#1 [url]

Dec 29 11 6:00 PM

Summer 2005 during the Emancipation of Mimi. I was taking summer college courses made available for free by Tulane since Katrina had occurred the Fall before. I remember sitting in the crappy cafeteria after a 9AM consolidated calculus class. "We Belong Together" was still dominating airwaves and "Shake It Off" seemed just as big. I'd hear "Shake It Off" booming out of stereos all the time. Anyway, the school always had the local Pop or Urban channel on in the cafeteria. I'm not sure which one was on, but I'll never forget hearing "We Belong Together" sung by the entire female volleyball team at the top of their lungs. The volleyball team was big (they took up like eight tables), and it was extremely diverse both racially and ethnically -- there were students from Western and Eastern Europe on scholarship playing volleyball whose first language was clearly not English. For a fan who had been there through her major successes in the 90's subsequent extremely public downfall, it was quite a sight. Along with Obama winning the presidential election on my 21st birthday, it's one of those extremely vivid, hyper-sensory memories where I remember everything that was occurring around me. I never questioned whether she would ever be big again, but I had no idea her comeback (which IS what it was) would be so colossal.

For the first time, she was releasing music she actually liked, that she was finally singing on, and people were crazy about it. It wasn't even so much about her. Yeah, she was everywhere, but she was everywhere performing. She wasn't doing damage control (CB) or promoting a product line. She was making headlines for her music. She was like the Adele of 2005, except she had a well-seasoned career at that point. She even got the obligatory 8 Grammy nominations (even though they screwed her again, it was so typical of the Grammys...nominate the crap out of whoever sells the most and then pretend like they don't care about numbers). It was nuts!


--------------(long ramblings and memories about the 90s)

I've always been obsessed with music. My parents were always playing classic rock and pop from the 60's and 70's, and my babysitters always had the pop station on. Pop radio really used to be more like "popular music"; they played pop, dance, r&b, alternative rock, and hip-hop. I would hear Mariah on the same station as "Snoop Doggy Dog," Corona, The Cranberries, Boyz II Men, Ace of Base, Nirvana, Amy Grant, Sheryl Crow, No Doubt and John Secada. In the 90's, I can't really pinpoint a certain era as her biggest, but she seemed unstoppable from Music Box through Daydream (including Merry Christmas).

Music Box was huge, too, but I was only six going on seven, so my memory isn't quite as vivid. Did "Dreamlover" come out in the summer? I remember the song coming on while we were playing dodge ball in the gym -- I was less interested in Dodge Ball and far more interested in the red-headed camp counselor's favorite song. She kept telling me about how much she loved it and Mariah Carey. I wanted to be a teenager. I wanted to date her. At the end of the summer, my family went to San Francisco, and my parents had purchased the Music Box cassette and were listening in the rental car. After that trip, I went home, purchased Music Box, checked out Mariah Carey, Unplugged, and Emotions (and eventually bought them) from the local library, and it all began. I purchased all the singles from a local record shop that no longer exists, even the maxis. I think the first Mariah single I bought was "Hero" -- I was actually never a big fan of the song, but I remember really liking the Dreamlover remix on there. I'll never forget seeing the "Anytime You Need A Friend" single cover and thinking "Wow, she looks different." I didn't realize at the time that it was because her hair looked different, but it was the first time Mariah entered babe-dom for me. I really liked the song, and was super stoked that Rick Dees played the remix every Sunday morning instead of the original. I enjoyed his countdown much more than Casey Kasem's, but I do have a few memories of Mariah mentions on Casey's show -- the first being where he announced that she was 24 before playing "All I Want For Christmas Is You." At the time, 24 sounded old. Now I'm 25. The year after, Mariah was nominated for a Grammy -- I'm not sure which one it was, but I remember my mom smoking her cigarette and being pissed that Mariah didn't win.

Daydream was huge. I remember the local record store seemed to have an endless supply of both "Fantasy" and "One Sweet Day" singles. They sold like crazy. For some reason, they never sold the blue maxi version -- I found it at Best Buy a few years later, but decided not to purchase it. When I got Daydream, I remember getting to "Always Be My Baby," and for the first time for Mariah thinking "this song has to be a single." Prior to that, there was only one song that I thought deserved to be a single that wasn't (TLC's "Sumthin Wicked This Way Comes"). Granted, I was only nine. Even though "Fantasy" is huge and I hear it a lot more today than "One Sweet Day," I remember hearing a lot more of "One Sweet Day" and "Always Be My Baby" when they were actually released.

I remember in fifth grade, when Butterfly came out, fifth graders were already making fun of Mariah and labeling her a "white girl who wanted to be black." These were the same people who thought the Spice Girls were lesbians and that Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. It was irritating because it was the first time I had ever experienced people expressing dislike for her and they had no idea what they were talking about. I knew that she was still doing well. I remember seeing the album on the paper version of the Billboard charts they used to hang up at all the music stores. She was ALL OVER MTV when Honey came out. I also remember seeing "The Roof" and "Breakdown" on VH1 a lot. I didn't feel the need to be defensive because our flamboyant Spanish teacher, Senor Finnie, who rotated from school to school each day, would come in once a week and mostly talk to our class about Mariah Carey. I learned about "My All" going to number one during "Spanish" class, and exposed my fandom to him by shouting out that it must have been her 13th. At the time, I was surprised. I didn't like "My All" at the time and seldom heard it on the radio; when I did, it was some ridiculous house mix. Senior Finnie also taught us what "hair extensions" were, and how he thought Mariah abused them on Divas.

Oddly enough, she also seemed huge when "Heartbreaker" and Rainbow came out in seventh grade. I know the songs didn't do well in airplay, but I'd be shocked if there wasn't a somewhat-culturally-aware seventh grader in 1999 who wasn't extremely familiar with that song. There were cardboard life-size cut-outs of her in that iconic bikini/bra and panties everywhere -- the mall, the local record store, even Barnes and Nobel! When "Heartbreaker" came out, it was the first time I recall people talking about her voice and how it was cracking. I didn't really notice nor comment until she put out "Through The Rain." I remember seeing her strange pleas for help online -- Mariah Daily was up, but under a different name. I thought it was really cool that she was pretty much the first artists to reach out to her fans on such a personal level, but didn't understand why she was releasing Can't Take That Away/Crybaby when she had How Much and X-Girlfriend.