"I Don't Care" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer A ...

and the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from the group's fourth studio album ''

Folie à Deux Folie à deux ('folly of two', or 'madness haredby two'), also known as shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder (SDD), is a collection of rare psychiatric syndromes in which symptoms of a delusional belief, and sometimes hallucinations, ...

'' in 2008. It was first available for listening o
the band's website
an
mozes.com
on September 3, 2008. The song impacted radio on September 16. It is its album's best known song, being certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA), denoting shipments of one million units, with over 500,000 sales in its first four months alone. In the United States, the song reached No. 21 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, placing lower than the No. 2 lead single, "

This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the second single from their commercially successful third studio album ''Infinity on High'' (2007). The song officially debuted on November 21 at the Amer ...

", of the band's previous 2007 album ''

Infinity on High ''Infinity on High'' is the third studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on February 6, 2007, by Island Records. Recorded from July to October 2006 at Pass Studios in Los Angeles, California, its music was composed by lead si ...

''. It received radio play at Modern Rock and Pop stations, charting at No. 21 on ''Billboard'''s

Hot Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

and No. 22 on

Pop Songs Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the Un ...

. The song has been described as a very political track by

Patrick Stump Patrick Martin Stumph (born April 27, 1984), known professionally as Patrick Vaughn Stump, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Fall Out Boy, originally from Wilmette, I ...

, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band, but not political in the traditional sense; more about the politics of a relationship. Stump has said that this song is about the

superficiality What social psychologists call "the principle of superficiality versus depth" has pervaded Western culture since at least the time of Plato. Historical sketch Socrates sought to convince his debaters to turn from the superficiality of a worldview ...

and selfishness that is associated with pop culture. The song was ranked No. 68 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Singles Of 2008
stereogum.com. Retrieved August 21, 2015.

Music

"Like the chorus says, 'I don't care what you think as long as it's about me.' It's that pop culture thing again, where people don't care about anything but the superficial, and I think there's something so tragic about that. I also thought there was something so ironically anthemic about the chorus, where it's not something you want to sing along to, because it's vacuous and empty. So I wanted something really anthemic underneath it, like something you'd hear at sports games or whatever, because I wanted people to hear it and be confronted with how empty that is. I didn't want anything to be superficial on this record unless the point was to point out superficiality." -- Patrick Stump on the song's message.

Wentz referred to "I Don't Care" as a "narcissist's anthem", further commenting that "To me, it's like a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

anthem for the YouTube generation, just about how our attention span is about seven seconds...

t asks, T, or t, is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabe ...

'Why can't we get people to pay attention for two minutes and 35 seconds?'" "I Don't Care" has been described as "

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

", and contains a repeating

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

riff throughout the song; Stump's vocal performance on the track has been compared to

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

Music video

The music video was released exclusively on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

on September 25, 2008. It was then uploaded to

the next day by Fall Out Boy via the group's YouTube channel. The video was directed by Alan Ferguson.

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

alum

Gilby Clarke Gilbert J. "Gilby" Clarke (born August 17, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He had a 3-year tenure as the rhythm guitarist of Guns N' Roses, replacing Izzy Stradlin in 1991 during the Use Your Illusion Tour ...

opens the video by greeting the band members as they enter the

green room In show business, the green room is the space in a theatre or similar venue that functions as a waiting room and lounge for performers before, during, and after a performance or show when they are not engaged on stage. Green rooms typically have ...

of a

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

talk show. They sit down, then Clarke turns to a companion and blurts out, "What the hell happened to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

? Eyeliner? Energy drinks? And no guitar solos? I've taken shits with bigger rock stars than them!" As the video progresses, the band members are then shown in various scenes causing trouble on the streets of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

—harassing street performers, shoplifting disguised as nuns, pelting people with water balloons, urinating in the street—interspersed with clips of the band performing. During this footage, a graphic of a cat eating spaghetti appears abruptly, alluding to an incident on

The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet ''The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet'' was an American syndicated morning talk show. Produced by Fox, the show first aired on January 22, 2007, to a number of markets originally through Fox and MyNetworkTV, most in the Fox Television Stati ...

, where producers used the same graphic to censor out obscene gestures by a guest. The rapper

Tyga Michael Ray Nguyen-StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson ...

appears in the video. Near the end of the video, the band members are exposed as imposters, as all of them peel off their masks to reveal their true identities:

Andy Hurley Andrew John Hurley (born May 31, 1980) is an American musician. He is the drummer for the rock band Fall Out Boy. Prior to Fall Out Boy, Hurley played in several hardcore punk bands. He joined Fall Out Boy as the full-time drummer in 2003 and ...

turns out to be

Mark Hoppus Mark Allan Hoppus (born March 15, 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist for the rock band Blink-182, being the only constant member and the only one to appear on every album. ...

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

Joe Trohman Joseph Mark Trohman (born September 1, 1984) is an American musician, singer, and record producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the American rock band Fall Out Boy,Joe Bosso.The Fall Guy. ''Guitar World''. Janua ...

Gabe Saporta Gabriel Eduardo Saporta (born October 11, 1979) is an Uruguayan-American musician and entrepreneur. From the years 2005 until 2015, he was the lead vocalist and founder of the electropop band Cobra Starship. On November 10, 2015, after nearly ...

, and

Pete Wentz Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III (born June 5, 1979) is an American musician best known as the bassist and lyricist for the rock band Fall Out Boy since 2001. Before Fall Out Boy, Wentz was a fixture of the Chicago hardcore scene and was the lea ...

Spencer Pratt Spencer William Pratt (born August 14, 1983) is an American reality television personality. In 2007, he began dating Heidi Montag, a primary cast member of the reality television series '' The Hills''. Subsequently, he came to prominence after be ...

. Meanwhile, a hustling woman celebrity shown earlier in the video pulls off her mask and shows herself to be Pete in a dress. Viewers are returned to the green room, where Clarke, still mocking the band, tears off his mask and reveals himself as

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...

, who gives Palin's trademark wink to the audience as the video ends. When asked about his view on the video, Wentz replied:

It's a series of vignettes, and in the end, the joke is: Everyone in the world who is famous is just a WWE character. And some of you are
Hulk Hogan Terry Eugene Bollea (; born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 19 ...
, and some of you are
The Undertaker Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by the ring name The Undertaker, is an American retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway spent the vast majority ...
, and it's awesome. It's just as great to come out to the boos. This one is about portraying the band, too, because there's been videos where it's been about individual characters, and this one is really a band-based video. Everyone has really equal face time, and there's a communist aspect to the video in the imagery, but we're also trying to
ake Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán. The name ...
something that's equal.

Criticism

Bassist

posted a blog expressing dissatisfaction about the

product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...

in the edited

music video that was not approved by the band: "The version of the video that we worked on night after night is not the version that aired, yet somehow a cut full of glorious camera-phone shots did ..It doesn't make any sense to us. ..Imagine seeing this edit only after you buy the video off of iTunes and realizing that no one even had the balls to call you and tell you they were changing the video and cutting parts." Later in his blog post, Wentz explained that "this will probably end up deleted by me or someone else", and by the next morning, the post was later replaced with an image of

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Bluto Bluto, at times known as Brutus, is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his ''Thimble Theatre'' comic strip (later renamed ''Popeye''). Blut ...

, with the word "

censored Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

" taped across their mouths. The iTunes version of the entire album released the original version as a Bonus Video.

Track listing

Lyrics written by bassist/backing vocalist

; music composed by

and

Norman Greenbaum Norman Joel Greenbaum (born November 20, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter. He is primarily known for his 1969 song "Spirit in the Sky". Early life Greenbaum was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household ...

. ;UK two-track CD single # "I Don't Care" (album version) – 3:38 # "I Don't Care" (Cobra Starship Suave Suarez Remix) – 3:11

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

In popular culture

*"I Don't Care" won an award at the

MTV Australia Awards The MTV Australia Awards (previously known as the MTV Australia Video Music Awards or AVMA's) started in 2005 and were Australia's first awards show to celebrate both local and international acts. The last edition happened in 2009. History The M ...

in 2009 for

Best Rock Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock was first given out in , one of the four original genre categories added to the VMAs that year. In its first year, the award was called Best Heavy Metal Video, and from 1990 to 1995, it was renamed Best Meta ...

. *The song was nominated for

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

award in 2009. Pete Wentz commented "It's really exciting because I think this is our fifth year in a row being nominated, and we really care about our videos, so to have them be appreciated is pretty rad," Wentz said. "It's always exciting for us, especially in a category like this, because there's a pretty good chance we will not win this award." *On October 1, 2008, the song was added to UK BBC Radio 1's A-List. *A Suave Suarez remix of the song was released on iTunes on November 4, 2008. It is included on iTunes' deluxe edition of the album, ''Folie à Deux'' and also on the two-track UK CD single for "I Don't Care". *The song was released as downloadable content on November 4, 2008 for ''

Rock Band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

''.DLC Week of November 4th POTUS, Hinder, Fallout Boy - Rock Band Forums
, RockBand.com *This song was used in season 6, episode 19 of the television show ''

One Tree Hill One Tree Hill may refer to: * "One Tree Hill" (song), a 1987 song by U2 referencing One Tree Hill, New Zealand volcanic peak * ''One Tree Hill'' (TV series), a 2003–2012 American drama series named for the U2 song ** ''One Tree Hill'' (soundtr ...

''. *The song is included on ''

s "100 Singles of the Year 2008" at position #68. *The song has been certified

by the

(RIAA), for shipment of 1 million units. *An unofficial extended version of the song is played during the end credits of the 2008 film ''

Sex Drive Libido (; colloquial: sex drive) is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. Libido is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act upo ...

''. Fall Out Boy also make a cameo appearance in the movie. *The song was included in previews of the 2009 film '' Fired Up''.

Official remixes

To date only three remixes of the song are considered as official remixes. Those remixes are the "Suave Suarez Remix", "Machine Shop Remix" and the "Tommie Sunshine & Mightyfools Remix". The first is included on a 2-track CD single released in the United Kingdom, the first is also included on the

deluxe edition of ''Folie à Deux''. The second was released on the Japanese bonus track edition of ''Folie à Deux''. The third was released on Tommie Sunshine's profile and was noted by the official Fall Out Boy website. * Suave Suarez Remix – 3:11 * Machine Shop Remix – 3:02 * Tommie Sunshine & Mightyfools Remix – 5:16

References

External links

Watch the video for "I Don't Care"
a
YouTube.com
{{Fall Out Boy 2008 singles Fall Out Boy songs Songs written by Pete Wentz Songs written by Patrick Stump Song recordings produced by Neal Avron Music videos directed by Alan Ferguson (director) Island Records singles