Update: Update: The Grammy Curse

So last week I posted the long-thought-to-be-lost, primary source documents for the 'is there a Grammy new artist curse?' question.

Smamy went ahead and commented the following...

That's a pretty strong statement there - not the autocorrect, the thing about Mariah Carey.

Let's see if Smamy is correct.

I know that numbers aren't exactly the best way to judge the quality of a musical artist, but numbers can be a bit of a way to measure the popularity of an artist, something that is certainly relevant to judging the type of career an artist has had.

So, to the numbers for Mariah...thanks, wikipedia and wikipedia (all stats are on US charts and via RIAA)

• 18 US #1 singles, totaling 79 weeks in the #1 slot (a record)
• 27 top-ten songs (5th most all-time)
• 6 #1 albums, 16 top-ten albums (including live and compilations)
• 14 studio albums, 14 platinum, 2 diamond-certified
• more than 100 million albums sold world wide
• 3rd best-selling female artist in US history (64 million US-sold albums)

CSN(&Y)...thanks, Wikipedia

• 0 #1 singles
• 2 top-ten singles
• 3 #1 albums, 6 top-ten albums (including live and compilations)
• 18 total albums, 7 platinum

The Beatles...thanks, Wikipedia

• 18 #1 singles
• 29 top-ten singles
• 15 #1 albums, 26 top-ten albums (including live and compilations)
• 43 platinum albums (many of which are compilations)

Is Mariah Carey the equal to the Beatles? No, she isn't. No artist outside, maybe of Elvis Presley is, however. The Beatles have had a whole lot of decades to put out compilations, though. I'm going to definitively say that Mariah Carey belongs in the Huge career category. That's an impressive quantitative resume.

And she's no where near the equal of Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young).

. . . . .

I will readily admit that I have no inkling of Maria Carey commercially. I went through a whole bunch of her videos on YouTube and found that I didn't know almost any of her songs and knew absolutely none of them by name. She's made pretty much no impact on my musical radar.

The one song that I remember and think fondly of is "Fantasy"...



...and I have to admit that her vocal range is impressive...



...but it doesn't do much for me.

Is she a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer in three years when she's eligible?

She's not rock and roll. It would be almost impossible to put her in that category unless we broaden  the definition of rock and roll to a point where it is pointless.

I'm going to say she is a Hall of Famer, though not on the first ballot.