It's been 30 years since No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom" was released - the album that launched the Anaheim band into mainstream success, introduced the world to Gwen Stefani and sold over 10 million units, making it certified diamond according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America. "It was a remarkable moment in time, just working with the band and seeing what actually happened when everybody was on the same page," Paul Palmer, the co-founder of Trauma Records who released the album, says.
2023's was a volley of tabloid-grade intrigue that saw the singer, rapper, and producer field accusations of Satanism from observers who read a great deal into her videos and colorful digital footprint. The root of Doja's fights with fans and casual snarkers then was the polymath's exhaustion with her own bubbly pop-rap hit parade - radio smashes like "Say So" and "Need to Know."
It's been a little under a year since her boyfriend, rapper Young Thug, was released from jail following a 2022 arrest on gang-related charges and the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. Through it all, Mariah appeared faithfully by his side, even when others' faith might have wavered, like when Thug's jail call with another woman leaked last Christmas. Matters like these test the heart, and it's this experience and others that helped to fuel Mariah's fourth album, HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY.
It instantly caused an uproar online most notably among Carpenter's young fans, who weren't on Tumblr in 2015, or weren't aware of the way the Sun newspaper wrote about Madonna every day of the 1990s and 2000s, and therefore didn't realise that discourse around whether pop stars should or shouldn't be allowed to sexualise themselves is older than pop music itself, and almost always inane.