The tides of influence in music history move in unexpected ways. There are very few towering rock legends or chart-dominating contemporary rappers, for instance, who've enjoyed the sprawling and intensifying authority of the pop-punk band Paramore. The band, which was formed in the mid-thousands by a group of Christian teen-agers from the outskirts of Nashville, rose to prominence as emo and pop punk were being commercialized for mainstream audiences. Paramorefronted by Hayley Williams, a vocal powerhouse with neon-marigold hair and a high degree of emotional athleticism was a small-town Myspace act that hit it big. By the band's third album, "Brand New Eyes," from 2009, it had been nominated for a Grammy and included on the "Twilight" soundtrack. The following year, departing bandmates condemned it for being a "manufactured product of a major label." No band had ever put the "pop" in "pop punk" more effectively than Paramore.
These days, the members of Paramore are in their early thirties, and are more interested in the eclectic sounds of art rock. But the emotional and stylistic influence of their earlier era still has a hold on a new generation of stars. A current wave of young, brooding rappers who incorporate emo and punk into their sounds frequently express reverence for Paramore. The theatrically excitable rap star Lil Uzi Vert asked Williams to feature on one of his songs. (She declined, telling him, "I don't want to be that famous.") In 2021, the Brooklyn rapper Bizzy Banks combined a Paramore hit from 2013 called "Still Into You" with a quintessentially brutal drill beat. In between rap verses detailing violent rivalries, he sang Williams's hook, "I'm iiiiiiinnnntttooo you." There are now YouTube explainers and think pieces dedicated to the topic of Paramore's Black fandom. "Liking Paramore is one of the Blackest things you can do right now," a vlogger named Madisyn Brown recently said.
This story is from the February 13 - 20, 2023 (Double Issue) edition of The New Yorker.
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This story is from the February 13 - 20, 2023 (Double Issue) edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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