Oooooo! Shots Fired! Diva Down!
Mariah Carey
R&B singer Kelly Price is really going after everyone.
On part one of the "R&B Divas LA" reunion show, host Wendy
Williams confronted her about comments she made on social networking site
Twitter, stating Mariah Carey can't sing. Price used to be Carey's back up
singer and left before the singer wanted her to do so.
Williams, who called Price a "mean bully" read her
tweet about Carey, "I’m looking at a concert on TV right now of a certain
singer and asking myself what happened to your voice. Sometimes the gimmick
goes too far. One day you go to sing and realize it ain’t happening. This is
making my voice hurt."
I'm not a fan of how Mariah Carey got her record deal
(having sex with Sony Music president Tommy Mottola while he was married with
small kids, breaking up his marriage, then marrying and using him for
preferential treatment at the label). Not a fan of Carey repeatedly stealing
copyrighted music from stars such as Earth, Wind and Fire and the Emotions (for
which she was sued) as well as ripping off lesser known songwriters (who also
sued her).
However, when Carey began in the early 1990s, it did appear
she could sing very well. Price is attributing it to a studio gimmick. But
seriously, if you could do that in a studio then Rihanna and Britney Spears
would sound like Whitney Houston. There is a physical change regarding the
sound of Carey's vocals around the time of her third CD "Music Box"
when her voice began to deteriorate. You can hear the deterioration on
"Music Box" as compared to her self-titled debut CD.
Kelly Price
Other singers have experienced similar things, but Carey's
is one of the most notable vocal declines in pop music history. Her former
labelmate Celine Dion stated she had lost her voice for a few weeks, but it
came back. Dion still sounds the same today, with no decline.
However, I always wondered what happened to Carey, as
singers' voices usually don't change/decline until they are in their sixties
(some singers experience no negative change at all, such as Patti Labelle). I've
heard singers in their eighties and their voices didn't change the way Carey's
did, especially over the course of a couple years.
Drugs and alcohol can cause audible damage to one's voice
prior to one's sixties, but with Carey, something distinctly physiological
occurred. Would be a good case study. I know music theory and history form a
musicological standpoint and can attest, something strange happened with Carey.
I wondered if it was years of singing in the whistle register that depleted her
voice, but Minnie Ripperton and countless opera singers have done the same and
their voices did not diminish in the manner Carey's did and so rapidly.
There is another theory and it appears to be what Price is
implying - someone else was singing with Carey in the studio, proving the
backbone of her musical sound. Look at what she stated again about Carey,
"I’m looking at a concert on TV right now of a certain singer and asking
myself what happened to your voice. Sometimes the gimmick goes too far. One day
you go to sing and realize it ain’t happening. This is making my voice
hurt." Why would her voice hurt unless she was singing...
Price may be implying it was her propping up Carey's sound
on her first CDs, as she was her background singer. Another issue that does not
help matters, it is well noted that for years Mottola refused to let Carey
tour, which would have meant singing live. It wasn't until her voice (on
record) began to deteriorate that she started singing live. By that time the
deteriorated vocals matched up (recorded and live). Makes you wonder.
