Am I wrong, or is this one of the most frequently used phrases in music in the last 2 decades?

The one that caught my ear this morning was The Backstreet Boys' - Everybody:

Now throw your hands up in the air
And wave'em around like you just don't care
If you wanna party let me hear you yell
'Cause we've got it goin' on again
Will Smith and the Beastie Boys are both likely supects.

This particular phrase is SO common that I suspect it's used primarily because the artist needed a quick rhyming phrase and didn't have time to think up anything original.

Sugar Hill Gang used a slight variation in "Rapper's Delight"

just throw your hands up in the air
and party hardy like you just dont care


In addition to using this phrase in 1979 (first usage?), they have the honor of being the only group I've ever heard use "throw your hand in the air" and rhyme it with ANYTHING other than "wave them like you just don't care". Both by using "party hardy" instead of "wave" and also this rhyme...

then ya throw your hands high in the air
ya rockin to the rhythm, shake your derriere
ya rockin to the beat without a care
with the sureshot m.c.s for the affair

That's three different rhymes for "air" other than "wave them like you just don't care"...
A Kid 'n' Play original, moJoe? I don't think so. I can trace that song back to at least 1984 - when Rockmaster Scott and the Dynamic Three put out "The Roof is on Fire". Incidentally, that tune has evolved into almost its own genre... for example, both the aforementioned (overrated) Bloodhound Gang track and The Chemical Brothers' excellent "Hey Boy Hey Girl" are direct descendants.

And yes, it has the "hands in the air/don't care" couplet. It also manages to rhyme it with "and you got on clean underwear." There was a time when rap wasn't about gats, bitches, and the chronic.

"Superstar DJs, here we GO!!!"


I remember a time when House Party (not cool even by 1990 standards) was on HBO 15 times a week...

This line has been used very, very often (there was a time in the early Nineties when everyone from gangsta rappers to europop cheesemongers were resorting to using it). By now, having heard it in so often we don't even think about it. We long ago stopped pondering on the fact that it doesn't make much sense - if you 'don't care', why would you throw your hands up in the air and wave them around? Hardly the most apathetic of gestures. Or does it mean 'don't care that you look stupid'? Or is it just referring to the waving them around - as in 'don't care if you put someone's eye out'? Perhaps we'll never know.

This line can be quite funny when it turns up in unexpected places. For instance in the PC Zone review of the game Severance, the stealth aspect (or lack of it for the barbarian character) is described thusly: "You can crash through the levels making as much noise as you like, waving your sword and throwing your hands in the air like you just don't care."

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