Deafened By Mariah

Yeah that singer.

That Mariah Carey who has been emulated by singers that are either desperate or amateurish, sometimes both (remember Ken Lee?).

That Mariah who is a gay beauty queen's favorite lip-sync assistant. In fact, she's the gay community's official songstress and gays would do anything to defend her.

Yeah, I am deafened by her wailing songs.

In the morning I hear her. Lunch time. Evening.

My God she's everywhere anytime!

When I opened my Yahoo! this early morning- shit! she's No. 1!

From Chart Watch by Paul Grein

Mariah Carey's E=MC2 opens at #1 with sales of 463,000--the fattest opening-week total of her career. Carey's previous top opening (404,000) was made by her most recent album, The Emancipation Of Mimi. E=MC2 also tops Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static for the best opening so far in 2008. Johnson debuted with sales of 375,000 in February. The last album to open with a higher sales number was Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains, which opened with sales of 629,000 in December.

Carey's album sold as many copies as the next 12 albums on this week's chart, combined. And yet, Carey's opening tally is less than half of the first week total of the biggest opener of 2007, Kanye West's Graduation, which bowed with sales of 957,000 in September. In fact, 10 albums in 2007 debuted with higher sales totals. The others were, in descending order, Alicia Keys, the Eagles, 50 Cent, Blige, Linkin Park, High School Musical 2, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and T.I. For Carey to fall short of blockbusters by West, Keys and the Eagles is no shame, but failing to keep pace with more routine hits by Underwood and T.I. raises questions--especially given Carey's all-out promotional effort. She appeared on TV's #1 show, American Idol, and the #1 daytime show, Oprah.

In the end, what you make of Carey's number is a lot like the old philosophical question: Is the glass half empty or half full?