where did "bling bling" come from?

you know, like rap culture meaning "expensive jewlery".

 

i ask because a few days ago i was at a friend's house for a magic card mini-tournament. this friend collects old video game systems and old video games. one of the video games i the original "Mario" for the original "Nintendo". I was looking through my deck while people were playing mario next to me. then one of my friends was talking, and she mentioned bling bling. a second later, mario jumped and collected two coins, making the high pitched "bling bling" sound. so i thought, "bling bling? i wonder if... nah, couldn't be!"

 

what do you think?

It comes from the sound made in television adverts and programs made the 80's to indicate quality. When a particularly fine product would appear during the advertisement, the director would put a 'BLING' sound into the advert. This, presumably, was to indicate the arrival of quality. The same sound was used when the 'Handsome Roguish Doctor' tm smiled and showed his teeth, with a comedy sparkle on his perfect white teeth and a 'BLING' sound. This nonsensical use of a random sound effect just permeated culture, as comedians picked it up it just became a common term for quality.

In the UK, it's the word 'Mint', as we were advertised products in 'mint condition' for so long the words became linked.

atinymonkey has it. the bling accompanied a sparkle. Diamonds and gold both sparkle, so it came to be known as bling.

 

It seems that in american culture, most of our "ghetto" terms become famous after they're used in a rap song. I remember when the song "bling bling" came out.

 

"Everytime I come around the city, bling bling". I had never heard bling bling before that. After, it exploded, everyone said it.

and it's so annoying....

 

besides, I always took the advertisements to be more of a "ting" than a "bling"

 

Mario for NES was indeed one of the greatest games ever made