Hayley Williams is a pop star. She leads Paramore, a band that tours arenas and makes hit records. She's duetted with Taylor Swift, both on record and onstage. She's got a retroactively-added writing credit on Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U," a genuine #1 hit. When Paramore toured last year, their surprise guests included Billie Eilish and Lil Uzi Vert. But Williams has largely been absent from the online pop-stan conversation, and she's happy about that.
On her Instagram story after a Paramore show in Hamburg, Hayley Williams spent a few minutes speaking while changing off-camera, thinking out loud about the nature of circa-2024 pop standom. Here's what she had to say:
Something I've been thinking about a lot, and why I don't really love it... Especially in the music world, whether it's the pop girls or any scene, really, people only give a fuck about numbers now, and stats. And that is so lame. It's very fun, don't get me wrong. It's sick. We've had a #1 album and top this and that albums, yes. That shit is great...
But I just remember a time when that was not so important, and that also wasn't a gotcha for a stan-war type of situation. Anyway, I just think it's really fucking annoying. My side of the internet, which is basically not really the internet, I just get to support all the pop girls. Maybe that's privilege because I'm not a pop girl, but I just think everyone should cool it and let people make really great music and shit... I'm over it.
Those videos are gone from Williams' Instagram story now, but a follow-up tile remains. Over what I believe is an image of one of the sea turtles from Finding Nemo, Williams wrote, "witnessing stan wars makes me so happy pmore is not really in the pop world. i just get to enjoy the good shit thats come out this year and im sorry some of yall cant thats gotta be tough damn."
