Sometimes, when I see Beyonce, hear Alicia Keys, or notice some new pop-soul singer on the radio, TV or the Web, I think of Aaliyah. Today, Jan. 16, would have been her 31st birthday.

Born in Brooklyn, and raised in Detroit, Aaliyah Dana Haughton was one of the most innovative hip-hop soul singers of the last decade. She released her debut album, Age Aint Nothing but a Number (1994), at the age of 14. Her follow-ups, One in a Million (1996), and Aaliyah (2001), were both influential and best-selling, fracturing the sound of traditional R&B.

While other soul stars belted out songs and looked to raise the roof, Aaliyah stayed in the groove, working with collaboratorsR. Kelly, Timbaland, and Missy Elliott, to create beat-driven music with unusual but gripping rhythms, subtle vocals, and dangerously glamorous videos. She cut a mysterious figure in an overexposed field, keeping her private life private, and sweeping her dark hair over one eye like Veronica Lake.

Soon after the release of her third, self-titled album, however, and just as she was securing a side career as a movie actress, Aaliyahs career was cut short in a plane crash in 2001. She was 22 years old.