Whitney Houston
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By the time her voice lost a lot of its youthful elasticity, as evidenced in her final album, 2009's I Look to You, Houston's gospel-infused melismas had integrated themselves into the rest of the pop mainstream. Her success inspired a new generation of, in her words, "women with vocal distinction--women that you can call by their first name and not have to mention their last name," from Mariah (whose debut record came five years after Houston's) to Christina to Alicia. Nearly every performance by a woman that hits the top of the charts now or drives American Idol's audience wild is very clearly part of the post-Whitney tradition. The sound of the divas who followed her became her legacy and helped sustain a career as long as her life. But she couldn't remain an everywoman forever, and she left too many bittersweet memories and too many songs unsung.
TO SEE WHITNEY HOUSTON'S LIFE IN PHOTOS, GO TO TIME.COM/WHITNEY