I chose Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man” to break down. It starts off with a simple, four-note scale climb with a rolled and held fifth note. Aguilera vocally storms in with a gospel style, extended “Hey” and it is off to the races. The song starts to flash all over with different portions all mixed together. It is reminiscent of Laverne Baker’s vocals and James Brown’s brass band back up, being sung by En Vogue, with a splash of Cameo (from his 1986 song “Word Up”). I question if that is Aretha Franklin’s voice saying, “Do your thing honey.” The break of the song sounds like cheerleader vocalization, with the short choppy chanting of Aguilera. The end of the song has a lot of repetition by the back ground singers, but their emphasis has been heightened with Aguilera’s scatting lowered to the same level. This equalization makes the listener concentrate on the title of the song and the vocal improvisation becomes the back up. The exiting music is a solo disco-style riff that fades out, which sounds like an afterthought that was added to lengthen the song by 10 seconds. If you take the chronology of styles given throughout the song, you have the 1930’s and 40’s represented by the soul and gospel style introductions. The 1950’s to 60’s style is given through the heavy brass supporting music. The 70’s have their place via the disco-style exit and the 80’s have the Tony Basil “Mickey” cheerleading and Cameo inclusion of telling your mother and your sister. There are hints of rap included which cover the 90’s and the whole production wraps up as a 21st century representation of music without the listener even knowing they have just been taught music history.
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