Origins of Bow Chicka Wow Wow

The number one album on iTunes today is Mike Posner's 31 Minutes to Take Off and on this album is a song called "Bow Chicka Wow Wow". Now instead of listening to the preview like most normal people, I thought instead: Where in the hell did that come from and how do I know what it means?


Of course we associate the onomatopoeia Bow Chicka Wow Wow with kitschy porn music from the 70s. Yet I was born in the 80s and the only 70s-era porns I've seen are not porns at all but parodies of them. Yet I know instantly what is meant when someone says Bow Chicka Wow Wow, which is probably as well recognized as saying ouch or thwack.

Though in my research there are discrepancies in the spelling and pronunciation of Bow Chick Wow Wow. I've seen

• bow chicka wow wow
• bow chicka bow wow (this is actually my preferred version)
• bow chicka bow bow
• wow chicka wow wow

Finally after reading about this phrase I had to find an answer. Who started it and in what context? 

After a quick google search, I came across two promising leads but both left me utterly deflated in my quest. The first lead was that the phrase appears in the song "Brickhouse" by The Commodores. But it doesn't. The end bridge sounds like bow chicka wow wow but they're actually saying "Shake it down, shake it down now". Ow now brown cow. But even if they did say it, the song didn't give me the context. That's just part of the song—they're no 70s porno reference. And I have to stress the fact that it is 70s porno music. Not 80s (which would probably be hair metal) or 90s (which would probably be Spice Girls-esque). 

My next lead was a video of stand-up comedy by Jordan Brady. The video gives Brady credit and his wikipedia entry also states that he is the progenitor of the infamous phrase. 

But I still don't buy it. If you watch the video, he doesn't say bow chicka wow wow, or any of it's variations. Instead, he tries to actually make music with his mouth. Bow chicka wow wow is not a song or a melody or anything musical. It is a string of words. Sometimes it is said with a certain inflection but the phrase is in no way musical, despite it's contextual meaning. 

Now this is not to say that Brady did not create the phrase contextually. It's clear from the video he did but in it's current incarnation, I don't think he spread it. I mean, he doesn't even really say it. There's clearly a "dwown" and "boom" that he adds in to realistically imitate bass and drums. This is not the the intended use (or at least my perception of the intended use). If Jordan Brady is the creator of the meme, it has definitely had an evolution. And so for me, at least, the origins of bow chicka wow wow remains elusive. One day perhaps, her true beginnings will be revealed...