Anyone with the mildest interest in rock music loves Paramore. “Ain’t it Fun,” “Decode,” “That’s What You Get,” “Still Into You,” “Misery Business,” their catalog runs deep. However, over the years, rock has mistakenly claimed as a ‘white’ genre. However, Paramore actually has a pretty strong Black fanbase. Consequently, they never shy away from letting Hayley Williams and co. how they feel about the legendary band. Now, she’s opening up about how that relationship has deepened over the years.
Recently, Hayley spoke with The New York Times, where she reflects on the different beats throughout her career. She sees the shift really take place around Paramore’s self-titled album in 2013, the one that scored some of their biggest hits. Additionally, it’s where Hayley Williams started to feel the love from Black fans even more.
“It definitely shifted around the self-titled record,” Hayley recalls. “We started saying yes to a lot more. We were playing The Voice. I think a lot more people got introduced to our band during that time — people that maybe weren’t welcome in the scene that we grew up in,” she said.
Hayley Williams Talks About Relationship With Black Fans
She highlights “Ain’t It Fun” as the real marking point for this shift. Some of the more formal rock parts change a little bit to prop up certain synths. Moreover, that killer bridge is reminiscent of gospel records too. “Songs like ‘Ain’t It Fun,’ when Taylor and I were writing that, we were playing these synth parts and going, ‘It’s like Stevie Wonder, you know?’” Hayley says.
This connection deepened further amidst the creation of their 2017 album After Laughter. In the buildup, Hayley Williams watched the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense live concert film and noted how diverse the crowd was. It grew to become something she actively cherished rather than possibly take for granted. It was humanity in its purest form.
“I’ll never forget watching Stop Making Sense while we were recording After Laughter and the camera panning across the crowd, seeing how diverse it was. I just got really teary,” Hayley Williams recalls. “And obviously, there are some of the best Black musicians onstage with them, and they’re all working together. It just felt like this celebration of humanity. And I was like, ‘That’s what I want to feel like.’”
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