Famed for her distinct style and fashion sense, Us Weekly named Lopez "Style Icon" of the 2000s decade. In 2019, the Council of Fashion Designers of America presented her with its Fashion Icon Award for her "long-standing and global impact on fashion". The Green Versace "Jungle Dress" that Lopez wore at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000 was voted the fifth most iconic red carpet dress of all time in a poll run by The Daily Telegraph. The images of Lopez wearing the dress became the most popular search query of all time at that point, and subsequently led to the creation of Google's image search. Her style has influenced a range of celebrities, including Kelly Rowland, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Her record-breaking fragrance line has become the most successful celebrity line in the world, with sales exceeding $2 billion as of 2012. Her first fragrance, Glow by JLo, has been credited with influencing the rise of celebrity fragrances in the 2000s, with perfume critic Chandler Burr stating: "Elizabeth Taylor was one of the first [to have her own scent], but Glow kicked the whole thing into overdrive." Following the success of Lopez's appointment as a judge on American Idol in 2010, a trend of networks hiring "big names" for judging panels on reality shows ensued. The Hollywood Reporter branded this "The J.Lo Effect".
Lopez has been influenced by artists such as Tina Turner, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, and Lady Gaga. Growing up, she was influenced by Latin music styles ranging from salsa to bachata, but it was the 1979 hip hop song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang that she said changed her life. She was also "hugely inspired in her youth" by Rita Moreno's performance in the 1961 musical film West Side Story. Lopez has cited Janet Jackson as a major inspiration for her own dance and videos, stating that she "probably started dancing" because of Jackson's music video for "The Pleasure Principle".
More InfoLopez is widely celebrated for her callipygian figure, which was the inspiration for Sir Mix-a-Lot's 1992 hit "Baby Got Back". She has been credited with influencing a change in mainstream female body image. In Latin Sensations (2001), Herón Marquez wrote: "Because she wasn't rail thin, Lopez had broken the mold and allowed millions of women to feel good about their bodies. Suddenly, it was okay for women to have hips, curves, and a big backside." Vanity Fair described her buttocks as "in and of themselves, a cultural icon". Details magazine named Lopez the "Sexiest Woman of the Year" in 1998, and she led FHM's "100 Sexiest Women" list twice. In 2011, she was named "The Most Beautiful Woman" by People. The following year, VH1 ranked her the fourth on their list of "100 Sexiest Artists", while Vibe magazine named her the most "lustable" celebrity of the past twenty years. In 2014, Lopez stated, "There's this funny notion in America that you can't be a mom and be sexy (...) It's the craziest thing I've ever heard... The truth is that women can be sexy until the day they die."
More InfoLopez's provocative stage performances have also drawn scrutiny at times. In May 2013, her performance on the finale of the television series Britain's Got Talent was deemed inappropriate for family-friendly television, and drew viewer complaints to Ofcom. Following her controversial performance at the musical festival Mawazine in 2015, Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane called it "indecent" and "disgraceful", while an education group claimed that she "disturbed public order and tarnished women's honor and respect".
More InfoAccording to author Ed Morales in The Latin Beat: The Rhythms And Roots Of Latin Music From Bossa Nova To Salsa And Beyond (2003), Lopez's music explores the "romantic innocence" of Latin music, while strongly identifying with hip hop. Her debut album On the 6 fuses the influence of Latin music with R&B and hip hop, which Lopez described as Latin soul. To the contrary, Morales described it as "state-of-the-art dance pop". Dee Lockett, writing for the Chicago Tribune, stated that songs such as "Waiting for Tonight" made Lopez "arguably the leading artist in the dance-pop movement at the time". While primarily sung in English, she speaks in Spanish and asserts her Latin heritage throughout the album, which is apparent in the song "Let's Get Loud". She has also recorded bilingual songs, including the Latin pop song "Cariño", for her second album J.Lo. A departure from her previous albums, This Is Me... Then blends 1970s soul with "streetwise" hip hop.
More InfoUpon launching her music career in the late 1990s, Lopez contributed to the "Latin explosion" occurring in entertainment at the time. Writing for The Recording Academy, Brian Haack described her as the "breakout female star" of the Latin pop movement in American music. She was featured on the cover of the first issue of Latina magazine in 1996, with editor Galina Espinoza stating in 2011 that there is "no recounting of modern Latina history without Jennifer". Around the time her career began to burgeon, the emphasis on Lopez's curvaceous figure grew; scholar Sean Redmond wrote that this was a sign of her role and social power in the cultural changes occurring in the United States. In August 2005, Time listed Lopez as one of the most influential Hispanics in America, remarking: "Why? Because over a decade ago, she was an anonymous background dancer on the second-rated sketch-comedy show. Today she's known by two syllables." In February 2007, People en Español named her the most influential Hispanic entertainer. In 2014, scientists named a species of aquatic mite found in Puerto Rico, Litarachna lopezae, after Lopez.
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