Through The Rain - Release

Release

Throughout the first years of her career, Carey's musical styles mainly involved pop influenced R&B. Additionally, her image was of a reserved and modestly dressed female, or as Carey's later described it "the 90s version of Mary Poppins". As the 1990s wore on, Carey began featuring rappers on remixes, and began infusing hip-hop into her musical palette. As her music changed, so too did her image, which became more sexual, and aimed at younger audiences than the more contemporary appeal of her earlier works. According to Michael Paoletta from Billboard, "Through the Rain" was used not only as a vehicle for listeners to become more in-tune with Carey's personal struggles, but also as a means to "re-capture" her audience throughout the earlier stages of her career. A contemporary and pop ballad, he felt the song would find "much embrace" from her older fans, while her audience that grew accustomed to her hip-hop flavored music would feel "lost and abandoned". In an interview with MTV News, the song's co-producer Jimmy Jam described why Carey chose to release it as the lead single: "I think 'Through the Rain' is a great way to start the record, because it is emotional and it kind of speaks directly to the questions people might have about the last year of her life. It's a good idea to get that out of the way and move on to happy, less emotional songs."