Early in Mariah Carey’s Career, Music Executive Tommy Mottola Controlled Her Image — Even Dictating Her Hair

Early in Mariah Carey’s career, long before she became known for her fearless self-expression and genre-blending sound, her image was tightly controlled — including something as personal as her hair. During her marriage to Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola, Mariah has since revealed that she was discouraged from wearing her hair straight because he claimed it looked “too urban.”

At the time, Mariah Carey was being introduced to the world as a polished, pop-friendly vocalist with crossover appeal. Despite her biracial identity and deep love for R&B, hip-hop, and urban culture, her label pushed an image that they believed would be more “acceptable” to mainstream audiences. Mottola, who had enormous power over her career as the head of Sony Music, heavily influenced how Mariah dressed, sounded, and presented herself publicly.

According to Mariah, straightening her hair — a style that leaned closer to her natural texture and personal preference — was seen as a threat to the carefully crafted image the label wanted to maintain. The term “urban” was often used in the industry as coded language, reflecting deeper racial bias and marketing fears about how Black artists would be perceived by pop audiences. For Mariah, this wasn’t just about aesthetics; it was about being told which parts of her identity were acceptable and which needed to be hidden.

Throughout the early 1990s, Mariah appeared with a softer, curlier look that aligned with the label’s vision, even as she privately felt constrained and unheard. Despite selling millions of records and becoming one of the biggest stars in the world, she has described that period as creatively and emotionally suffocating.

Everything changed after Mariah’s divorce from Mottola in 1998. With newfound freedom, she began embracing her true self — musically and visually. She leaned fully into R&B and hip-hop collaborations, experimented with her image, and unapologetically wore her hair however she chose. Albums like Butterfly marked not only a musical evolution, but a personal liberation.

Mariah Carey’s experience highlights the often-overlooked reality of how control, colorism, and coded language have shaped the careers of many artists behind the scenes. Her journey from restriction to self-definition is now seen as one of the most powerful transformations in pop music history — proving that authenticity, once embraced, can never be contained.