Jennifer Lynn Lopez

• Musical style
Over the course of her music career, Lopez has delved into various music genres including latin pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, rock, funk, house and salsa. According to author Ed Morales, her music explores both the "romantic innocence of Latin music" and hip hop. While heavily influenced by Latin musical styles ranging from salsa to bachata, it was the 1979 hip hop song "Rapper's Delight" by hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang that inspired her career. As she forayed into the music industry, Lopez fused Latin music together with the hip hop sound she loved, which she branded Latin soul.
While her first two albums included funk, dance, urban and Latin-flavored music, Lopez's third album This Is Me... Then was inspired by '70s music. Rebirth, her fourth album, explored pop rock while utilizing stronger use of percussion and horns. Her sixth and seventh studio albums, Brave and Love? delved further into a dance music direction. Lyrically, Lopez's music revolves around love. However, she has also explored themes such as dance, sex, female empowerment, and self-loathing. She often includes personal experiences in her songs, such as her relationship with Ben Affleck on tracks "Dear Ben" and "He'll Be Back". Songs from Love? such as "Until It Beats No More" and "One Love" are also based on Lopez's own love life.
Lopez has been influenced by artists such as Tina Turner, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Barbra Streisand. Critics have considered Lopez's soubrette vocal type to be limited, though "radio friendly". Rolling Stone observed: "Instead of strained vocal pyrotechnics, Lopez sticks to the understated R&B murmur of a round-the-way superstar who doesn't need to belt because she knows you're already paying attention ... She makes a little va-va and a whole lot of voom go a long way." Entertainment Weekly criticized her vocal performance for lacking the trademark "husky-voiced voluptuousness" she has in her films. The Baltimore Sun regards Lopez as having a "breathy" stylistic range, but lacking personality. Today Music opined: "like Madonna and Janet, people don’t listen to J.Lo for the poignant lyrics—she’s best when riding a dance groove".