Have you been wondering why Ariana Grande’s music sounds so similar to Mariah Carey and if the young songbird has intentionally been ripping off her idol as part of some evil plan? Well, You Know I Got Soul got to the root of the mystery in a new interview with the man behind the music, Harmony Samuels.
Samuels co-wrote and produced most of Grande’s Yours truly debut album, including the songs “The Way”, “Right There” and “Almost is Never Enough”, and is well aware of the the comparisons made between sound of those records and Carey’s early work. However, he doesn’t see that as a problem, and prefers to view it as positive instead of blatant imitation.
“Everyone keeps making Mariah comparisons, but there’s different types of Mariah,” Harmony explained. “There’s the real Pop Mariah from “Emotions”, the throwback Mariah from “Butterfly” and she has different colors. That’s why [Grande is] Mariah.” Just a minor note: “Emotions” is a mixture of Pop, Soul, Dance and Gospel as an innovative sound developed by Carey alongside C+C Music Factory in 1991 but of course, Samuels probably doesn’t understand what it means to be original, so I’ll let that slide.
Samuels continued by saying, “I feel like Ariana Grande holds a different color and Jordin [Sparks] holds another particular color. It’s just different mixtures and it’s just good music. It just makes sense people use names like Mariah so it has an understanding, but it really is all fresh and new to them.” How can something be “fresh and new” when it sounds almost identical to the work done by Carey in her prime?
Moving on from Grande, Samuels is eager for us to hear Jordin Sparks’ new album, which is preceded by the truly refreshing “Skipping a Beat” lead single, later this year. “I did eight records for her. She’s about to shock everybody. We got a single and nobody has heard Jordin like this,” he said excitedly.”
Yet, Samuels, who produced Fantasia’s entire Side Effects of You album, refuses to stray far from the formula that made Grande a mainstay on the charts. “It’s R&B throwback Mariah meets JLo, [Sparks is] just killing it. I know just like what happened with Fantasia, when you guys hear this, it’s going to be amazing. She has a beautiful song on the album called “My Guitar”. It’s really just good music. I don’t think I was as excited about Fantasia as I am for Jordin.”
Here we go again with the throwback Carey music. On the bright side, Samuels honestly could not have chosen a better source of inspiration for Grande and Sparks with their innocent girl next door appeal and MOR sound. Listen to Samuels’ entire interview with You Know I Got Soul below:
Just a minor note: “Emotions” is a mixture of Pop, Soul, Dance and Gospel as an innovative sound developed by Carey alongside C+C Music Factory in 1991 but of course, Samuels probably doesn’t understand what it means to be original, so I’ll let that slide.
Oh Lord. Ariana Grande is a fantastic singer and has all the potential talent and skill to be something really new and refreshing in the industry. The problem is she's not using her potential at all and is basically going with everything that's already been put out there by Mariah Carey. She even sings like Mariah Carey, intentionally imitates and emulates her tone, her technique and use of the Whistle register. Now that latter doesn't matter so much as plenty of people before and after Mariah have the Whistle register and can use it. The only reason people are picking on Grande for it is because her Whistle register comes with Mariah's sound and therefore condemn her for using it that way.
Ariana has got to get of this imitation phase and find and sing with her own tone of voice and original style and sound of music. She has a Pop career now. It's okay to take influence from her idols but to completely copycat everything they have already done is out of bounds and it's disrespectful. I'm sure she doesn't mean to disrespect anyone, much less Mariah. But that is how the public is always gonna see it unless she does a 180 with this album and showcases somewhat a style and sound that is all her own.
If all else fails, she'd have a successful career in becoming a Mariah Carey tribute act. And I'm being deadly serious. She's very good as imitating her. But if she wants to be taken seriously as a Pop/R&B artist, she needs to stop this habit.
Edit: And that Harmony Samuels clearly doesn't know what he is talking about. An artist is called an artist because they create art. By telling Grande to be everything that's already been created that is not making any kind of art.
I know
