Hayley Williams: Punk Rock’s Favorite Rule Breaker
Paramore’s lead singer, Hayley Williams, has recently released her third solo album titled “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party.” The album is themed on negative self-talk, self-discovery, heartbreak, and loneliness. Williams is once again redefining herself through her art, pushing barriers, and speaking out about being a woman in the punk-rock industry.
But she does it in style.
The song “Parachute” stirred up chaos throughout Paramore’s fandom as people suspected Hayley was talking about breaking up with her boyfriend, more famously known as Paramore’s guitarist, Taylor York. Although the exact timeline of when they began dating isn’t confirmed, Taylor and Hayley told The Guardian they were dating by September of 2022. They had been bandmates since 2007, dealing with band drama and stardom as a team, so Williams’ new single sent everyone for a loop.
Did Taylor and Hayley break things off for good? What is the future of Paramore?
For fans, this song is gut-wrenching to listen to and adds emotional weight to the album, but luckily for us fans, heartbreak is her fuel.
Hayley Williams is much more than just a woman involved in relationship drama. She’s a pioneer for many artists in the punk rock, alternative, and indie scenes. She’s mostly known for her dyed hair and smudged eyeliner, stellar vocals, and her activism.
When Hayley Williams became the lead singer of Paramore in 2004, she was an angsty 14-year-old heavily targeted by misogynists. She was unfairly blamed for the band’s issues, objectified instead of being treated as an equal, and faced scrutiny around the kinds of songs they were releasing.
At 15, she signed with Atlantic Records, a label that wanted to form Williams into a solo pop act like Avril Lavigne. However, Williams said she would not make music at that time without her band.
In an environment such as the emo and alternative scene, where many bands and artists back then were often male-dominated and wrote sexist lyrics, Hayley and the rest of Paramore had to navigate this tricky industry in a way that would give her a safe space to be an artist. Later on, Paramore’s debut album “All We Know Is Falling” and their second album, “Riot!”, ended up paving the way for that era of punk/emo music. They inspired artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and Demi Lovato.
Hayley Williams still faces major backlash concerning the band’s issues. Still to this day, Williams gets scrutinized for slut-shaming women in the lyrics of the song “Misery Business.” However, she’s not one to back down from a political conversation. Williams admitted that the lyrics in “Misery Business” are harmful and actually refused to sing them in Paramore’s last tour in 2023-2024. Many people have also said that since Hayley has dated fellow band members in the past, she’s the reason past members left the band, such as the Farro brothers in 2010.
Williams has always been very outspoken about where she stands on certain issues, whether that's racial inequality, LGBTQ+ rights, classism, or misogyny. The genre of punk began with the refutation of politics, so it’s no shock that Haley Williams became a huge advocate for human rights.
Coming from a midwestern town such as Franklin, TN, Williams and the rest of the Paramore founding members grew up religious. Within a Southern Baptist Church, she was raised on conservative Christian values, and many of those principles are heard throughout Paramore’s songs in their earlier years. Williams explores religion in her solo projects, too, such as the song “True Believer.”
In the song, she talks about growing up in the South and the implications of seeing up close how racism, inequality, and gentrification have impacted people’s lives in that town.
Since growing up in Franklin, performing in the public eye, and touring the world, Williams has gained a greater perspective on political issues incurred around the globe.
The title track of Williams’ latest album, “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” showcases a line where she sings, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar.”
In the New York Times Popcast, Hayley confirms that the “racist country singer” that she’s talking about is Morgan Wallen. Wallen had gone viral in recent years because of a video of him saying racial slurs while drunk.
In the Popcast, Williams says, “I’m never not ready to scream at the top of my lungs about racial issues. I think because it’s so intersectional that it overlaps with everything from climate change to LGBTQIA+ issues.”
Hayley Williams has stepped away from traditional ways to promote music. When she released her latest album, she released all 17 tracks directly onto her website instead of releasing a single first. Her fans could access the songs on her website through a 16-digit code. The songs didn’t have a track list at first, which invited many fans to make their own version of what the order for the album should be. The website was designed in a Y2K format, giving fans a nostalgic taste for what we’ve been missing for decades.
The way she’s promoted this last album reflects on Hayley’s independence as an artist. 2024 marked the year in which her contract with Atlantic Records had ended. She is now on her own label called Post Atlantic.
She said she wanted her album drop to feel like an experience rather than doing it just for the streams, which reminds all of us why artists make music in the first place.
Strike out,
Sol Moyano
Boca Raton
Sol Moyano is a content writer for Strike Magazine Boca. When she’s not busy writing, she’s ignoring all of her responsibilities in favor of reading fiction novels. She updates her Goodreads and Letterboxd way more often than her LinkedIn. You can reach her at solmoyano05@hotmail.com or her instagram: @solmoyanooo.
Cover Image Courtesy: Instagram @yelyahwilliams
