Trivia / Paramore

• Breakthrough Hit: "Misery Business"
• Black Sheep Hit:
  • "Ain't It Fun" managed to chart in a pop music environment extremely hostile to rock and even win the band their first Grammy... by being extremely poppy.
  • Earlier on, "The Only Exception" became their biggest hit up to that point despite/because of being a much more subdued and gentle ballad than their normal music.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Around the late 2010s, Hayley stated that she no longer related to "Misery Business" as she wrote the song when she was 17 and has since learned that no, people really do change. She even dropped the "once a whore, you're nothing more" line during concerts to reflect that, and the band briefly stopped playing the song live altogether in 2018 due to Hayley considering the song to be rather misogynistic in its messaging. As her relationship with womanhood grew with age and she met other women in music, she no longer felt comfortable performing the song or associating it with the band and couldn't justify including it on their set lists anymore. When Spotify put it on their "Women of Rock" playlist, Hayley requested it be removed for this very reason. However, the band would later renege on this decision in 2022, first after Billie Eilish requested Hayley perform it with her at Coachella and then after reflecting that the use of the word "whore" didn't constitute an endorsement of misogyny (and that most fans didn't really care either way).
  • In June 2020, Hayley made it adamant on Twitter that she really doesn't like "The Only Exception". Given who the song was about, it's more than understandable. However, by 2023, it seems she has made peace with the song and has begun performing it again.
• Creator Breakdown:
  • The making of All We Know Is Falling was affected by Hayley's parents having divorced a few years earlier and bassist Jeremy Davis (temporarily) leaving the group just prior to recording, and most of the songs' lyrics reflected one of those events or the other in some way. The album cover was meant to reference Jeremy's departure and the fact that the band felt there was something missing without him — it's an empty couch with the shadow of someone walking away.
  • When Hayley released her first solo album Petals for Armor, she admitted to going through a major breakdown due to factors including divorcing Chad Gilbert, losing a ton of weight, and developing an alcohol addiction. Furthermore, she revealed that her relationship with Chad was actually quite toxic in real life, and that she felt their marriage was a sham right from the beginning. Her breakdown definitely shows in the album's lyrics.
• Creator Couple:
  • Hayley was married to Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory, and the two bands regularly went on tour together and Hayley made guest appearances on NFG songs. That's probably over with their separation, especially with the not-very-nice things Hayley has said about their relationship in hindsight.
  • Hayley and Josh dated in the early years of the band and broke up in 2007 just as the band was breaking into the mainstream. It's believed to be the root of some of the band drama in the following years.
  • In 2022, Hayley and Taylor confirmed that they are in a relationship (which fans have speculated about since 2018).
• Dye Hard: Think of Hayley Williams and you'll probably think of her hair first. She's claimed for a long time that it's hard for her to remember what color her hair really is anymore. And it would only be logical that she now runs her own hair dye company.
  • Going into the After Laughter era, she bleached her hair and maintained a bright blonde tone (with occasional colored highlights; she's got a hair dye company to promote, after all). While she's dyed it blonde before, she said in an interview that she wanted to give herself a "reset" after all the drama she experienced after the self-titled album era.
  • To mark the end of the After Laughter era and the next chapter of her life, she asked her hair stylist to dye her hair the one color she's ignored all these years — her natural hair color.
• Fan Community Nickname: The band seems to prefer "Parafamily", as that was the term used when the fandom was nominated at the 2015 AP Music Awards.
• 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.)
• George Lucas Altered Version: For an album cover, of all things. In November 2022, Paramore changed the cover of their self-titled album on digital and streaming platforms from an overexposed self-portrait of the band's 2013 lineup to a picture of Hayley from behind wearing a denim jacket with the words "GROW UP" spray-painted on the back^note This same image was the back cover for the vinyl edition. Supposedly, this was done as a Take That! towards ex-bassist Jeremy Davis, who had previously sued the band back in 2015, in order to remove him from the cover.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The official version of "Decode" remains absent from certain streaming services, as the song was made for the Twilight soundtrack, which was produced on a different label than Paramore's. A live version found on the self-titled's deluxe edition supplants its place on services like Spotify.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: For both Riot! and brand new eyes.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Ten years after Josh Farro left the group, he made a Facebook post equating homosexuality and pedophilia, to which Hayley and Josh's own brother Zac made a statement implying that such types of rhetoric are why he was kicked out.
• Teasing Creator: The band's official social media outlets as well as Hayley started to tease Zac's return to the band in the lead-up to recording their fifth album. Hayley started to get a little trollish when she posted videos of her playing drums instead. Zac eventually confirmed in an interview that he was indeed recording drums for the album.