carlos b fly wrote:
allthewayray wrote:
And every big star has a time when everybody write you off: Mariah, Whitney, Madonna, Diana Ross, Cher, Tina Turner, Britney Spears... But they all hit back hard one time or another. It's not that special IMO.
Scoring one of the biggest hits of her career and one of the most successful songs in American radio history isn't 'that special'? Particuarly from an artist who had turned into a commercial failure with zero radio support?
None of their comebacks amounted to Mariah's. Spears came the closest, but had such little involvement in her career during the time that it didn't seem nearly as big. The sad thing about Britney Spears is that she's not passionate or driven about her music anymore. Radio started playing her again, and she proved that she has longevity and isn't going anywhere, but it just wasn't as big of an event. Cher's comeback was a one-time deal -- it would've been like if "We Belong Together "was the only true success from the era. Sure, Madonna had "comebacks," as did Janet and Whitney, but their comebacks never truly felt like comebacks. Mariah claims she never went anywhere, but that couldn't be more far from the truth both musically and in terms of the general public's perception of her. She was as determined as a new artist trying to break out, but she wasn't a new artist...she had so much baggage, and her music was so wisely catered to both what inspired her at the time (more R&B leaning music) and what the public liked about her (her voice) so that none of the baggage even mattered.
We heard the radio-rip of "It's Like That," coined "Return of the Voice," and her brilliant marketing team immediately picked it up and ran with it. A glorious, unstoppable monster had been created. Nobody cared about her personal life because her music was so damn good.