Mariah Carey’s Christmas music, and why she became famous for it

Mariah Carey is controversial within the music community, because even though she has songs within other genres, she’s most well known for her Christmas songs, which have become well-recognized pieces of Christmas pop culture. At first I thought that her songs were overrated, and that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant review at all. I however, was kindly surprised when I sat down for the first time and listened to her carols with an unbiased view. Her voice is trained by decades of hard work, and her range is so incredulous it nearly knocked me off my feet.

Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You” is a holiday classic, and even though it was only released in 2011, it has attained godlike status among all festive music for being a great song. However, it is also seen as every retail worker’s least favorite sound ever. The song begins with a pleasant bell chime of the song’s staple melody and Carey immediately starts with her strong vocals as a piano, snare drum, and symbol slowly join in. As she finishes the first verse, more and more instruments come in, which adds a nice build-up. The backup singers are also a nice touch as the song gets more and more dramatic with its melody and vocals. The melody is very nice, and extremely catchy. Part of the reason this song became so famous is probably because it’s very easy to get stuck in your head. Carey is in her head voice for the majority of the song, which means she is in a middle ground of upper chest voice. It should be noted that this is an extremely difficult skill to master. Some bits in her chest voice are also found throughout, which just means she’s lowering her tone for a less controlled sound in exchange for more consistency. She is very versatile in her vocals, and has an extremely trained mastery over her head voice, which is evident in this song.

“Oh Santa!” is a song with many pros and cons. There are 2 official versions released by Carey herself, the first which was completely sung by her and the second which was a collaboration with Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson. The first version is very consistent with the entire song being sung by one person, which gives a nice sense of consistency and not much change. The second version has much more variety in the vocals, as it’s being sung by 3 people with a mass of background singers that never really go away throughout the entire song.  Even though Carey and Grande can sound similar at times, Hudson is very distinguishable from the other 2 and definitely changes things up a bit. Carey, towards the end of the song, performs an extremely high note for several seconds, which I’m not sure was a very good decision artistically.

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is a song that shouldn’t be as good as it is. The openings and title made me think it would be another basic Christmas song just made for a quick buck, and it probably was. But it doesn’t change the fact that the song itself has a catchy rhythm, and positive lyrics. The jazz break in the middle of the song adds for some change, which helps break it up and make it feel less repetitive, because if the song has one flaw, it’s that the lyrics never really change or vary from the original, somewhat repetitive lyrics.

Out of all the songs covered in this review, “Santa Claus is comin’ to town” is probably the weakest. The song feels like it passes by quickly despite it’s full time of 3:25 seconds. The main attractions for this song are the strong backup singer, as Carey herself feels a little lackluster in this song. Her usually powerful vocals are overpowered by the backup singers, and overall this isn’t her ideal setup. The first 40 or so seconds are just bell chimes, and the first vocals we hear after that are generic Mariah Carey, so it doesn’t feel all that special or have some kind of unique impact on the listener at all.

To wrap things up, let’s go over all the covered songs one more time. In “All I want for Christmas is You”, she has strong vocals, and even though the song itself is a little overdone during the holiday season, it’s still a beautiful and powerful song. “Oh Santa!” is a song that has some pros and some cons. It’s got a lot of variety, with many different voices coming together in many different ways. I underestimate “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. I thought it would be much worse than it actually is, due to judging its title and the time period it was from. As with all songs, it has some flaws, but this one was a pleasant surprise. “Santa Claus is comin’ to town” doesn’t feel special compared to Carey’s other songs, because it has no unique spark that makes it stand out. Overall, this has inspired me to not write things off at first glance, and given me the opportunity to review some incredible songs by an artist some have written off as a one-trick pony. I give these songs, as a whole collection, an 8/10.

8/10