I loved the singles from The Emancipation of Mimi, but I only had CDs my parents bought me at that point, and they never happened to get that one. So E=MC2
Music Box wasn’t just the first Mariah album I bought it was the first CD I ever bought and the first album I bought with my own money (I had many vinyl albums prior to this but they were all bought for me.)
The first Mariah album I owned (given to me as a Christmas present) was... the greatest album of all time, Ms. Butterfly. The taste level jumped out, since Day One.
I think the first album I bought with my own money (#1s and Rainbow were also Christmas presents) was a three-album pack of Mariah Carey, Emotions and Music Box.
The first one I owned was Daydream. I knew Music Box from my sisters loving it but when Fantasy came out they decided they didn't like her anymore so I had to get it for Christmas myself.
My full Mariah album story is the first one I bought, as I said, was Emotions on cassette. I then picked up Daydream in a second hand record store (wasn’t that fussed on it at the time), didn’t bother with anything else until Rainbow which I bought on week 1 of release and bought everything else since then on release week, though I didn’t get the second Christmas album. I did get Butterfly retrospectively.
After getting Music Box and Daydream on cassette and then compact disc as they began to become popular, I remember being in Woolworths with my Dad when Butterfly was released and looking at the CD and deciding not to buy it. I’ve regretted this decision for the rest of my life.
I also remember getting Rainbow for Christmas and being quite secretly pleased but moaning to my friends “they got me the new Mariah Carey cd but what I asked for was Macy Gray”
It was the 90s it was hard to be a gay kid in rural Lincolnshire! I’m sorry Mimi