When Mariah Carey talks about music, she speaks less like a pop star and more like a guardian of the craft. So when the “Songbird Supreme” recently reflected on the state of modern charts, her verdict landed with surgical precision — and zero mercy. There is one genre, she says, that has completely lost its soul: Electronic Dance Music.
Carey revealed that her frustration crystallized during a simple act most artists do casually — browsing for inspiration. While scrolling through the Top 100 songs on iTunes, she realized something unsettling. “I went through a hundred tracks,” she said, “and it felt like I was listening to the same four bars over and over again. It’s just a loop.” No bridge. No emotional arc. No payoff. Just repetition.
For Carey, that moment summed up everything she finds wrong with modern EDM. She described the genre as “boring,” overly mechanical, and obsessed with the drop at the expense of storytelling. To her ear, it represents a shortcut — music engineered for instant reaction rather than lasting feeling.
Then came the comparison that set the internet buzzing.
Carey called EDM “the disco of our time,” predicting that, like disco in the late 1970s, it has been over-commercialized to the point of collapse. Disco, she noted, didn’t fail because it lacked creativity — it burned out because everyone chased the same formula. In Carey’s view, EDM is now trapped in that same cycle, endlessly recycled by pop artists looking for quick, club-ready hits.
What makes her critique more pointed is that Carey is no stranger to dance music herself. Throughout her career, she embraced club culture through house remixes, famously collaborating with producers like David Morales. The difference, she insists, was intention. She always re-recorded her vocals, reshaping performances to fit the rhythm. Modern EDM, she argues, strips away that humanity — replacing breath, phrasing, and nuance with presets and predictability.
Her comments arrive at a moment of creative confidence. Carey’s 16th studio album, Here For It All, released in September 2025, has been widely praised as a rejection of “loop culture.” Built around live instrumentation and layered vocal arrangements, the project leans into the qualities she feels the charts have abandoned: melody, structure, and emotional payoff.
Tracks like “Sugar Sweet” featuring Kehlani, the retro-funk “Play This Song” with Anderson .Paak, and the gospel-driven “Jesus I Do” with The Clark Sisters underline her point. These songs breathe. They build. They resolve.
At 56, and freshly honored as the 2026 MusiCares Person of the Year, Carey isn’t chasing relevance — she’s challenging discipline. Her message to younger artists is blunt but clear: technology should support the song, not replace it.
Trends may loop endlessly, but Mariah Carey has built her legacy on climaxes, bridges, and emotion. And in her world, no genre that forgets those fundamentals can ever truly last.