Paramore's Hayley Williams: 'It's Dumb To Be Pretentious About Music'

Paramore have taken a swipe at naysayers critiquing their new pop-tinged sound, saying it’s “dumb to be pretentious about music.”

Reflecting upon the recording process of their single ‘Still Into You’, vocalist Hayley Williams admits she initially started to question the more commercial sound.

“I scared myself when we were writing and I came up with the melody and the lyrics for the chorus,” Hayley told This Is Fake DIY.

“The verse didn’t scare me; the verse excited me. It was bouncy enough that it kinda sounded a bit new wave, but it was still poppy and catchy, but the chorus… I was like, ‘This is really straightforward for a Paramore song. That’s really poppy!’

“And Taylor was like, ‘Well, do you like it?’ ‘I love it.’ That was it. That’s where you stop worrying about it.”

Hayley also maintained that it was pop music that inspired her when growing up: “Over the last few years, it was about realising we love what we love. Yeah, I grew up with N*Sync and Britney Spears, and I don’t really care! I still ended up in a band that I think is rad.

“All those things just made me this unique person, the only person I can be. And the things that Jeremy listened to - he grew up listening to a lot of hip hop - but I don’t think either one of us grew up listening to punk rock. No one is in the womb listening to Black Flag.

“I think we get older and we realise that; ‘Oh, okay, it’s dumb to be pretentious about music.’ You just like what you like, and if you love it, who cares?”

Check out our review of Paramore’s recent UK tour right here.

Paramore ‘Still Into You’