What's the (non-music-theory) significance of "Eight To The Bar"?

While you were wandering Wikipedia, did you read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Me_Daddy,_Eight_to_the_Bar?Critics may perceive that the song refers to a woman asking her "daddy" to beat her, but this simply is not the case; rather, he beats a piano with a boogie beat. The title was taken from a phrase commonly used in the hipster jargon by Raye's friend, Ray McKinley, while the latter was playing in the Jimmy Dorsey band, with Freddie Slack, who he called "Daddy Slack," on piano. McKinley, as lead singer and drummer, would kick certain uptempo songs off by telling Daddy Slack to beat him eight to the bar. For that reason, Don Raye gave partial songwriting credit to McKinley for the song, although it was filed under McKinley's wife's name, Eleanore Sheehy, since McKinley was under a songwriting contract with another publisher. The nickname "Daddy Slack" was also used in the 1941 recording of "Pig Foot Pete," with Don Raye singing in Slack's band.Did people say "I love your hat, it's so eight-to-the-bar"? Calling out for eight to the bar meant something like "Let's boogie!" in the way someone in later years might say "Let's rock!" but this was not, that I have ever seen, generalized to mean something extramusical in the manner that "This rocks!" now means something other than music.

"So it just means 8th notes? As in 8 notes per bar? posted by jpdoane at 1:05 PM on July 20 Mostly. A 4/4 rhythm would normally be counted with a strong downbeat on 1 and secondary emphasis on the 3rd beat. Beats 2 and 4 are unaccented. 4/4 "beat eight-to-the-bar" puts unaccented 1/2 beats on eighth notes into that basic structure. So4/4,counted in 4: DO __ da __ Do __ da __4/4 eight-to-the-bar: DO pa da pa Do pa da pa

Have you seen Chicago When the narrator says "5-6-7-8" and the music kicks in? He's beating eight to the bar. It is, as paulsc said, just a way of counting off a bar for nothing in an uptempo style to set the mood.

So it just means 8th notes? As in 8 notes per bar?

I'm well aware what it means in terms of music, (I'm sure someone will skp the More Inside and post an explanation of this anyway) -- what I want to know is, how did the phrase come to be in common usage, to symbolise, what, hipness, coolness, maybe blackness? I don't believe the three examples you gave really show that the phrase had a common usage outside of a musical context, and I can't think of any other examples where it was actually used in that way. "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" is about a piano player playing eight beats to the bar, the lyric in "Chattanooga Choo Choo" is about the train whistle blowing in an eight-beats-to-the-bar quick tempo as the train approaches Tennessee, and the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy also blew eight beats to the bar, "in boogie rhythm." That's not to say that the term didn't cross into a broader cultural usage, I'm just not aware of any examples of it. I do fully endorse using the term as in your "I love your hat, it's so eight-to-the-bar" -- but it doesn't really make much sense.

The character of Simon says this in an episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I think people who answer you above are accurate and Sorkin probably misused it, but in that context Simon used it with a "alright! woo-hoo! yes!" meaning.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I might update the Wikipedia entry to reflect some of this information.