How did Mary J. Blige remain successful?

[cassandrae]

Can we please discuss how Mary J Blige remained successful all throughout her 30 year career? She may not have a diamond album or the highest digital selling songs but she has longevity. From 1992 from about 2008/2009 all her albums was certified platinum with strong first week sales and multiple classics. Real Love, Just Fine, Be Without You, I'm Goin Down, I Can Love You, Your Child, Family Affair. I think her chart reigning days are long gone with her decline in artistry over these last couple of albums. However, she is currently doing well in film gathering critical acclaim for her performances and breaking numerous records. I just wanted to discuss how important she is and why isn't she more talked about? Mary J Blige has survived the Teen Pop Domination, Rock Domination, Electro-Pop Domination etc. Her musical counterparts may be more successful but they have more embarrassing lows then Mary J Blige..

[Private Dancer]

Honestly, because Mary J music is relatable. When she sings a song, you really feel her emotions and if you have been through what she sings about it makes it even more powerful. She also has a strong urban fan base who loves her. She also does not try to have a false image or an untouchable celebrity image. She is transparent in her life and in her music.. I think that people like how real she is and she does not try to be anything she isn't. She doesn't need smoke and mirrors, or gimmicks. She just has to sing from the heartbroken place.

Literally, every black person loves Mary J Blige or at least 2 songs by her. She is a cultural icon for us. Not to mention, every album she has reinvented herself sound and visual wise.

[Private Dancer]

She probably is not talked about much outside of the urban community because she doesn't have a lot of pop hits. Honestly speaking, Mary J Blige music did not really hit well with the white audiences. When Mary J Blige, got heavy rotation on urban radio (Family Affair, Rainy Dayz, Be Without You), then pop radio played her. Not saying that other demographicsdon't enjoy her its just that majority of urban audiences do

She has given us classic album after classic album. She has carved out he rows lane and no one can come into her lane or do what she does.

[degen]

She has a strong following with Urban listeners and just enough mainstream success to really solidify her status. I can’t think of any other living female who can stand in the R&B lane like her. There’s Janet, but Janet was a huge pop star for decades, something Mary never really had. It’s hard to put Janet in the R&B lane with all the crossover success she had. Then there’s Toni Braxton who was certainly bigger at her peak, but her career fell off in the 2000’s whereas Mary kept going. So yes, she’s the essential R&B diva.

[bat1990]

Ah the perennial "success" debate.

If career statistics like Mariah, Whitney, Janet, and Madonna are the only measures of success in the music industry then there would only be like 10 artists at a time.

Mary has an extremely loyal following among black people in the USA - if Soundscan included demographic data for her album sales & certs, I'm sure the amount of white people who bought her albums is dwarfed by black people and other marginalized communities who've experienced living in poverty in American cities.

Mary doesn't need a diamond album to pass some kind of barometer - she makes honest, amazing music that really touches people and has an incredible voice and enough business sense to have kept her finances in order to keep doing what she loves. That *should be* the measure of a successful musical artist, IMHO, do they make enough money to keep making the music they want to make? If yes, then they are successful, if no, then what's going on to keep them from making a living with their music?

[mkarns]

Because she's a fine singer whose songs deal with topics many can relate to, and who musically manages to keep herself current without constantly changing her sound or jumping on faddish bandwagons?

And while she's had some pop as well as R&B hits, I'd argue that she's underappreciated outside the Black/Urban community. Everyone should be able to relate to what she sings about, and her R&B/hip-hop stylings should have broad appeal.

[Jay D83]

Because she became legendary in the black community in record time.

/close thread.

[Ling-Ling]

Mary J. Blige was never just a regular R&B artist. She's a keystone artist that completely changed the landscape of R&B music. And she became legendary in R&B fairly quickly, she was being dubbed the queen of hip hop soul almost immediately. Mary has had several down eras commercially, but because she was R&B, they weren't as noticeable/highly publicized as when a major pop artist flops. One of the smartest things she ever did was stay true to her base, she had some crossover success here and there, but she always rooted it in R&B. And she never got the sell-out backlash that so many R&B artists have had to face when they go pop. On top of that, Mary has always done a good job of keeping her profile up. Performances, interviews, touring, high profile guest spots, promo, moving into acting, etc. And she was smart to start catering to UAC when the sounds at Urban radio started working against her. She's had a brilliant career.

[bat1990]

Here are Mary's entries as a lead artist on the Radio & Records CHR/Pop chart to show how few crossover records she's had:

Real Love #5
Sweet Thing #15
Not Gon Cry #32
Love Is All We Need #42
Give Me You #37
Family Affair #1
No More Drama #18
Rainy Dayz #22
Not Today #35
Be Without You #1

I feel like I remember Love @ 1st Sight premiering on my local pop station in 2003, but I'm not sure. If it did get sent to Pop, it didn't go very far and mostly made waves from the hype and good will of No More Drama.

[Typo]

What are you talking about you deaf dumb diabetic disabled males who are into other males? EVERYBODY respects MJB.

[Private Dancer]

Oct 3, 2021 14:23:07 GMT -5 bat1990 said:

Here are Mary's entries as a lead artist on the Radio & Records CHR/Pop chart to show how few crossover records she's had:

Real Love #5
Sweet Thing #15
Not Gon Cry #32
Love Is All We Need #42
Give Me You #37
Family Affair #1
No More Drama #18
Rainy Dayz #22
Not Today #35
Be Without You #1

I feel like I remember Love @ 1st Sight premiering on my local pop station in 2003, but I'm not sure. If it did get sent to Pop, it didn't go very far and mostly made waves from the hype and good will of No More Drama.

The only reason Family Affair and Be Without You went to #1 on pop was because of the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot, pop radio had no choice but to play it.

[Dielawn]

Oct 3, 2021 14:50:04 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Oct 3, 2021 14:23:07 GMT -5 bat1990 said:

Here are Mary's entries as a lead artist on the Radio & Records CHR/Pop chart to show how few crossover records she's had:

Real Love #5
Sweet Thing #15
Not Gon Cry #32
Love Is All We Need #42
Give Me You #37
Family Affair #1
No More Drama #18
Rainy Dayz #22
Not Today #35
Be Without You #1

I feel like I remember Love @ 1st Sight premiering on my local pop station in 2003, but I'm not sure. If it did get sent to Pop, it didn't go very far and mostly made waves from the hype and good will of No More Drama.

The only reason Family Affair and Be Without You went to #1 on pop was because of the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot, pop radio had no choice but to play it.

Wait, what? By that logic anything that's a big #1 on urban would have to be played by pop and that's certainly not true

[Au$tin]

Oct 3, 2021 17:35:00 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

Oct 3, 2021 14:50:04 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

The only reason Family Affair and Be Without You went to #1 on pop was because of the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot, pop radio had no choice but to play it.

Wait, what? By that logic anything that's a big #1 on urban would have to be played by pop and that's certainly not true

In 2006, when Be Without You was a hit, all but like 3 of the urban #1s also charted on pop to some extent, so he's not wrong in some sense. But also, not every urban #1 was a major hit on pop like BWY so it's not the reason it went to #1 on pop unlike what he said.

Interesting to note, Family Affair did not peak at #1 on urban, so pop actually was into it even more.

[Dreams]

Mary is the Reba of R&B; only successful and a household name in North America, highly respected and revered in her field (urban) with tons and tons of genre hits.

[Dielawn]

Oct 3, 2021 18:02:41 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

Oct 3, 2021 17:35:00 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

Wait, what? By that logic anything that's a big #1 on urban would have to be played by pop and that's certainly not true

In 2006, when Be Without You was a hit, all but like 3 of the urban #1s also charted on pop to some extent, so he's not wrong in some sense. But also, not every urban #1 was a major hit on pop like BWY so it's not the reason it went to #1 on pop unlike what he said.

Interesting to note, Family Affair did not peak at #1 on urban, so pop actually was into it even more.

What exactly did it do on Urban if you remember?

[Dielawn]

Oct 3, 2021 18:02:41 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

Oct 3, 2021 17:35:00 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

Wait, what? By that logic anything that's a big #1 on urban would have to be played by pop and that's certainly not true

In 2006, when Be Without You was a hit, all but like 3 of the urban #1s also charted on pop to some extent, so he's not wrong in some sense. But also, not every urban #1 was a major hit on pop like BWY so it's not the reason it went to #1 on pop unlike what he said.

Interesting to note, Family Affair did not peak at #1 on urban, so pop actually was into it even more.

Yeah I guess I forgot it used to be that way in the urban-pop era ('02-'06) I was remembering the late 2000's, like in 2009 from my memory very few number ones on urban were pop hits at all. Definitely no pop stations playing "Number One" by R. Kelly and Keri Hilson or "Pretty Wings" by Maxwell

[Private Dancer]

Oct 3, 2021 17:35:00 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

Oct 3, 2021 14:50:04 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

The only reason Family Affair and Be Without You went to #1 on pop was because of the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot, pop radio had no choice but to play it.

Wait, what? By that logic anything that's a big #1 on urban would have to be played by pop and that's certainly not true

Oops I mistated, what I meant was the only reason Family Affair/Be Without You was mainly played on pop radio was due to the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot. This goes for other R&B songs as well. Idk how it got to #1, but I do know because it was extremely huge on urban radio pop radio couldn't ignore it and spin it.

[Dielawn]

Oct 3, 2021 21:43:00 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Oct 3, 2021 17:35:00 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

Wait, what? By that logic anything that's a big #1 on urban would have to be played by pop and that's certainly not true

Oops I mistated, what I meant was the only reason Family Affair/Be Without You was mainly played on pop radio was due to the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot. This goes for other R&B songs as well. Idk how it got to #1, but I do know because it was extremely huge on urban radio pop radio couldn't ignore it and spin it.

Lol yeah you just repeated yourself, you didn't misstate before. But I was saying that there's lots of R&B songs that Urban spins a lot that Top 40/CHR totally ignores. So being huge on Urban deff doesn't = pop having to play you.

But maybe that was different in the mid-00's, I wish there was an Urban chart archive site

[Private Dancer]

Oct 3, 2021 22:32:06 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

Oct 3, 2021 21:43:00 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Oops I mistated, what I meant was the only reason Family Affair/Be Without You was mainly played on pop radio was due to the fact that urban stations were spinning it a lot. This goes for other R&B songs as well. Idk how it got to #1, but I do know because it was extremely huge on urban radio pop radio couldn't ignore it and spin it.

Lol yeah you just repeated yourself, you didn't misstate before. But I was saying that there's lots of R&B songs that Urban spins a lot that Top 40/CHR totally ignores. So being huge on Urban deff doesn't = pop having to play you.

But maybe that was different in the mid-00's, I wish there was an Urban chart archive site

In the early 2000s and a little in the mid-2000s that was definitely a trend. If you do not believe me go look at the threads on some of the urban songs. You will see some people comment things like "its blowing up on Urban, so eventually pop will play it" to paraphrase. Prior to the early 2000s, like the 60s/70s/80s/90s songs could blow up on R&B radio and they would get ignored. And we all know the reason for that...

[bat1990]

Oct 3, 2021 22:32:06 GMT -5 Dielawn said:

But maybe that was different in the mid-00's, I wish there was an Urban chart archive site

PDFs of Radio & Records are on worldradiohistory.com, so if anyone wants to join me for a data entry project, we could make an archive.

[Deleted]

There were quite a few major R&B/Hip-Hop radio hits in the early to mid-00s than did little or nothing at Pop radio. “Family Affair” and “Be Without You” were just undeniable crossover hits.

[back2blk]

Mary stomped on all the girls when she came out and established herself right away.

She then consistently served us with fresh hits and wigs and remained a staple of urban music and culture, singing about real shit with her own life struggles on display making her relatable as hell, but also motivational as she overcame with each struggle.

There's also something very raw and real to her voice, which you cannot fake.  It's not technical, it's straight up just her sound, and hers only. 

[Private Dancer]

Sure, BWY and Family Affair are undeniable crossover hits because they did cross over. Not saying they aren't, but I am saying that due to the extra attention of urban stations pop radio had no choice but to play it. Honestly, I don't understand that concept but that's how they did it. They did for the early and mid 2000s and then stopped in the early 2010s. What kind of method is that???

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2021 12:10:37 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Sure, BWY and Family Affair are undeniable crossover hits because they did cross over. Not saying they aren't, but I am saying that due to the extra attention of urban stations pop radio had no choice but to play it. Honestly, I don't understand that concept but that's how they did it. They did for the early and mid 2000s and then stopped in the early 2010s. What kind of method is that???

But Mary had other major Urban hits that were not crossover hits. She had 3 big crossover hits in her career despite dozens of major R&B hits. If they were obligated to to turn all major Urban radio hits of the 00s into pop hits, there would have been many more crossovers. There were many Urban radio hits in the 00s that did not become Pop hits.

[Private Dancer]

Oct 4, 2021 12:29:18 GMT -5 @jazzysoul47 said:

Oct 4, 2021 12:10:37 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Sure, BWY and Family Affair are undeniable crossover hits because they did cross over. Not saying they aren't, but I am saying that due to the extra attention of urban stations pop radio had no choice but to play it. Honestly, I don't understand that concept but that's how they did it. They did for the early and mid 2000s and then stopped in the early 2010s. What kind of method is that???

But Mary had other major Urban hits that were not crossover hits. She had 3 big crossover hits in her career despite dozens of major R&B hits. If they were obligated to to turn all major Urban radio hits of the 00s into pop hits, there would have been many more crossovers. There were many Urban radio hits in the 00s that did not become Pop hits.

I get that, not saying that they were obligated to play all, but they did choose SOME. When I read the old threads on some urban songs, I saw lost of people mention something about pop not playing until urban. Not all of them, but some.

But I see and respect your point of view

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2021 12:34:55 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

Oct 4, 2021 12:29:18 GMT -5 @jazzysoul47 said:

But Mary had other major Urban hits that were not crossover hits. She had 3 big crossover hits in her career despite dozens of major R&B hits. If they were obligated to to turn all major Urban radio hits of the 00s into pop hits, there would have been many more crossovers. There were many Urban radio hits in the 00s that did not become Pop hits.

I get that, not saying that they were obligated to play all, but they did choose SOME. When I read the old threads on some urban songs, I saw lost of people mention something about pop not playing until urban. Not all of them, but some.

It’s because for core Urban acts, the songs didn’t usually go for Pop adds until they were already Urban hits. It was often the same case for Alternative hits. It’s not that Pop radio felt obligated to turn Urban hits into Pop hits.. it’s that the labels wouldn’t even send the songs to Pop radio until they proved themselves at the other formats yet knowing Pop would be slower to warm up to Urban/Alternative releases if they hadn’t already proved themselves somewhere else first. Urban radio and Pop radio were ultimately different audiences, so just because something was an Urban hit didn’t mean it was necessarily going to connect with Pop listeners. Those two Mary hits were among those that did.

[Private Dancer]

Oct 4, 2021 12:40:35 GMT -5 @jazzysoul47 said:

Oct 4, 2021 12:34:55 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

I get that, not saying that they were obligated to play all, but they did choose SOME. When I read the old threads on some urban songs, I saw lost of people mention something about pop not playing until urban. Not all of them, but some.

It’s because for core Urban acts, the songs didn’t usually go for Pop adds until they were already Urban hits. It was often the same case for Alternative hits. It’s not that Pop radio felt obligated to turn Urban hits into Pop hits.. it’s that the labels wouldn’t even send the songs to Pop radio until they proved themselves at the other formats yet knowing Pop would be slower to warm up to Urban/Alternative releases if they hadn’t already proved themselves somewhere else first. Urban radio and Pop radio were ultimately different audiences, so just because something was an Urban hit didn’t mean it was necessarily going to connect with Pop listeners. Those two Mary hits were among those that did.

Makes sense now. Thank you for clearing up this misunderstanding.

[Private Dancer]

On the other hand, does anyone remember hearing Family Affair or Be Without You on pop radio...I know urban radio played the heck out of Be Without You as you could not turn on the radio without hearing it and I hated that song at the time because of how overplayed it was. It also is MJB most overplayed song ever...but anyone heard those two on pop by chance?

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2021 12:49:41 GMT -5 Private Dancer said:

On the other hand, does anyone remember hearing Family Affair or Be Without You on pop radio...I know urban radio played the heck out of Be Without You as you could not turn on the radio without hearing it and I hated that song at the time because of how overplayed it was. It also is MJB most overplayed song ever...but anyone heard those two on pop by chance?

They were played heavily on both formats. I feel like I heard “Family Affair” more frequently than “Be Without You” on Pop radio personally (and the opposite situation with “Be Without You”), but they were both huge at both formats.

[back2blk]

Yes, both were played!! Though I particularly remember listening to BWY more, and I think because I was threatened of its competition to Mariah at the time lol