NFL
By: Joe Cardoso
The year was 2007 and at the time I was a manager at a restaurant you may have heard of called Outback Steakhouse in Bowie, Maryland. One thing about this place I will always love was the awesome staff we had and one thing we always talked about was music being the older member of the group the kids kept me hip. One night one of my servers Anita gave me a CD for a band she thought I would like named Paramore and the album was called “All We Know Is Falling”. And that is not a typo she gave me a CD look it up kids they were all the rage back in the day trust me. Anyway, this was during the height of the emo/alternative era bands like Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, The White Stripes had radio on lockdown.
I was still as I am today eating and sleeping hip-hop but did not mind broadening myself and my music tastes. So on a drive home, I popped in my 10-disc changer and checked it out. Right off the bat, the lead singer’s voice was powerful and she sounded like she meant business along with dope guitar riffs. At the time I could count on one hand the amount of female lead bands. She could also SING SING so I wanted to hear more of them and dove right in, songs like Emergency, Pressure and Whoa had me jamming and also thinking. It quickly became a go-to album and I was excited for what they would hit us with next.
Riot! Dropped and it was game over for a lot of bands that were on the fence of being the “it” sound and for me and many people put Paramore top of mind. No one was singing about stealing boyfriends on one song and then tapping into loss and religion on the next song all led by a little power rocket with red hair named Hayley Willaims and their musical versatility. The music blurred color lines as I know a lot of black music fans stumbled onto the band and started to love them like I did. I had to have watched the CrushCrushCrush video daily who knew a bunch of kids from Franklin, Tennessee a home of country music could take over pop-punk music? One of the things I love about the band is the sound is always changing and Hayley Willams was right there with them bouncing on beats with ease. Songs like “The Only Exception” and “Ain’t It Fun” prove the way they can flip things in seconds just when you think you have them figured out. No one could have guessed an album like “After Laughter” would come from them with its tip of the cap to the 80’s and 70s disco vibes.
Their latest work “This Is Why” is a toss-back to the rock days with a splash of pop after what we all went through in 2020 the whole album is like a free therapy session with a beat. As someone who HATES watching the news that song hit home and then some along with the title track. Throughout this journey, Williams has branched out and worked with artists you would not think a punk band lead would as well as solo work with “Petals For Armor” which I think was super underrated check it out if you haven’t. Bangers like “Airplanes” with B.O.B., and “Stay The Night” with Zedd kept people listening to her and enjoying her musical journey. With a following that has brought to life things like the amazing podcast “Black People Love Paramore,” I Iearned a lot about Hayley and her upbringing which totally made sense in terms of her style and music range. Highly recommend you watch it.
With a collection of music that crosses races and musical genres, Paramore is truly one of the best bands of the modern age. When you have people from an angry confused teen to Steph Curry singing and popping you are doing something right. No doubt even more great music is to come from Hayley and company.
