Status Updates From Why Mariah Carey Matters (M...

“Time passes, and I still experience Mariah's singing as an ever-renewing shock to the system. For me, her voice embodies not just a manner of singing but an ethos: she's one of pop's reigning transcendentalists. Like the diva geniuses in whose footsteps she follows, she's serious in her belief that a voice — her voice — can put us in communion with the sublime.”

“Perhaps the most significant thing that continues to set Mariah apart from the many young singers who have learned to match her note for note, riff for riff, is an idea about salvation — the knowledge that her voice has, at one time or another, stood between the listener and oblivion. As much as romantic commitment, … or family duty, the sound of a voice can be a source of inspiration to keep on living.”

“While it's true that many pop stars' legacies have been cemented with little more than naive love songs and party anthems, the search for profundity persists, and remains inextricable from the experience of long-term fandom. The artists we let into our lives may not always be able to give us wisdom or transcendence, but now and then we seek assurance that something real is at stake — for them and for us.”

“I was responding from the outside of the song … as a nerdy, closeted gay boy projecting his life onto a glamorous … idol. It wasn't until years later that I'd find poignancy in this collision of social realities, but when I was young, I felt the connection to be intimate and private from her heart to mine. Mariah made my outside feel like an inside. I knew if a voice were a place, I'd call hers home.”

“When you live in a closet, you learn to look out for signs. Signs of danger. Signs of rescue. Signs of what Wayne Koestenbaum calls, in his book The Queen's Throat, "the pleasure gardens on the other side of trauma."
Mariah's vocals seemed to be saying that the ultimate voice could also be the one that resonated on the queerest frequency. The most beloved voice could be the most freakish.”

“Knowing all her records by heart means that, at any given point, on any album, I hear the ghosts of Mariah's past as well as intimations of the ones to come. I revel in these feats of self-transformation, recognizing in them the artist's desire to leave no stone unturned, no trick untried.”

“Maybe so many serious music lovers find virtuoso pop singers distasteful because they assume that … to make a spectacle out of one's voice is to commit an act of vanity unrelated to the noble aims of art. Such disdain goes hand in hand with the widespread underestimation of singers' creative agency, and it has dogged many pop divas, including those who made it big in the ‘90s…”

I need to read Mariah’s memoir now.

I’m still not getting it?

Page two and the author is talking about watching Mariah Carey vocal analysis videos on YouTube I'm fucking screaming..... Me af

Even despite Glitter’s stain on Mariah’s legacy, Chan’s appreciation for her genre know how is evident on how he reflects on her early 2000s work.

Chan building his argument with Mariah’s discography is working to his advantage even if his writing isn’t completely doing it for me. This book has a special place in my heart as I copy catalogued it for my grad school, so getting the chance to read it is surreal. Getting a peak at Mariah’s career too is another win as I start contemplating a celebrity memoir era.