You’re driving down the road singing along to a song you know most of the words to, and somewhere in the middle of a “get down boogie oogie oogie” you begin to wonder whether those are actual words. You realize they probably are not, but still then proceed to belt them out as loudly as you feel comfortable.
In a perpetual game of “the chicken or the egg,” some of our best known phrases and words can be traced back to popular music. The word “boogie” for instance referenced a party designed to make enough money to pay rent. Its official debut was in a 1929 song called “Pitchin’ Boogie.” The “oogie oogie” was added in 1978 by a sequin-coated band called A Taste of Honey. I could, however, find no official definition for that last part.
In more recent years some more familiar terms have become not only part of the popular vernacular, but also part of the Oxford English Dictionary — think “mic drop,” “twerk,” “bling” and “YOLO.”
Coincidentally, “YOLO” was made famous in a song by the artist Drake, who is currently engaged in a rap feud with rapper Kendrick Lamar, both of whom have been trading “diss tracks” to publicly engage each other. Yes, the word diss is also in the dictionary.
Why do we sing fa la la? No words could be found to fill those notes? Silence was not an option? What exactly is a tisket or a tasket? Was there a conspiracy afoot to help keep up the public façade that is basket? We may never know.
Nonsense syllables really gained a foothold in the 1950s with the debut of sounds like “shama lama ding dong,” “A-bop-bop, a-loo-mop, a-lop-bam-boo” and “tutti frutti.” Artists and record companies were making up words with utter abandon. But to what end?
Of course, it didn’t stop there. Though it sounds exhausting, being Fergaliscious, Boombastic, or Bootylicious is considered an honorable trait. And with the “mhaow hao haow” of ZZ Top’s “La Grange” and The Hansons’ epic “Mmmbop,” music it seems, has not strayed far from nonsense syllables.
Sting said he wrote the lyrics, “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” because he was curious how songs like that worked. Apparently, for Sting, they worked well. In 1999 Phil Collins put out “Sussudio” admitting the title had no meaning. One of the most widely covered songs in America mentions ‘the pompatus of love.” The word “pompatus” was famously made up by the Joker himself, Steve Miller.
But who is to blame for such a heartless attack on the English language? Is it the record companies in their rush to deliver mediocrity disguised as creativity while maintaining control of the social message? Or is it the artist in their vain need to leave their footprint? Again, we may never know.
But I do know this. The next time I am driving and find myself mindlessly singing some “gobbly gook” coming over my radio, I will turn it, off raise my fist to the sky and yell “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, silhouetto, Margaritaville, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, hiphopopotamus.”
