She attracts almost universal hatred and yet sells millions of records. Can I be the only one out there who thinks Mimi's music is really rather good?
There are certain stars in pop the public loves to hate - almost murderously, it sometimes seems. At the moment, for some people it's Pete Doherty. Others still wish to burn Phil Collins alive. Personally, I want to give Chris Martin a really thorough slapping whenever I see him doing his "look at me, I'm a hugely sensitive showman" routine on telly.
One star who attracts almost universal contempt these days seems to be Mariah Carey. Her very name is almost a cuss word, in middle-class circles at any rate. (At our office party this year, guests have been invited to run up CDs of a couple of tunes to rock the room, with just one proviso: no Mariah Carey. All I Want for Christmas is You was also named the worst Christmas song ever in yesterday's Observer Music Monthly.
And this hate will almost certainly find further fuel from the weekend's news that Mimi is to sue porn star Mary Carey (to stop her trademarking the very similar-sounding name on the grounds that customers might confuse the two, thereby defaming her own "brand"). As a legal action it does sound like a fairly classic "only in America" legal case, particularly if you look - as in the interest of research, you understand, I did - at how very unlike the two Careys look. No link there, you might have noticed - you'll just have to google for Mary yourself. This is a family blog.
But back to the better known Carey. While I do find the tales of her prima-donnish behaviour, her ridiculous demands for grand luxuries in hotels, etc amusing - I can't share the hatred so many people seem to have for her music. (And, since she's obviously emotionally vulnerable, I get a bit irritated at the public venom directed at a fragile nature.) People have actually said to me, in conversations about music when I've enthused about my taste for R'n'B, "I don't believe it, next thing you'll be telling me you like Mariah Carey!"
The thing is, actually, I really do. I'm not a fan of her work while she was the property of Tommy Mottola, the Columbia records executive who star-spotted her, then became her husband while still managing her career. It's aimed at the mass market in a shameless way that deploys Carey's astonishing singing range to fake up strong emotion, and it's often nauseating.
However, since she and Mottola separated in 1996 and Carey was able to incorporate her love for hip-hop into the songs, she has just got better and better. The single We Belong Together is plainly one of the very best pop songs recorded in the last 20 years. Yet I can remember a lot of people, after Live 8, saying it was the most appalling thing they saw all day. I saw the performance too, and I thought it was great.
Tell me: am I entirely alone in recognising how good she is? Millions and millions of people buy her records - so why does my love for these songs feel like such a lonely passion?
There are certain stars in pop the public loves to hate - almost murderously, it sometimes seems. At the moment, for some people it's Pete Doherty. Others still wish to burn Phil Collins alive. Personally, I want to give Chris Martin a really thorough slapping whenever I see him doing his "look at me, I'm a hugely sensitive showman" routine on telly.
One star who attracts almost universal contempt these days seems to be Mariah Carey. Her very name is almost a cuss word, in middle-class circles at any rate. (At our office party this year, guests have been invited to run up CDs of a couple of tunes to rock the room, with just one proviso: no Mariah Carey. All I Want for Christmas is You was also named the worst Christmas song ever in yesterday's Observer Music Monthly.
And this hate will almost certainly find further fuel from the weekend's news that Mimi is to sue porn star Mary Carey (to stop her trademarking the very similar-sounding name on the grounds that customers might confuse the two, thereby defaming her own "brand"). As a legal action it does sound like a fairly classic "only in America" legal case, particularly if you look - as in the interest of research, you understand, I did - at how very unlike the two Careys look. No link there, you might have noticed - you'll just have to google for Mary yourself. This is a family blog.
But back to the better known Carey. While I do find the tales of her prima-donnish behaviour, her ridiculous demands for grand luxuries in hotels, etc amusing - I can't share the hatred so many people seem to have for her music. (And, since she's obviously emotionally vulnerable, I get a bit irritated at the public venom directed at a fragile nature.) People have actually said to me, in conversations about music when I've enthused about my taste for R'n'B, "I don't believe it, next thing you'll be telling me you like Mariah Carey!"
The thing is, actually, I really do. I'm not a fan of her work while she was the property of Tommy Mottola, the Columbia records executive who star-spotted her, then became her husband while still managing her career. It's aimed at the mass market in a shameless way that deploys Carey's astonishing singing range to fake up strong emotion, and it's often nauseating.
However, since she and Mottola separated in 1996 and Carey was able to incorporate her love for hip-hop into the songs, she has just got better and better. The single We Belong Together is plainly one of the very best pop songs recorded in the last 20 years. Yet I can remember a lot of people, after Live 8, saying it was the most appalling thing they saw all day. I saw the performance too, and I thought it was great.
Tell me: am I entirely alone in recognising how good she is? Millions and millions of people buy her records - so why does my love for these songs feel like such a lonely passion?
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