Cultural impact
What is Zac Efron's tattoo?
The Motto
The song uses the phrase YOLO, an acronym for "you only live once". The phrase can be seen in youth culture, for example a high school prank in Chicago, Illinois, involved high school students chanting "YOLO." Some people have graffitied YOLO on walls. It has become a popular Twitter hashtag. Some youth have said that it is their motto, and actor Zac Efron got a tattoo with the acronym. Some youth, however, have taken action against the "YOLO" mindset; hip hop artist Joey Bada$$ released a song entitled "Death of YOLO" on his album "Summer Knights". The song uses nearly dying in a car accident, a result of the "YOLO" lifestyle, as a metaphor for living making poor decisions. The hip-hop magazine "Da South" reported that the rapper Lecrae has deconstructed the motto YOLO in his answer song "No Regrets". The Washington Post describes YOLO as "the newest acronym you'll love to hate". The Huffington Post says: "YOLO is dumb." In his January 18, 2014 appearance on Saturday Night Live, Drake apologized for popularizing the acronym. The phrase "you only live once" is commonly attributed to Mae West, but variations of the phrase have been in use for over 100 years, including as far back as (the German equivalent of) "one lives but once in the world" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the play Clavigo in 1774, and as the title of a waltz "Man lebt nur einmal!" ("You Only Live Once!") by Johann Strauss II in 1855.