Born on March 27, 1970 in the city of Long Island in New York, Mariah Carey is one of the most popular American singer/songwriter, producer, and Hollywood actress. In 1990, Mariah released her first album under Columbia Record, making her the first singer to have a total of five singles made it on the top five of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Mariah’s singing career is a huge commercial success. In fact, Billboard magazine listed her as the “Most Successful Artist” in the United States during the 1990s.

Mariah married Tommy Mottola, an executive of Columbia Records in 1993. However, the marriage ended in divorce in 1997. Soon after, Mariah started recording hip hop songs in her album. However in 2001, her popularity suffered a major decline when she decided to leave Columbia Records. She then signed a contract with Virgin Records but Mariah decided to buy out the contract after suffering emotional breakdown, believed by many as a result of her film “Glitter” being a major flop. In 2002, Mariah signed a recording contract with Island Records. After several years of unsuccessful period, Mariah was able to return on top of the world in 2005 through her album “The Emancipation of Mimi.” To date, Mariah’s worldwide record sales are estimated at 175 million copies. During 2000 World Music Awards, with her success in music, Mariah was awarded the “Best-Selling Female Pop Artist of the millennium”. In 2003, she received the Chopard Diamond Award, an award giving body that recognizes recording artist who have sold more than 100 millions record sales.

Many people consider jazz as the one true original American music. However, just as the country is a hodge-podge of different cultures, its music a mixture of different beats and melodies. In fact, jazz is a combination of African beat and European melodic influences. The combination is so unique only to America, which is why it cannot be considered as something that came from somewhere else. Jazz was first heard in the suburban areas in the south during the late 1800′s, in communities that were largely populated by Afro-Americans.

Because of its origins, the early popular jazz music artists were blacks. The genre was still at its inception stage with ragtime as its earliest form. The usual instruments used to create such music were banjo and piano. The popular artists then were Ernest Hogan and Tim Turpin, who published the Harlem Rag. By the end of the century, jazz developed further with the innovations created by Scott Joplin. Being a pianist trained in the classical music, he created a beautiful fusion of his specialty and ragtime. By the beginning of the 20th century, the blues came into being, with W.C. Handy as one of the most popular artists of such genre.

Big bands usually play jazz music during the early years. However, when swing music, another new jazz form, rose to prominence in the 1930′s, soloists became more popular too. Swing music highlights the skills of the trumpeter. Because of this, the trumpet player usually ends up becoming more famous than the other musicians in the band. During this time, the genre’s icons, such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington grew so popular that any jazz lover should know them and their music.

From the danceable swing music, jazz evolved further in the 1940′s to 1960′s with bebop. Bebop is known as the musician’s music because it gave emphasis on the talents of the instrument players. Every musician in the band was provided with moments to shine, from the piano, the base, to the wind instruments in the band. Among the top trumpeters were Clifford and Dizzy Gillespie. The most popular among the pianists were Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell. Even drummers gained recognition, with Max Roach as one of the more famous ones.