Tweeting in reaction to Whitney Houston’s death on Saturday, Mariah Carey called Houston’s voice “one of the greatest to ever grace the earth.”

Carey’s more flamboyantly ornamental style may have been the most obvious role model for young divas over the past two decades. But there never would have been a Mariah had there not been a Whitney — nor a Beyonce, a Christina Aguilera, a Kelly Clarkson, a Jennifer Hudson.

Houston was the first superstar to marry a gospel-honed agility and rhythmic intuition with an expert pop balladeer’s knack for velvety smoothness and slick drama. Just as Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin respectively set the standard for female pop and soul singers in the ‘60s, Houston set the standard for pop-soul singers in the ‘80s.

Veteran music journalist J.D. Considine, a contributor to Canada’s The Globe and Mail, notes that Houston had crossover potential in her bloodlines. Her elder cousin, Dionne Warwick, “is a gospel-schooled singer who sang straight-down-the-line pop, even as she took elements from R&B and jazz.”

But where Warwick’s voice and delivery were more modest and idiosyncratic, Houston championed a smooth, soaring, melisma-happy approach that influenced generations of radio stars, not to mention aspirants on American Idol and a crop of other TV talent searches.

“What Whitney’s style came down to was selling the melody and selling it hard, and selling your voice along with it — showing that you had the ability to take the chorus all the way to the moon,” Considine says. “Whitney had the power to do that, whereas a lot of other singers don’t, and have embarrassed themselves trying to.”

Certainly, no one had better tone than Houston in her prime. Her voice was creamy pure but capable of shivery, sultry nuances and siren-like belting.

“When I started my career, I wanted to be like her,” Celine Dion said in a statement, while Aguilera noted, “Her notes soared to places most singers dream of reaching.” Toni Braxton acknowledged her “incredible influence over music as a whole.”

More than crossing lines between pop and R&B, in fact, Houston’s virtuosity transcended genre entirely. “Whitney Houston was the first CD I ever bought,” country star LeAnn Rimes pointed out on Twitter. “I’m doing what she taught me to do by listening to her records over and over as a little girl.”

Even those who lacked the technical ability to emulate Houston were inspired by the beauty and power of her singing. Jennifer Lopez called Houston’s “one of the greatest voices of our time,” while Rihanna simply tweeted, “No words. Just tears.”