In the past few weeks, Paramore have not only come out of their four-year long slumber, which ended with the release of their new track ‘This Is Why’, but they have also embarked on their US tour too, and with South America dates also having been announced recently, there is little to no doubt that a world tour is going to follow shortly enough.
However, whilst this should be news enough for most people, there is something else that has caused quite a stir about Paramore’s return… because arguably their most famous song ‘Misery Business’ has returned to the setlist after it was “retired” by frontwoman Hayley Williams prior to their break.
Back in 2018, Williams had previously stated that she felt like ‘it was time to move away from it for a little while’, as more and more people began to criticise her for the misogynistic nature of the lyrical content. And when you take a moment to delve deeper into the lyrical content of the song, it’s not exactly hard to see why either, Williams frequently refers to other women as “whores”, as well as describing other women’s bodies as an “hourglass ticking like a clock”, with the song telling the story about a high school romance love triangle that saw Williams compete against another woman for her teenage love interest.
However, whilst the song was then retired, and after Paramore had slumped into a sort of hiatus, perhaps what the band couldn’t have foreseen throughout the duration of their break away from being Paramore was the inception of Tiktok. Which was accompanied by a revival of their now-retired song thanks to the nostalgia of millions of users across the globe, with young and old proclaiming their love for the song, and stating it should be reinstated to the setlist, irrespective of the problematic lyrical content.
As a result of this, Paramore, and more specifically Hayley Williams, felt like it was time for the track to return to the setlist, which whilst many celebrated, some of have criticised, stating that the track is “anti-feminist” and explicitly sexist, and should therefore remain deep in the vault. These claims aren’t necessarily wrong, but here’s why it matters less than some people might think.
At an incredibly young age, Williams found herself in a scene that was dominated almost in its entirety by men, she wrote ‘Misery Business’ at a mere 17 years old, so is there any real surprise that the track had been so wholly influenced by a scene that was so wildly sexist and misogynistic as a whole?
During a more recent conversation with the Guardian, Williams stated ‘People grow and learn. I’d already called myself out and done a lot of work on the misogyny I’d metabolised as a young girl’. She also criticised the track being added to a female empowerment playlist curated by Spotify in 2020, in a Tweet, she stated that the track ‘Should have nothing to do with female empowerment or solidarity’.
So, it’s clear then that both Williams, and the band as a whole, have learnt and come to understand the weight of the words they had previously sang for so long. However, perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves whether or not we are holding Williams to the same standard as to the rest of the people in the scene, and when I refer to the rest of the people in the scene, I’m of course referring to men.
The pop-punk scene in the ‘00s was absolutely rife with songs and lyrics that were brimming with misogyny and sexism, and whilst bands such as Panic! At the Disco get to perform songs like ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ in stadiums across the world with little to no criticism (with the song also referring to a woman as a “whore“). While Williams and co are berated for their performance of arguably their largest ever song, a song that has inspired a new generation of artists, examples of which include Olivia Rodrigo’s smash single ‘Good 4 U’, so much so that both Williams and former bandmate Josh Farro have song writing credits on the track.
Ultimately, this conversation surrounding the controversial track, and the disgust held by many at the return of the track to Paramore’s setlist, is misplaced, and does nothing more but exemplify the entire reason this conversation exists in the first place, misogyny. There’s no denying that the song and its lyrics are deeply rooted in the sexist and misogynistic nature of the pop-punk scene at the time, however as Williams stated during the extended bridge of the song’s first performance back on the setlist: ‘It’s a word, and if you’re cool you won’t call a woman a whore’.
In reality, for every time someone tries to evaluate and revoke Williams’ feminist credentials for performing ‘Misery Business‘, there’s likely a band comprised of men who are still playing the same songs they wrote two decades ago with no qualms or criticisms from the crowds about whether or not the song conforms to the same cultural standards present today as there were in the mid-2000s.
So, if those critics are going to continue to take aim at Williams and co for playing the track, then perhaps they should also begin to hold the numerous number of bands who made their name with similarly misogynistic lyrical content in the same time period to the same standards as well.
