After signing with Columbia, Mariah entered the studio to begin work on her 1990 debut record. With ample promotional assistance from Columbia, her self-titled album was a chart-topping smash, launching four number one singles: “Vision of Love,” “Love Takes Time,” “Someday,” and “I Don't Wanna Cry.” Her unprecedented success on the album earned Mariah Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Vocalist. Expectations were high for Carey's 1991 follow-up, Emotions, which did not disappoint. The title track reached number one while both “Can't Let Go” and “Make It Happen” landed in the top five on the billboard charts. Carey's next release was 1992's MTV Unplugged EP, which generated a number-one cover of the Jackson 5's “I'll Be There.”

In late 1993, Carey released her third major studio record, Music Box, which is her best-selling record to date. Two more singles, "Dreamlover" and "Hero," reached number one on the charts. Carey's first tour followed and was given very poor reviews by multiple critics. Undaunted, she resurfaced in 1994 with a holiday release titled Merry Christmas, scoring a seasonal smash with “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” 1995’s studio release, Daydream reflected Mariah’s growing maturity as an artist. The first single, “Fantasy,” debuted at number one, which made Carey the first female artist to ever achieve a number one debut. The follow-up, “One Sweet Day” also debuted at number one, and remained lodged at the top of the charts for a record 16 weeks.

After separating from her husband of four years, Carey returned in 1997 with Butterfly, another staggering success and her most hip-hop-flavored recording to date. #1's, a collection of her 13 previous chart-topping singles as well as “When You Believe,” (a duet with Whitney Houston), followed late the next year. With "Heartbreaker," the first single from her 1999 album Rainbow, Carey became the first artist to top the charts in each year of the 1990s; the record also pushed her ahead of the Beatles as the artist with the most cumulative weeks spent atop the Hot 100 singles chart.

However, the 2000s weren't as kind to Carey. After signing an $80 million deal with Virgin in 2001, she experienced a very public personal and professional meltdown that included rambling, suicidal messages on her website, and last but not least, the awful movie Glitter and its attendant soundtrack (which was also her Virgin Records debut). Both the film and the album did poorly critically as well as commercially, with Glitter making just under 4 million dollars in its total U.S. gross and the soundtrack struggling to make gold sales. Following these failures, Virgin and Carey parted ways early in 2002, with the label paying her $28 million. That spring, Carey found a new home with Def Jam Records. She set up her own label, MonarC Music, and released her ninth album, Charmbracelet, which sold much better than her previous release. In the spring of 2005 Mariah released her most recent album, The Emancipation of Mimi, and, bolstered by singles such as “Its Like That” and “We Belong Together,” the LP has been an impressive seller, but certainly not to the degree of some of her earlier works such as Music Box.

Even though her career tapered off over the past few years, the unprecedented success of her eight albums throughout the 90s will forever fortify her position as the queen of pop/hip-hop during this period.

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