All I Want for Christmas is You. The chord mixes, the marketing strategies and the dysfunctional family: the recipe for Mariah Carey's musical success 30 years later

A slow, gentle beginning, which raises the tone until the cult verse. Then the change of melody: rock is added to the mix of soul, gospel and R&B. And so it becomes inevitable not to sing and dance it. Under the Christmas tree, among the decorated streets or even “out of season”. Today, like 30 years ago, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You is the melody of Christmas.

Undisputed, it continues to position itself among the top steps of the international music charts every year, as reported by the BBC. Yet, it hasn't always been this way. The song, launched on the music market in 1994, did not have immediate success. Or at least not the one earned to date. At the time of its release it placed at twelfth place on the Billboard Hot 100, the main music chart of the US recording industry. But what seemed like a “negative judgment”, in reality, became his launching pad. Enough to overturn it, then covering the very first places every Christmas in that same ranking which at the beginning almost ignored it, earning, according to the Economist, around two and a half million euros every year. E imponendosi addirittura come principale competitor di Blue Christmas, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree e It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

But how did Carey's song become synonymous with Christmas as perhaps only Santa Claus knew how to be before? The elements that worked in his favor are different and not all random. The main credit goes to the song itself. It is not at all easy to create a Christmas classic that manages to remain modern over the years. Nate Sloan, musicologist and co-host of the Switched On Pop podcasttold the BBC that what makes writing hit Christmas songs difficult is “an exception to the rule that pop artists should innovate and create new sounds.” Something that, according to Sloan, even many successful singers like Dua Lipa or Bruno Mars struggle with. The one created by Mariah Carey together with the composer Walter Afanasieff is a mix of tradition and innovation. All I Want for Christmas is You successfully “dance” between eras and musical genres, achieving the singer's goal of creating a “timeless product, not anchored to the 90s”.

Although music, and above all public appreciation, is not an exact science, another characteristic that determined its success is the musical structure. «Most of today's pop hits are four-chord songs – explains Sloan -. But this Christmas song has about 13 complex chromatic chords that are constantly changing.”

An essential factor for the affirmation of the now soundtrack of the Christmas holidays is, then, the artist herself. Experienced, talented and charismatic: Mariah is an absolute professional, who loves Christmas and passes it on. It always manages to “renew” itself without betraying the approach it has established since its inception. Over the years, in fact, he has always tried to “relaunch” his song, approach and image, without ever betraying that 25-year-old girl who in 1994 sang that the only thing she wanted “for Christmas is you”.

Mariah Carey has also combined “natural” success with marketing strategies, which have contributed to keeping the curve of her success constant: in 2003 it was the soundtrack to a famous scene with Olivia Olson in the film Love Actually; in 2010 he released a second Christmas album with an extra version of the song; in 2011, however, he recorded a version with Justin Bieber; in 2013 a duet with Michael Bublé; in 2016 he sang it in James Corden's car during the Carpool Karaok program; in 2020 he recorded a Christmas special for Apple TV. And then the iconic «It's timeee!» with which since 2019 the singer has announced on her social networks every November 1st the beginning of the Christmas season and therefore the return of her melody. But even before that, during the summer, he never stops thinking and planning his annual “appointment” with themed photos and videos.

The last point, perhaps the most significant, is why the artist wrote the song and wants to “keep it alive” every year. In her biography published in 2020 under the title The Meaning Of Mariah Carey, the American singer-songwriter spoke about her childhood in a dysfunctional family. Among the most painful memories is Christmas, which was difficult to experience with “the enthusiasm of a child”. And that's why, as he sings, he doesn't want “much for Christmas, there's only one thing I need”: to make it special.

December 25, 2024

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