Why Doesn’t Mariah Carey Get The Songwriting Credit She Deserves?

Mariah Carey is gearing up for the release of her new memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey and has been keeping fans engaged with little Easter eggs about her legacy career.

Most recently, she revealed today (September 27) that she was working on an alternative album while she was making her 1995 record Daydream, which features classic hits like “One Sweet Day” featuring Boyz II Men, “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby.”

The powerhouse vocalist opened up about how she would go about making “Daydream” during the day, which she describes as “calculated” and “manicured,” but “wanted to break free” the way that grunge female singers were doing at the time. She also admitted that it got her through some “dark days.”

The iconic figure explains details in this particular book excerpt:

“I’d bring my little alt-rock song to the band and hum a silly guitar riff. They would pick it up and we would record it immediately. It was irreverent, raw, and urgent, and the band got into it. I actually started to love some of the songs. I would fully commit to my character. I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time.” 

Carey continued opening up in the post saying, “You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image. They could be angry, angsty, and messy, with old shoes, wrinkled slips, and unruly eyebrows, while every move I made was so calculated and manicured. I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery— but I also wanted to laugh. I totally looked forward to doing my alter-ego band sessions after Daydream each night.”

The social media post acknowledges her work on Chick’s album Someone’s Ugly Daughter, including a preview of “Hermit” with the pop star’s hidden background vocals.

It truly shows her range as not only a vocalist (which we’ve seen time and time again throughout the last few decades with standout deep cuts “Fly Like a Bird”), but also as a songwriter. She wrote, produced and sang background vocals on every song on Chick’s album — an impressive feat to achieve to prove her range.

Many recognize the star for her pop diva persona and hits, yet fail to recognize her songwriting ability as whole. The singer-songwriter has 19 No. 1 songs to her name — breaking the record for a solo artist in history — yet how many have the knowledge that she wrote 18 of those releases?

“All I Want for Christmas” was her last No. 1 hit — which scored the top spot during last year’s holiday season — breaking streams for a holiday song while also becoming the first artist to have a No. 1 in each decade over the course of four separate decades.  

Her song “One Sweet Day” featuring Boyz II Men broke the historical record for spending sixteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, tying for the most weeks on the singles chart with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito.” These are the only songs to have ever spent the most weeks on the simultaneous listing.

Mariah Carey has proven herself as a songwriter, yet many don’t give her the credit she deserves. Her memoir is promising because it will lay out how she has influenced popular culture and music on deeper levels.

It will also reveal what she has had to sacrifice to do so — disclosing the exact details that solidified her placement as one of the best musicians in the last four decades. It’s about time an expanded audience (far more than Lambily) will acknowledge her talent, especially how she paved the way for so many pop stars today and how no one will ever come close to her singer-songwriter No. 1 hits throughout the years.

Fans have stood by Carey and continue to stand by her because she is the real deal, but it will be even more refreshing for the world to understand the artist’s longevity as a songwriter with her truth in the new memoir.

The Meaning of Mariah Carey is available on Tuesday, September 29.

Source: Forbes – Business