Usually, that's where the idea of work stays in pop. To say "work it" is also to reference two cultures at the heart of popular music: the LGBTQ community, where it still signifies style as a source of power, and R&B and hip-hop, where it's become a signifier for sexual bravado and all-around self-confidence. More generally, though, it's become pop's variation on Sheryl Sandberg corporate-feminist mantra, "Lean In": a call to prioritize individual achievement and rising class status in a highly competitive world. "Work it" and its variations sometimes still signify the triumph of the underdog, as in Beyoncé's music, where labor and focus offer salvation to imperiled African-American girls. This finger-snapping command, which originated among black and Latino drag ball competitors as a way of acknowledging the labor of its self-constructed glamor goddesses - a house music staple made it famous, Teena Marie was an early adopter, and RuPaul brought it to the mainstream - has permeated the Top 40 in the cutthroat world of 21 st-century fame.
Pop songs abound with fully loaded phrases disguised as harmless lyrical hooks. The album cover for Lily Allen's Sheezus goes after multiple targets, including Kanye West (in the album's title) and Queen Elizabeth II (the corgis).