Words Music and Langue Arts Have in Common Words Music and Language Arts Have in Common

10 words from pop music culture that made information technology into the lexicon

Pop music and language have oft had a stormy relationship. Ever since Piddling Richard began Tutti Frutti with a stream of nonsense syllables that appeared to hateful nix and everything all at the same fourth dimension - "A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!" - people take wrung their hands and despaired over the terrible damage musical slang must be doing to the English language language.

But popular culture, peculiarly hip hop, has been responsible for some uncommonly useful recent additions to the lexicon, reawakening dormant words from their slumber, coining fresh terminology for the changing times, and in at least i case, making new compound words out of bits of old slang then using them to take over the world.

Hither are 10 examples, all of which accept been accepted by the Oxford English language Dictionary or Cambridge Dictionary.

1. YOLO

[LISTEN] Gemma Cairney asks Nick Grimshaw - LOL or YOLO?

Definition (OED): Used to express the view that ane should make the most of the present moment without worrying nigh the futurity (often every bit a rationale for impulsive or reckless behaviour).

The phrase "you just live once" has a long and noble cultural heritage, dating back beyond the name of Johann Strauss II's 1855 waltz Man Lebt Nur Einmal to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Clavigo from 1774. This features the line "one lives only once in the world", a phrase which lends itself to the less-thrilling alternative acronym OLBOW. More than recently, The Grateful Dead's drummer Mickey Hart named his homestead YOLO Farm, considering he didn't quite have enough money to buy it and had to talk himself into it. So there's Drake, who named a mixtape YOLO, spraying the term liberally throughout his lyrics, including on The Motto, which is arguably the song that really pushed the term into mutual parlance, hashtags and all - so much so that he later attempted to claim he was due royalties derived from merchandise that featured the term, but was not successful.

2. Shizzle

[LISTEN] Radio 4 - Is modern vocabulary adequate in Scrabble?

Definition (OED): A variant or amending of another lexical item; for shizzle (often in class fo' shizzle and variants): = for sure

Information technology's not just the OED that has been picking up on the modern lingo that youngsters use. The Scrabble lexicon has besides made allowances for buzzwords. 1 example that made BBC Radio four sit up and have observe was Snoop Dogg'south sometime standby, the -izzle suffix. Originally created as a kind of underground language for street hustlers, akin to pig latin, Snoop picked it upwardly and made it his ain, introducing himself in the song Suited N Booted as "the big Snoopy D-O-double-jizzle". But it's shizzle that made it into the OED on common usage grounds. Of course, being a dictionary, they draw no lines betwixt a term existence used seriously by genuinely cool people, ironically past annoyingly absurd people, or fogeyishly by quondam people. So the more fuss fabricated virtually its inclusion, the more it earns the right to be included.

iii. Bling

[WATCH] Horrible Histories - Charles II King of Bling

Definition (OED): (A piece of) ostentatious jewellery. Hence: wealth; conspicuous consumption. Or, adj: Ostentatious, flashy; designating flamboyant jewellery or dress. Also: that glorifies conspicuous consumption; materialistic.

Originally coined (and accepted into the dictionary) in the doubled-up form of bling bling, this is a term that appears to have come up from Jamaican slang for expensive jewellery, of the sort that might brand one glimmer. It was next heard coming out of the mouths of New Orleans hip hop crew Cash Money Millionaires, who worked with rapper BG on the 1999 song Bling Bling. As there aren't that many useful celebratory words for the ostentatious aggregating of wealth, the term quickly began to crop up in other artists' piece of work, and before long became used to draw a specially spendthrift liftestyle, of the sort enjoyed by a newly rich musician on a spree. Or, in the example of Horrible Histories, as a neat fashion to encapsulate the temperamental differences between Oliver Cromwell and Charles II.

four. Twerk

[Mind] MacAulay and Co - Fred and Susan prove Lucy Beaumont how to twerk

Definition (OED): A sexually provocative trip the light fantastic or dance move involving thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance.

The first recorded modern apply of the word "twerk" appears in a song called Exercise the Jubilee All by DJ Jubilee from 1993, simply it's a discussion with a longer heritage than may outset appear. The modern version seems to have originated in nightclubs as the name for a detail trip the light fantastic toe or style of dancing (as illustrated - poorly - by BBC Radio Scotland's Fred MacAuley, in a higher place), merely the OED has a citation from 1820, in which Charles Clairmont, writing to Mary Shelley, writer of Frankenstein, says, "Really the Germans practise permit themselves such twists & twirks of the pen, that it would puzzle whatever ane."

In that case, it seems to accept been a fusion of twist and jerk, and that meaning has mostly carried on through the centuries. Twerk or twirk condign a verb effectually 1848, used to describe the action of thumbs, spurs and even a kitten's tail. Which isn't that huge a bound to its modern meaning.

v. Mic drib

[WATCH] Prince Harry discusses the 'mic drib' video with Michelle Obama

Definition (Cambridge Dictionary): An act of intentionally dropping a microphone later you accept given a oral communication or performance, as a style of making an impressive catastrophe.

When a stand-up comedian or rapper has finished what he has to say, and wishes to propose the conversation is at an end (because he won), that's when a practiced contemptuous drop of the microphone tin can exist very constructive. Then effective, in fact, that it's been used every bit a humorous rhetorical tool by everyone from the President of the Usa to Alex Turner at the 2014 Brit Awards to Prince Harry (as seen in the comedy sketch made to publicise the Invictus Games, above).

Eric B. and Rakim mention it in their 1987 single I Ain't No Joke, with Rakim rapping, "I used to let the mic smoke / Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure information technology'south broke." Information technology has since go synonymous with the parting shot in a rap battle, and Eminem even claimed, "I get off stage right and drop the mic," to emphasise his loftier status than the rest of D12 in their 2004 song My Band.

6. Jiggy

[Lookout] Gettin' Jiggy wit It - Comic Relief Danceathon

Definition (OED): Excitedly energetic or uninhibited, often in a sexual manner; to get jiggy: to engage in sexual activeness.

The popular modern interpretation of the word jiggy, as virtually notably heard in Will Smith's Gettin' Jiggy wit It (or indeed If Ya Gettin' Down by Five, in which it is rhymed with "wiggy wiggy" for no clear reason) is suggestive of ii things - uninhibited dancing or uninhibited sexual practice. The connexion with its past use to depict a particular kind of bracing folk music is less apparent. There's a reference in the 1916 novel Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings by Annie Hamilton Donnell to uptempo folk music equally "jiggy tunes", meaning melodies with the rhythm of a jig. This specific meaning travelled through the bluegrass and country music communities in America, with fiddlers giving the name "jiggy bow" to a short bow, fit for speedy sawing across the strings.

vii. Mullet

[WATCH] So Yous Remember You Can Dance - sparks wing between Sisco and Louise

Definition (OED): A hairstyle, worn esp. by men, in which the hair is cutting short at the front and sides, and left long at the back.

Mullet (or mullethead) may have been used as a popular insult to someone's intelligence in 19th century America, simply it'southward the Beastie Boys we can thank for popularising mullet every bit a term for that curt on top, long at the back hairstyle that Sisco and Louise Redknapp are arguing about above. The virtually commonly cited reference is from a 1995 article in their magazine Yard Royal, but a twelvemonth earlier, their 1994 vocal Mullet Head mercilessly mocked those afflicted with that manner, yelling, "You're coming off like you're Van Damme / Yous've got Kenny Thou, in your Trans Am / You've got names like Billy Ray / Now yous sing Hip Hop Hooray."

viii. Diss (or dis)

[Heed] Charlie Sloth - Ray J's Broke (Kim and Kanye Diss Runway)

Definition (OED): Failure to show respect; abuse, disparagement; an expression of scorn or contempt, an insult.

Diss is i of those slang terms that came out of hip hop's early years and now feels like an uncommonly useful item of linguistic piece of furniture. It's short for boldness, although the 1920s did meet people using the term insultingly equally an abbreviation of disconnected, meaning non quite all at that place. Diss songs or diss tracks (like the spoof Kanye diss track created for Charlie Sloth'due south evidence, in a higher place) are a central part of both hip hop and grime, with rappers flexing their lyrical muscles at the expense of a rival. Jay Z even went to the effort of calling his 2002 set on on Nas Super Ugly (Dissing Nas), merely to make sure we all got the point.

9. Krump

[WATCH] BBC Young Dancer 2015 - Demonstration of krumping

Definition (OED): A mode of dancing originating in Los Angeles and typically performed to hip hop music, characterized by rapid, exaggerated movements of the arms and legs.

Sometimes a word gets into the dictionary because it's the name of something that did not exist before, and that's the instance with krump. Krumping and clowning are both highly energetic forms of hip hop trip the light fantastic toe. Clowning is the milder version, with krumping becoming a more aggressive form of dance, involving the dance equivalent of rap battles. The krumping style was developed in the early 2000s past clown dancers Ceasare Willis and Jo'Artis Ratti. A 2004 documentary by Dave LaChapelle popularised the dance style, which is now a truly worldwide phenomenon, being featured in several music videos, including Madonna'south Hung Up and Galvanize by The Chemical Brothers.

10. Bootylicious

[WATCH] Destiny's Dad perform Bootylicious

Definition (OED): Esp. of a woman, often with reference to the buttocks: sexually attractive, sexy; shapely.

Some other give-and-take that came out of hip hop slang, was sent around the world past one particular hit song - in this instance Bootylicious past Destiny's Child - and and so entered the language every bit a common discussion, mostly out of a sense of fun. Heed you, not everyone likes information technology. Comedian Bridget Christie had a routine in her Radio 4 series Bridget Christie Minds the Gap about trying to find a modern feminist icon in popular culture who didn't announced to want to use it as a replacement for the more than baggage-heavy (simply authentic) feminism.

It's not really a word that stands up to a lot of scrutiny, though, and the essential daftness of the song's original lyrical content can be seen in this ship-up of Destiny's Kid by Hal Cruttenden, Sean Keaveny and Mark Dolan for Let's Dance for Comic Relief.

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Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/3cdffd04-de25-4c12-9723-b84b7231e71a

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