“Throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care”
“Put/Throw you hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care” isa common lric line in many songs. It’s so common that there is a list: “100 Songs that contain the line ‘Put your hands in the air, and wave’em like you just don’t care.’”
Deejays such as Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash used the line in the 1970s at parties in Harlem and the South Bronx, where hip hop was born. “Put/Throw you hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care” was included in many 1980s songs.
“If a cop tells you to put your hands in the air, it’s always a bad idea to wave them around like you just don’t care” and “If you throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care, make sure you put your coffee cup down first” are related sayings.
31 August 1980, Washington (DC) Post, “Recording the Rap: Jive Talk at the Top of the Charts” by Leah Y. Latimer, pg. G2, col. 5:
Now raise your hands in the air
And shake ‘em like you just don’t care
‘Cause I’m Kurtis Blow
And I want you to know that
These..are the…breaks!
From ‘The Breaks”—1980 Neutral Gray Music/Funkgroove Music
19 March 1981, Washington (DC) Post, “D.C. Bands Owe More to Fans” by Edward D. Sargent, pg. DC2, col. 4:
Black high school students and recent graduates wave their hands in the air and party like they just don’t care.
Newsbank
28 July 1984, Miami (FL) Herald, “Chants from the Furious Flash,” pg. 1D:
The crowds start rocking, shouting, being live, when along come Melle Mel and the Furious Five. The hip-hop-happy place is packed, and everybody is dancing back to back. Grandmaster Mel raps about unity, and the crowd shouts out in harmony. “Throw your hands in the air, and wave ‘em like you just don’t care! Rrrrrrrrrrock!” Crowds throughout Europe and the United States comply with the request from this 23-year-old from the Bronx. “If you want to party, say party. Everybody in.”
24 April 1989, Greensboro (NC) News and Record, “Mouseketeers return, but without the ears” by Todd Woody (New York Times News Service), pg. A8, col. 7:
“A Mickey Mickey Mickey Mouse rock the house ...
So, wave your hands in the air,
And wave ‘em like you just don’t care ...
Gonna party,
Gonna party ...”
Ask MetaFilter
Where does this phrase come from?
January 19, 2009 11:33 AM
What is the first usage in a song of “wave your hands in the air, like you [just] don’t care”?
It seems to be a pretty common phrase in the lyrics of some music genres these days. The first time I encountered it was in Cameo’s “Word Up,” but I am curious to know who was the unsung creator of this enduring phrase.
posted by ricochet biscuit to Media & Arts
then ya throw your hands high in the air
ya rockin to the rhythm, shake your derriere
ya rockin to the beat without a care
The Sugarhill Gang - “Rapper’s Delight” (1979)
posted by Joe Beese at 11:37 AM on January 19, 2009
(...)
Flash’s days as a deejay date back to 1974, when he and other deejays who were too young to get into discos began playing at house parties and block parties in their South Bronx neighborhoods. Flash worked briefly with Kurtis Blow, but Cowboy became the first MC to officially join Grandmaster Flash in what would become the Furious Five. Cowboy’s rousing exhortations—including now-familiar calls to party, like “Throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care!”—became essential ingredients of the hip-hop experience.
Namechecked in this 1984 Miami Herald article.
posted by dhartung at 10:38 PM on January 19, 2009
Zimbio
The Lyric ‘Throw Your Hands in The Air Like You Just Don’t Care’ Is Officially Played Out
By Darrick Thomas on December 11, 2013
(...)
That’s where we find the classic party directive, “Throw your hands in the air / And wave ‘em like you just don’t care,” the pop music equivalent of “dance like no one’s watching.” Now that Miley Cyrus’ deluxe version of Bangerz has a track actually titled “Hands in the Air,” it’s time retire the lyric — and all versions thereof — from the music lexicon forever. In the words of Portlandia: It’s so over.