Paula Abdul seems to like the word "ain't".

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Yeah, "ain't" in songs is very common, but in the song "the way that you love me" Paula Abdul uses "it ain't" in nearly every line.

Cockneys also seem to like the word, ain't.

"Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby. Ain't nothing like the real thing."

"It don't mean a thing If it ain't got that swing!" -- Duke Ellington

"Ain't" is actually "Standard English" if used as a contraction for "am not."

A lot of musicians seem to like the word "ain't".

"Ain't no sunshine when she's gone." -- Bill Withers

"Ain't no mountain high enough." -- Diana Ross

"Ain't too proud to beg." -- The Temptations

"Ain't even done with the night." -- John Cougar

"Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around." -- The Roots, Joan Jett

"Ain't talkin' 'bout love." -- Van Halen

"Ain't misbehavin'." -- Louis Armstrong

"Ain't my fault." -- Brothers Osborne

"Now there's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around." -- Smokey Robinson

"Ain't" ain't a proper word... innit?

It's considered merely slang nowadays, in most cases.

There was a time in America when a white person using the word "ain't" would be openly (and wrongly) reprimanded for using a "Negro" word. In my grade school, children were force to stand in a corner for saying "ain't" ("am not"), or "ben't" ("be not"). Older kids were punished by being forced to write "Aren't, Can't, Isn't, Wasn't, Weren't, Won't" 100 times on the blackboard. Either way, the teachers and the other students would ridicule the white kid for acting like a black person.

This was in 1960s Michigan, not the Deep South, by the way.

A scottish friend of mine used to say "amn't" (pronounced ament).

Why I was a kid saying "ain't" would nearly make the adults faint, ha ha. Now people use the f word in every sentence and no one cares. Except me, it seems.

you aint nothin but a hound dog...you aint never caught a rabbit, you aint no friend of mine.

Very common in blues too.

"Is you is or is you ain't my baby?"

"There ain't no woman like the one I've got".

"Say it ain't so, I will not go, turn the lights off, carry me home."

What if rocknroll were always grammatically correct?

What if Jagger were to sing "I cant ever get ...any ...satisfaction"?

Or all of those countless blues and folk singer were to sing "no one is aware of the difficulties I have observed" instead of "nobody knows the troubles I seen" ?

Or the King were to sing "you are not anything other than a hog dog, who has never caught a rabbit, and isnt any friend of mine."?

Kinda goes flat, don't ya think?

Lyrics are purely secondary in music. I personally don't care about the words as long as they are not obnoxious. If words are your thing, then go read some poerty or novels, or if you want wisdom read philosophy books, etc.

Now, to address Paula Abdul from the late '80s specifically. Her voice has a very nice character. She doesn't need much room to sound great. Her dancing is great too, elegant and energetic as I remember.

Haha, love that!