If we want to be honest, the popular sound/music genre (hip-hop R&B/urban pop basically) in the late 90s up until the early 2000s, beside Britney/Max Martin's and some popular Spanish/Latin pop songs at the time, was the sound that Mariah had popularized since 1995. I mean, the *NSYNC hit single, It's Gonna Be Me, even sounds like Mariah's Melt Away with a Max Martin uptempo production. Then, Xtina's debut and sophomore releases both got compared by professional music critics to Mariah's music, with one critic literally stated that "fuck it, Stripped is a Mariah Carey's album!"
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