Paramore are a
Pop Punk band currently made up of vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and bassist Jeremy Davis (guitarist Josh Farro and his brother Zac, drums, left the band in December 18, 2010). Formed in 2002 in Franklin, Tennessee, Paramore first hit the scene with their debut album
All We Know Is Falling in 2005; they have since released two further albums in 2007 (
Riot!) and 2009 (
brand new eyes; note that the official album title has no capitalization). Their
Self-Titled Album was released on April 9, 2013 to extremely favorable reviews.
Save for the addition of York, Paramore's main lineup has remained unchanged since the first album; however, Davis left for five months just after the band was signed and his departure formed the basis for much of the first album including the cover artwork and the album-naming
All We Know. Over the course of the next year, three singles were released from the first album - "Pressure", "Emergency" and the aforementioned "All We Know" - but none charted at the time of release. However, a constant stream of touring, including the renowned Warped Tour, brought the band a devoted fanbase and by the time
Riot! was released in 2007 the media and people as a whole were beginning to recognize Paramore as a definite band to watch.
This new awareness was reflected in the success of the band's sophomore offering; although the album didn't exactly set the charts ablaze, it did enjoy some chart success largely off the back of leading single "Misery Business" (which also went platinum), and later went platinum in the US and gold across the globe. "Hallelujah", "crushcrushcrush" and "That's What You Get", while not quite hitting the same success, cemented the band's reputation.
In 2008, Paramore contributed two songs to the
Twilight soundtrack: "I Caught Myself" and lead single "Decode". In early 2009 they began writing and recording their third album,
brand new eyes, which was released at the end of September on the back of lead single "Ignorance". Josh and Zac Farro quit the band in December 2010, and the future of the group was in doubt until Williams and Davis announced that York had been made a permanent member and the three of them would continue on as a trio with touring members for live shows. Their fourth album,
Paramore, was released on April 9, 2013.
Discography
- All We Know Is Falling (2005)
- Riot! (2007)
- Brand New Eyes (2009)
- Paramore (2013)
Relevant tropes:
- Adorkable: Hayley. Watch any interview or video where she is happy or upbeat for proof, or read her twitter posts. Due to her size and energy, it may also cross into Moe territory.
- Anachronic Order: "crushcrushcrush", to an extreme (the song has a narrative, but it's completely shattered)
- Audience Participation Song: "Whoa", "My Heart" and "Where The Lines Overlap".
- Attention Whore: "Where The Lines Overlap" begins with the line "Give me attention, I need it now."
- Black Sheep Hit: "The Only Exception" has become their biggest hit.
- Catch Phrase: Judging from their Twitter feeds, 'Panties in a bunch' seems to be Hayley's catchphrase. She says it a lot, and we mean a LOT. Though, judging by some of her other feeds, she must seem to enjoy just saying the word 'panties' or 'pants'.
- Cloud Cuckoolander and possibly Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Hayley is downright odd at times in videos, and her twitter posts may sometimes become insane rambling. Despite that, there's no denying that she is a talented singer.
- Creator Breakdown: Narrowly averted; they canceled a series of concerts in February 2008 to deal with "personal issues" mostly stemming from, as with No Doubt in the 1990's, the rest of the band's resentment at the media focusing on Hayley Williams as the most important member of the group*
The fact that Hayley and Josh split up may also have had something to do with it
.They seem to have gotten past this quite handily, and even lampshaded it in the lyrics to "Looking Up" from brand new eyes: "God knows the world doesn't need another band/But what a waste it would have been/I can't believe we almost hung it up/We're just getting started." Turns out it was only a temporary Aversion, as the Farro brothers quit in December 2010. - Darker and Edgier: The music video for "Brick by Boring Brick" becomes this starting at the bridge.
- Downer Ending: The end of "That's What You Get" may count as one depending on who you are, but its alternate ending would definitely count.
- Dye Hard: Think of Hayley Williams and you'll probably think of the hair first. She's claimed that it's hard for her to remember what color her hair really is anymore.
- Follow the Leader: Any similar-style rock band with a female vocalist will inevitably get compared to Paramore, two examples being Versaemerge and Hey Monday. This even applies to bands like Damone, who were active before Paramore ever recorded an album. (The fact that Hayley's voice sounds remarkably similar to that of Damone frontwoman Noelle LeBlanc does not help matters.)
- Fractured Fairytale: "Brick By Boring Brick" would count.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Discussed in "Misery Business"
- Two Huge Guys Tiny Girl: Hayley's about 5'2", Jeremy and Taylor are giants compared to her.
- I Am the Band: It turns out that Hayley is the only signed member of Paramore, and the others are just a glorified backing band. Hayley appears not to like this setup, but it led to the schism in the band.
- Operation Jealousy: Invoked in "Misery Business".
- Lighter and Softer: Their third album could arguably be this, especially with songs such as "The Only Exception" and "Misguided Ghosts". The fourth album definitely qualifies, as it's a fair bit poppier than the other three.
- Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: for both Riot! and brand new eyes.
- Metal Scream: The end of "My Heart".
- Nipple and Dimed: A topless picture of Hayley ended up online in 2009. Oddly, after the initial reaction, people generally turned a blind eye to it. Could have had something to do with the fact that Hayley was lying on her back in the shot.*
When small-breasted women lie on their backs, their breasts tend to temporarily appear even smaller due to gravity and lowered blood pressure
- Not Christian Rock: Hayley and several others of the band are Christians, but the music isn't necessarily what you'd call Christian music. Still, it's important enough to them that Hayley felt the need to apologize on her website for using God's name in vain in one of their songs.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: "(One Of Those) Crazy Girls" is from the perspective of one of these.
- Self-Titled Album: Their fourth studio album.
- Shout Out: Paramore are, as with most first-wave emo bands, big fans of Hardcore Punk, to the point where Born For This is built around a big reference to "Liberation Frequency" by Refused.
- Silly Love Songs: "Still Into You" is an upbeat, happy, straight-forward, "I love you" song, with an idealism not present in earlier songs.
- Spiritual Successor: The band is trying very hard to make "In The Mourning" a "sequel" of sorts to Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," going so far as to use the same guitar riff and melody. Hayley even interwove "Landslide" lyrics into this song during one of their concerts.
- And also, "Part II" on Paramore's fourth album is definitely one to "Let The Flames Begin".
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: Where the heck did "Misguided Ghosts" come from? Also, "The Only Exception". And "Hate to See Your Heart Break" from the fourth album.
- Title Only Chorus: Used a few times in brand new eyes.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Ignorance" and "Playing God"
- Traumatic Haircut: The mean girl in the Misery Business video scissors the braid off one of her unfortunate classmates, to the classmate's dismay.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The current set up. You have Taylor and Jeremy as the two guys, and Hayley as the girl. They have a few other touring-only members for live shows(most notably Ilan Rubin, former drummer for Lostprophets)
- Video Full Of Film Clips: Decode, although there is also a band-only version available.
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