If Mariah Carey's career has merely been a blatant attempt to milk the formula that brought Whitney Houston success, it's also been an extremely successful one. Since her 1990 debut, Carey has eclipsed Houston in several commercial categories, racking up 11 No. 1 U.S. hits in record time. While detractors claim her three-year marriage to Sony Music president Tommy Mottola was a prime reason for her success, Carey has also taken a more active role in her career than many peers, co-writing, producing and arranging almost all of her material and even directing some of her own music videos.

Born in 1970 to an aerospace engineer and a New York City opera singer, Carey began her career singing backup for R&B artist Brenda K. Starr. A demo tape of Carey's material reached Mottola, who signed her to Sony in 1988. Her eponymous debut, a slavish copy of Houston's first record that also took every opportunity to show off Carey's five-octave vocal range, had instantaneous chart impact: the first single, the ballad "Vision Of Love," hit No. 1, as did two further tracks--and the album itself. The follow-up 1991 release, Emotions, peaked at just No. 4, but incorporated gospel and funk, and included the No. 1 title hit. It wasn't until Carey performed on MTV's Unplugged in 1992, however, that she gained critical respect, downplaying vocal pyrotechnics in favor of a more warm, intimate style. But it was mostly back to overblown business for 1993's Music Box, yet another No. 1 album.

Carey's commercial juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down, although she occasionally stretches beyond the boundaries of Whitney-ville. Besides schlocky fare like 1995's No. 1 duet with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day," Carey also teamed the same year with the Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard for the funky, sample-fueled "Fantasy." Since her very public divorce from her alleged Svengali, Mottola, Carey has moved in a much racier direction, dabbling in hip-hop and R&B with Puff Daddy and flaunting her semi-naked body in videos and photos. But whatever course she chooses in the future, the fact that she can appear in a VH1 Divas special alongside legends like Aretha Franklin and Carole King, and the same year release a greatest-hits package none-too-subtly titled #1's, proves that Carey has undeniably raised the bar of commercial expectations for all future projects--and for those who follow in her footsteps.

However, those expectations also proved hard for Carey herself to match. While 1999's Rainbow continued her hot streak, yielding the chart-topping singles "Heartbreaker" and "Thank God I Found You," the next decade proved to be a rude awakening for Mariah.

In 2001, Glitter, her first album for Virgin Records and the soundtrack to her big-screen debut, was an utter nightmare. The film flopped at the box office. Not even the "so-bad-it's-good" buzz was strong enough to fill theater seats. The album offered some embarrassing '70s retreads that not even an all-star cast including Busta Rhymes could save.

Following the fallout, Carey was reportedly suicidal. After some embarrassing TV appearances, she checked herself into a hospital reportedly suffering from "exhaustion."

Carey rebounded slightly with 2002's Charmbracelet. Nonetheless, it appeared that her days as a chart-topper were behind her.

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