Dashing Fellow friend, Thea Lam, has a nice, thoughtful piece at racialicious.com about her affinity for Mariah Carey. She writes less about Mariah's musicality, and more about some similar/shared experiences. Mariah is half black and half white (and, argued by Thea, often dissed for being on the lighter side of the spectrum), Thea is half chinese and half white:
"I was hooked on Mimi. I became fascinated by her journey across racial lines; how she had essentially gone from being the female Barry Manilow to making international booty-shaking hits with ODB. As I started to reconnect with myself and finally found friends of colour who understood my ethno-culturally fractured experience, I started to think about how white-washed Mariah had been as a young woman. And how, in spite of that, she had eventually reached a point where she made music that expressed both sides of her; music that was still ABBA-esque in its ridiculous, mind-numbing poppiness, but which recalled the best traditions of mainstream hip hop and R&B.
While in lit, a lot of people argue that readings should, for the most part, be done independent of the author (history, background, politics, etc.) That's a bit unlikely, even impossible, even moreso in music. My girlfriend Maya always holds the singer-songwriter higher than a just-vocalist. That's a reason my girlfriend Maya is also a Mariah disciple.
Though I do sense some caveats in your Mariah defense, Thea, and would have liked if you'd left those out. "More serious mixed cultural figures"? And who cares about "high art" these days anyways?
I think Mariah's light-skin has little to do with her success. I'd point to her penchant for writing very catchy pop tunes and ridiculously hot body for helping her get where she is. Marrying the head of Sony doesn't hurt either.