LOS ANGELES — Twenty years ago, if you told Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams that she'd become one of the most influential pop singers in America, she might have offered little more than a scowl. As a DayGlo-haired punk sprite, miraculously gifted with the lung capacity of a Southern church choir, she couldn't have seen it then — nor could her childhood friends-turned-bandmates, Zac Farro and Taylor York — but Paramore would go on to craft songs that would alter the trajectories of rock and pop.
Artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, Demi Lovato and Willow Smith have all cited Paramore's music as the blueprint for their own snarling pop-punk confessionals. For her 2021 hit "Good 4 U," Rodrigo gave Paramore a songwriting credit, citing the verses of their 2008 song "Misery Business," a scathing missive to Williams' teen rival.
"What feels most merciful about it is that we didn't know we were doing anything different back then," Williams tells the Los Angeles Times inside the band's North Hollywood studio, her neon locks now a mulled shade of amber. "I use the word 'merciful' because we could not have predicted that people would give a s— 20 years later. We were just eating peanut butter and living the dream."
