a positive thing when it's a break into independence from an unhappy marriage?
Single: "Heartbreaker"
Year: 2000
Album: Rainbow
Musical High Note Indicator: 6. Not much skyscraping happening here, but Mariah's sounding less ... gossamer-voiced and fragile than before. Some nice, high belting.
Personal/Professional Life: 6. Rainbow is her best-selling album to date, but it's also the product of a good deal of struggle with her label, particularly after her divorce.
Single: "Bringin' on the Heartache"Year: 2002
Album: Charmbracelet
Musical High Note Indicator: 3. With the exception of some really nice, strong sirening at the end, this track -- hell, this whole album -- is woefully lacking in Mariah's trademark heavenly ranges.
Personal/Professional Life: 3. The stuff of Mariah drama legend: Glitter. Popsicles. Crazy town. This is not Mariah's happy place, and Charmbracelet was definitely not her good luck charm.
Single: "We Belong Together"Year: 2005
Album: The Emancipation of Mimi
Musical High Note Indicator: 7. The newly christened Mimi has emancipated her high, strong belt, if not the whistle tones of yore. And it sounds good.
Personal/Professional Life: 8. Well, let's see. She's emancipated herself. So that's probably pretty good.
Single: "I Stay in Love"
Year: 2008
Album: E=MC2
Musical High Note Indicator: 8. She stays out of the dogs-only ranges but lays plenty of soaring belts on her human fans. They don't call her Mimi for nothing (that one's for the La Boheme fans in the house).
Personal/Professional Life: 9. In a somewhat shocking, slightly weird move, Mariah marries Nick Cannon. Wedded bliss looks good on her.
Single: "I Want to Know What Love Is"Year: 2009
Album: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel
Musical High Note Indicator: 9. On an album full of mid-range, mid-tempo sleepers, this Foreigner cover almost -- almost -- sounds like the old, celestial-voiced angel of yore.
Personal/Professional Life: 8. Well, she's still married. And still mostly seems happy. Call us cynics, but maybe a little too happy? We'll just have to see how this goes.
RESULTS Forgive us for wimping out, but the results are inconclusive -- or at least, varied. The whistle range seems to accompany nearly all life events, even the Charmbracelet/Glitter/popsicle era. On the other hand, nice, strong, high-range belting does seem to be in direct correlation with Mimi's happiness, be it emancipatory or matrimonial. One thing we know for sure: Mariah's high notes tend to make us, well, high, so here's hoping she's able to keep doing whatever it is she does to stay afloat.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
I love This magic Lady .. Dreaming With Her !!
I Love Mariah Carey,
She is the finest of all the Divas in the world.
I just wish I could see her in person some day.
this is my girl. she is so fabulous and she will remain as my favourite artist.