Easily one of the most well known artists in the Pop and RnB genres of the last 25 years, NSYNC member Justin Timberlake released this catchy disco number initially back in 2002 on his debut solo album “Justified” released in November 2002 under the Jive Records label. It started to get airplay and became a single in April 2003.
Title: Rock Your Body
Artist: Justin Timberlake; (Vanessa Marquez)
Duration: 4:27 | Tempo: 104 bpm | Key: E minor
Release date: April 8th 2003 | Label: Jive
Album: Justified (November 5th 2002)
Written by: C. Hugo, J. Timberlake, P. Williams
Mixed by: Serban Ghenea
Mastered by: Herb Powers
STRUCTURE / LYRICS (Source: Genius.com):
Intro (0:00 - 0:08) Chorus: Timberlake (0:09 - 0:28) Don't be so quick to, walk away Dance with me I wanna rock your body Please stay Dance with me You don't have to admit you, wanna play Dance with me Just let me rock you Till the break of day Dance with me Verse 1: Timberlake (0:29 - 0:46) Got time, but I don't mind Just wanna rock you girl I'll have whatever you have Come on, just give it a whirl See I've been watching you I like the way you move So go ahead, girl, just do That ass shaking thing you do Pre-Chorus: Timberlake (0:47 - 0:56) So you grab your girls And you grab a couple more And you all come meet me In the middle of the floor Said the air is thick, it's smelling right So you pass to the left and you sail to the right Chorus A: Timberlake (0:57 - 1:15) Verse 2: Timberlake (1:16 - 1:34) I don't mean no harm Just wanna rock you girl Make a move, but be calm Let's go, let's give it a whirl See it appears to me You like the way I move I'll tell you what I'm gonna do Pull you close and share my groove Pre-Chorus: Timberlake (1:35 - 1:44) Chorus A: Timberlake (1:45 - 2:03) Chorus B: Marquez / Timberlake (2:04 - 2:22) Talk to me boy No disrespect, I don't mean no harm Talk to me boy I can't wait to have you in my arms Talk to me boy Hurry up cause you're taking too long Talk to me boy Bet I have you naked by the end of this song Bridge: Marquez and Timberlake (2:23 - 2:41) So what did you come for I came to dance with you And you know that you don't want to hit the floor I came to romance with you You're searching for love forever more It's time to take a chance If love is here on the floor, girl Bridge 2: Timberlake (2:42 - 2:50) Hey Dance with me Yeah Come on baby Chorus A: Timberlake (2:51 - 3:09) Chorus B: Marquez / Timberlake (3:10 - 3:28) Beatbox Solo (3:29 - 3:47) Chorus C: Timberlake (3:48 - 4:06) Don't be so quick to walk away (Just think of me and you) Don't be so quick to walk away (We could do something) Don't be so quick to walk away (I like the way you look right now) Don't be so quick to walk away (Come over here baby) Outro: Timberlake (4:07 - 4:27) Are you feeling me Let's do something Let's make a bet Cause I gotta have you naked by the end of this song
Since the song is so repetitive I don’t think it’s worth breaking down the structure and talking about exactly what instruments are where, except for maybe the bridge. The last time I checked, I wasn’t crazy.
Instrumentation
- Male Vocals – Justin Timberlake
- Female Vocals – Vanessa Marquez
- Backing Vocals / Beatbox – Justin Timberlake
- Drum Kit – Bass drum, Snare drum, Hi-hat.
- Hand claps (appears in various sections after first bridge)
- Electric Bass Guitar
- Rhodes Electric Piano
- Clavichord Synth
- Choir Synth
- Synth Strings
- Bell Synth
The drum kit sounds like it was recorded live and then looped, or later reinforced with samples. In this situation with a repetitive RnB/pop song though, the looping does seem very likely.
I originally thought the clavichord-style synth was an electric guitar, but after a few listens I noticed that it doesn’t sound plucked or strummed, no noticeable attack sound that a guitar usually has. On that note, the playing method of the electric bass is fingered due to the same reason of there being no attack sound.
Sitting just underneath the clavichord synth is an electric piano that plays during the verses. The fact that this is an RnB song and the characteristics of the instrument’s timbre make it recognisable as a Rhodes style electric piano. I feel as if there might be a high pass filter on this guy just to get rid of any unwanted resonant low frequencies that may clash with either the vocals or the string ensemble synth. I’m certain that the strings are synthetic, given the simplicity of the refrain that it plays. The choir synth that plays during the chorus and verses fades in slowly due to having a slow attack time on the synth’s filter envelope. Finally the bell synth either has a long release time or reverb on it to give it that long tail, most likely the former, since there seems to be minimal use of time domain effects in the piece.
At certain points of the track, mainly the outro, the “ahhhhh” backing vocals and even Justin’s lead vocals have a phaser effect on them.
Spectral Balance
An MS Paint mud-map I made of where I think the instruments lie in terms of frequency. Left to right.
Overall the track sounds very bright and clean. The percussive elements really stand out in the mix as the brightest elements, as do the bell synth, clavichord synth, and even the vocals are also very bright. Some of the warmer elements – the strings, piano and choir synth – sound like low pass filters have attenuated their high frequencies at around 10kHz. It does not sound like Justin or Vanessa’s vocals have been touched at all with EQ, maybe just general EQ clean-ups as a fail-safe method of getting rid of sub-harmonic frequencies that are not audible.
Stereo Field
Both male and female vocals seem to come from the left and the right to suggest the vocals have been doubled and panned hard left and right, with some quieter vocals such as the outro phaser vocals appearing to be mono in the mix. These songs tend to be all about the artist, especially since it’s Justin Timberlake’s solo album, so one way to make the vocals the most prominent thing in the mix is to thicken them up, and that’s exactly what Ghenea has done here.
Other backing vocals, more specifically the beatbox vocals, seem to dance around in the mix panning from left to right and back again. This is something that helps the mix ‘move’ and keeps the listener interested.
The drum kit is panned as if the listener is in the audience at a concert, with the hi-hat panned to the right and the kick and snare in the middle.
Overall Production Aesthetic Takeaway
I originally slammed this song for being repetitive, but then learned that it wasn’t really that repetitive when I focused on a lot of the individual elements and how they fit into the mix in terms of performance and processing. It seems repetitive because it’s disco RnB, there’s a very clear influence there in the constant four-to-the-floor beat. The breathy background vocals is something I want to incorporate into an upcoming project entitled “Cockatoo Grove”, where Keely Menzie and I aim to deliver a music project reminiscent of 2000’s RnB, but with 20% more cockatoo melodies. This will require us to learn how to use melodyne for the purpose of correcting a cockatoo’s performance.
—
References
Genius.com (2017, January, 14) Justin Timberlake – Rock Your Body Lyrics [Song Lyrics] Retrieved from https://genius.com/Justin-timberlake-rock-your-body-lyrics
Wikipedia (2017, July, 16) Rock Your Body – Wikipedia [Wiki Article] Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Your_Body
j. silk productions 