Music and Other Commentary
The song begins with a child chanting, "Enough is enough of this garbage!" and someone else helps sing the chorus—"All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us". According to the sheet music published on Musicnotes.com by Alfred Music Publishing "They Don't Care About Us" is played in the key of D minor and the track's time signature is common time. The song, which is cited as being a pop song, has a moderately slow tempo of 88 beats per minute. Instruments used include a piano and guitar. Jon Pareles believed Jackson was calling himself "a victim of police brutality" and a "victim of hate". He continued, "A listener might wonder just who 'Us' is supposed to be ... To make the songs lodge in the ear, Jackson uses elementary singsong melodies – a 'nyah, nyah' two-note motif in 'They Don't Care About Us' ... and he comes up with all kinds of surprises in the arrangements".
James Hunter of Rolling Stone magazine noted that musically, Jackson was no longer trying to hide any eccentricities he had, he expressed the opinion that in "They Don't Care About Us", the pop musician sounded more embattled than ever. Jim Farber of New York Daily News said that Jackson "snarled" while singing, that the song "clicked" and has an "original clattering rhythm". The review of HIStory in The Washington Times noted of "They Don't Care About Us": " follows fast, inviting more pathos – and more controversy. With haunting clapping and a police scanner in the background". The Sacramento Bee described it as a "looped reggae-lite dance beat".
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