In Popular Culture
The song, in particular its title, is referenced in the 1987 film Eddie Murphy Raw, as a common question that women ask their partners prior to breaking up.
The famous "LatelyBass" preset on the Yamaha TX81Z (used extensively on house and techno songs of the late 1980s and 1990s) was based on the bass tone of this song, and subsequently named after it as well.
Prince interpolated the song in performances of his top twenty hit "Partyman" during his 1990 Nude Tour.
The song was interpolated for a medley sung in the 1993 comedy Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, and was covered by the American soul/funk band Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings in 2002 for their debut album, Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
"What Have You Done for Me Lately" ranked number three hundred and forty-one on Blender's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.
The song is featured in the 1989 made-for-television Disney film The Parent Trap III.
Read more about this topic: What Have You Done For Me Lately
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“We live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed, destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror. It is fantasy, served out in large rations by the popular arts, which allows most people to cope with these twin specters.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Without metaphor the handling of general concepts such as culture and civilization becomes impossible, and that of disease and disorder is the obvious one for the case in point. Is not crisis itself a concept we owe to Hippocrates? In the social and cultural domain no metaphor is more apt than the pathological one.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)