The phrase comes from Heads Will Roll, released in 2009 by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with the repeated line dance, dance, dance till you're dead. The A-Trak remix turned the indie track into a club staple and reached wider audiences after featuring in the 2012 film Project X. Online, the hook was cut into short loops for edits and memes, where its relentless instruction became shorthand for dancing, celebrating or pushing through chaos long past the point of reason.