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 had become a popular
Twitter hashtag by the end of the following year. Some youth at the time had said that it was their motto for some time. 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." 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. ==Accolades==