Hayley Williams of Paramore picks her favourite emo “anthems”
When thinking of the third wave of emo music that took the world by storm in the early-mid 2000s, it’s difficult to look beyond Paramore’s Hayley Williams as being the central figure point of the skinny jeans, Converse and Vans wearing, side fringed era.
Williams and Paramore burst onto the scene in 2005 with their debut album, All We Know Is Falling. Yet, it was their second full-length record, Riot!, and its iconic single ‘Misery Business’ that really laid the foundations for a wildly successful career in the industry.
Earlier this year, Williams fronted a BBC Radio show entitled Everything Is Emo, and in one of the episodes, she picked out a dozen tracks that she considers her ultimate emo anthems. The list begins with Head Automatica’s ‘Beating Heart Baby’. Williams noted that the tune seemed to be played on every single MySpace page throughout that golden era.
And where would a list of iconic emo songs be without including their most prominent poster boys, My Chemical Romance? Of their hit ‘Teenagers’, Williams said, “When I heard this song, I was so impressed, I couldn’t believe that they pulled this off. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t ready for Black Parade. But when I heard ‘Teenagers’, it felt like hearing a modern-day Freddie Mercury.”
Another of emo’s biggest exports was Death Cab for Cutie, and Williams actually selected three of their songs to be included on her exclusive list. She said of the band, “Death Cab are such an important band, and they epitomised those years, those early years of discovering songwriting and going to these shows with twinkly guitars and ambient sounds, but heartfelt vocals. It will cut your life into pieces, as they say.”
While Jared Leto is known as an award-winning actor, he also took his place at the front of another classic emo band, Thirty Seconds to Mars. Their tune ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’ was one of those tunes that just seemed to be on constant repeat on the TV and radio bastion of everything metal and emo, Kerrang, and Williams clearly has a deep respect for the tune, having considered it a true anthem.
Jimmy Eat World were another household name in the world of emo. Of their importance, Williams said, “How could we do an episode about anthems without playing them? These guys are everything to me. They are the reason. They put out records that challenged us and made us want to keep going.”
Hayley Williams’ favourite emo anthems:
- Head Automatica – ‘Beating Heart Baby’
- My Chemical Romance – ‘Teenagers’
- Death Cab for Cutie – ‘Expo ‘86’
- The Linda Lindas – ‘Rebel Girl’
- Something Corporate – ‘I Woke Up in a Car’
- Momma – ‘Rockstar’
- Death Cab for Cutie – ‘Passenger Seat’
- Thirty Seconds To Mars – ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’
- Jimmy Eat World – ‘Sweetness’
- Death Cab for Cutie – ‘A Lack of Colour’
- Coach Party – ‘Shit TV’
- Kelly Clarkson – ‘Since U Been Gone’
