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Mariah Carey in general
by bilbob20
Her performance on X Factor last weekend reminded me why I absolutely loathe this woman, although I'd be hard pressed to know where to start. Originally arriving in the UK charts nearly 20 years ago, Mariah Carey is apparently America's biggest selling female, and hasn't done too badly out of our pockets over here in the ... UK.
Mariah Carey was born on the 27 March 1970, and by the age of 20, had already had her first single go into the top 10 promising us some top gospel style pop. Of course, the early start didn't last long, and before long she was competing with Whitney Houston on a series of over-emotive power ballads, the best of which was the stunning "Hero".
After her divorce from record boss Tommy Mottola in the late 90's, she left his record label, and decided to change gear a little in musical styles. She now adopts a much more hip-hop sound to her music, which didn't exactly hit the high notes of the charts earlier on in this decade. Recently, a resurgence of success has taken place, and Mariah has found herself back in popularity.
Mariah, the daughter of an opera singer, claims to have more octaves in her voice than any other female singer, although quite why she hasn't sung a note in tune in the past decade is anybody's guess. Back on her first couple of albums, notably Music Box, she was able to hold big notes and sing beautifully. However, she is now so intent on showing us how many octaves she has, that she forgets to actual sing the bleeting song.
Mariah also famously suffers from stage fright, bizarrely, given that she has no problem getting her gear off for the camera or hanging all over any given host in the most tacky way. This apparently prevents her from singing live. Her mime job on X Factor last week wasn't terrible, and certainly didn't fall under the "Britney lip synching" efforts. However, it is testament to her diva ways that she would appear on a show notorious for forcing people to sing live, and mime.
The most infuriating thing about Mariah is her Barbie doll ways. That silly little girl voice and her obsession with things like butterflies plastered all over her records makes her look like a first class clown. Sure, she had a nervous breakdown somewhere along the line, but her diva ways has probably more to do with her entourage allowing her to get away with it than any emotional distress she's had to endure.
Perhaps Mariah's many insecurities and odd behaviours have something to do with the racial abuse she suffered as a child. She is from Irish American descent at her mother's end and African American from her father's. Whilst you have to have sympathy with anybody who grows up enduring abuse of any sort, its hard to sympathise with this self indulgent woman who apparently demands entire hotel floors be emptied for her.
Although, it'll be obvious by now I'm not a fan of this overbearing hand-shaking diva, I'll mention a few of the songs I like purely to add some balance to the review. My favourite song of hers is probably her Christmas hit "All I Want For Christmas", which re-emerges every couple of years thanks to the change in chart rules that allow download tracks to enter the Top 40.
It is mostly her early material that I enjoy, most notably the brilliant debut single "Vision Of Love". That track started a run of 18 number 1 hits in America which ended with the extremely RnB flavoured Touch My Body last year. No doubt the number 1 hits will keep coming in her homeland, and I wouldn't be surprised if her current cover of Foreigners "I Wanna Know What Love Is" gives her her 19th number 1. Here in the UK, we're a bit wiser to her.
Mariah has also tried her hand at acting, and despite raspberry reviews, wasn't that bad in Glitter. In fact, she was moderately more bearable in the film than she is in her dreary self-obsessed music video's. Oddly, Mariah has also won 6 grammy awards, 3 of which were in 1991, and 3 she won more recently in 2006.
For those of you still interested in anything she does, now that she has abandoned anything remotely tuneful, this is a list of her albums;
Mariah Carey (1990)
Emotions (1991)
Music Box (1993)
Merry Christmas (1994)
Daydream (1995)
Butterfly (1997)
Rainbow (1999)
Glitter (2001)
Charmbracelet (2002)
The Emancipation Of Mimi (2005)
E=MC2 (2008)
Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel (2009)
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Goo Goo Dolls in general
by 2345876
For my AS Coursework with English I had to create a podcast. I chose to do a review of my all time favourite band, The Goo Goo Dolls and also take a good look at their newest album (at the time) "Let Love In".
The following is the transcript of which I have edited to suit (removed the in depth look at "Let Love ... In".
"The Goo Goo Dolls" are an alternative rock band formed in Buffalo, New York and have been together since 1986. "The Goo Goo Dolls" initially consisted of John Rzeznik on vocals and guitar, Robby Takac on vocals and bass guitar and George Tutuska keeping beat on drums.
The band was originally founded under the name "Sex Maggots", however when a club owner booked the band for a concert, he requested that they change their name as the local newspaper couldn't print their current name. The trio picked the current name out of a True Detective newspaper ad for a toy called a "Goo Goo Doll".
"The Goo Goo Dolls" have many musical influences, mainly from the early punk bands. "The Goo Goo Dolls" cite "The Clash" as their greatest influence of all time, with their heavy sound and hard-hitting lyrics. Other influences include bands such as "The Replacements" (seen as John Rzeznik and Robby Tacak's idols), "Cheap Trick, "The Cult, "The Ramones", "Manic Street Preachers" and "Counting Crows" who "The Goo Goo Dolls" had the 'privilege' to tour with on the Counting Crows tour.
With Robby as their lead singer the mighty Goos released their first album, "Goo Goo Dolls" in 1986, and their second album, "Jed" in 1989 after moving to Los Angeles. The bands third album, "Hold Me Up" was released in 1990 and featured John Rzeznik as the lead vocalist on five tracks, including the current concert favourite "Two Days in February". The bands fourth album, "Superstar Car Wash" was released in 1993 to significant media attention. Shortly after recording the band's fifth album "A Boy Named Goo", George Tutuska was asked to leave the band after Rzeznik quit because he couldn't be in the same room as Tutuska. Robby Takac asked Tutuska to leave and Rzeznik to come back and in 1994 the band hired Mike Manlinin as their new drummer. In 1998 "The Goo Goo Dolls" signed with Warner Bros. Records and produced their sixth album, "Dizzy Up the Girl" which went triple platinum and included top-ten hits such as "Slide", "Black Balloon", "Broadway", "Dizzy" and the song that launched the band straight into to worldwide fame, "Iris" which was written for the "City of Angels OST" and was nominated for three Grammys that year! The undisputed success of the song "Name" marked a fundamental change in the band's sound towards a more polished, commercial direction. In 2001, the Goos released their sixth album "What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce", which was their first compilation album, followed by "Gutterflower" in 2002. All this brings us right up to date with "The Goo Goo Dolls" newest release to mark there 20th anniversary the album, "Let Love In". Since "Let Love In" The Goo Goo Dolls have released two Greatest Hits albums.
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