Jon Pareles, music critic of The New York Times declares 2005 "a year for unheroic, unambitious pop with little more to say than 'Play me on the radio.'"

"Voting with its dollars, the public ignored the esoteric favorites championed by critics and went for music that offered a little comfort and dance beats. Entertainment, not ambition, was the priority," he further states.

Below are excerpts from his review that mention Mariah.

"The best-selling album released last year was Mariah Carey's "Emancipation of Mimi," which shuns eccentricities to offer radio-ready R&B songs about hooking up, breaking up and making up. In the last weeks of December, its sales edged out the routine gangsta rap of 50 Cent's "Massacre," which substitutes belligerence for romance but is no less circumscribed.

...it's astonishing that Ms. Carey or 50 Cent could each garner nearly five million album buyers in the first place. Pop stardom has always been about more than the songs; it's also an alchemy of longing for the star, identification with what the songs say, and the knowledge that thousands or millions of people feel the same way. Ms. Carey and 50 Cent are more eager to please than to inspire; their respective fans can take home neatly circumscribed, high-concept fantasies of romance or machismo."

Read the full review here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/ar...l?pagewanted=1

Meanwhile, here are the top-selling albums of 2005 as tabulated by Nielsen SoundScan:

1. (in millions)Mariah Carey, "The Emancipation of Mimi" - 4.97
2. 50 Cent, "The Massacre" - 4.85
3. Kelly Clarkson, "Breakaway" - 3.5
4. Green Day, "American Idiot" - 3.4
5. Black Eyed Peas, "Monkey Business" - 3
6. Coldplay, "X&Y" - 2.6
7. Rascal Flatts, "Feels Like Today" - 2.5
8. Gwen Stefani, "Love.Angel.Music.Baby." - 2.5
9. Kanye West, "Late Registration" - 2.4
10. The Game, "The Documentary" - 2.3

The albums by Kelly Clarkson, Green Day, Rascal Flatts and Gwen Stefani were released in 2004.
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Source: The New York Times