Local music historians say 60s rock 'n' roll icon and Danbury resident Ronnie Spector changed the face of pop music forever.

Spector died Wednesday after a brief battle with cancer, her family said.

Spector's first big hit came with The Ronette's "Be My Baby" in 1963.

In the last five years, the Danbury resident was still playing shows from Mohegan Sun to the Ridgefield Playhouse.

Merle's Record Rack owner Mike Papa says "Be My Baby" changed the industry forever.

"That Wall of Sound was the new standard for us to aspire to, to have that full fidelity of high-fi sound," said Papa.

The recording experts at Factory Underground Studios say the techniques Spector's ex-husband Phil Spector pioneered throughout the 1960s changed pop music forever and he couldn't have done it without Ronnie.

The Wall of Sound technique took advantage of new studio equipment to make "bigger" records that sounded better on jukeboxes at the time.

Co-owner Kenny Cash says students at Factory Underground's production classes are still learning the techniques Spector helped pioneer.

"She deserves that respect of being the notoriety, of being up in front of these early records that still hold weight today," said Cash.

Spector was a survivor of domestic violence during her marriage to producer Phil Spector from 1968 to 1972.

She is survived by her second husband and two sons.