Nathaniel Clark

Staff Writer

nuc5002@psu.edu

On January 18, the music listening community was introduced to LiveNation’s When We Were Young Festival. Originally painted to be a one-day event, October 22 to be exact, When We Were Young Festival appeared to be beckoning to the millennial and early Gen Z crowd with a lineup consisting of 2000s emo rock/pop icons. While we could talk endlessly about social media’s reaction to this festival, from the confusion on how 65 artists split between three stages can perform in one day to theories that this was LiveNation’s attempt to make back some of its lost revenue from 2021’s disastrous Astroworld festival, I would instead focus on a specific artist in the mix of this festival. When looking at the baffling announcement poster and its plethora of names, one band sits above the Car Seat Headrest’s and Bright Eyes’ of the festival and is placed next to My Chemical Romance. The band’s name is Paramore.

For the layman, Paramore was founded in 2004 with members Hayley Williams and Jeremy Davis along with Zac and Josh Ferro. In their over 17 year history, the band has released five studio albums, appeared in soundtracks for various Twilight films, and had their songs featured in both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Based on the description which I have given, it may seem that Paramore is an amazing choice to headline the When We Were Young Festival, right?

Rather than looking at what Paramore was, let us look at Paramore in the present. As of the writing of this piece, only two original members of the band are currently involved, that being Hayley Williams and Zac Farro. The other original members have left the band, bringing with their exits a variety of inflammatory writing pieces and lawsuits. While this detail is important, I believe that it is right to discuss the output of the band in recent years. Looking at the last two albums, Paramore (2013) and After Laughter (2017), it is evident that the current Paramore is not the same. The former is a mixture of power pop and rock while the latter is new wave. Based on genre alone, these albums are considerably different from the pop-punk and emo rock that the outfit made in the 2000s.

In a manner, Paramore (2013) was a reintroduction to the band for both new and returning audiences. The album sounds considerably better when compared to their previous work, moving away from the grungier production for a more pop-esque sound. This choice may seem like an interesting one, it works hand-in-hand with the differing lyrical content present on the album. Just from a brief pass over the lyrics reveal an obvious amount of maturity and growth in the band. While this may be due to Hayley being in her mid-twenties at the time of writing the album rather than her late teens, it feels as if the artist has more experience in crafting great songs. All of these benefactors come together to produce an album that feels disconnected from their previous work and can stand high on its own.

In a similar form as their self-titled project, After Laughter (2017) shows that the band can create music that differs from their previous output. While there were hints of new wave and synths present on the previous record, they are now heavily present on the record, bringing with them an 80’s aesthetic.

Basically what I am trying to say is that Paramore is not the band that they once were, so seeing them presented with bands which they now have no relation to is an interesting sight. The greatest showing of this separation was the band’s choice in 2018 to stop playing their biggest single of the 2000s lives, that being “Misery Business.” While the track is heavily connected to the band, that connection does not change the fact that said track is indeed sexist. To quote Williams herself when announcing their decision, “Calling someone a whore isn’t very cool.”

With Paramore stopping the performance of this track, it feels as if the band has grown past their more edgy stage and has stopped making the music they were once known for, something you cannot say about most bands on the When We Were Young Festival lineup.