Headbanging high priestess and Paramore bandleader Hayley Williams has one simple message (in the form of a new podcast): Everything Is Emo.
Though the argument is already compelling in its simple titular form, Williams will dive deep into the history of the term's designation of sub-genres with a 20-part series, chronicling important music from emo's inception to its modern-day iterations. The podcast comes as part of BBC Sounds' Back to Back programming, and who better to spearhead it than the foremost purveyor misery business? (Plus, she's apparently always had a fantasy of being like Jack Black in School of Rock.)
In a statement, the singer-songwriter said of the project:
Not long ago, people started calling me a "veteran" of my scene and of the music industry. It sounds so funny to me because most of the time I still feel like a fan. The serious truth is I have, in fact, grown up in this scene for the last two decades. I guess that's a pretty long time. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to publicly nerd out about bands and songs that make my favourite sub-genre feel like home to me. And while it will be fun to take some trips down memory lane, I'm just as excited, if not more, to play music from new artists I'm discovering all the time.
Everything Is Emo is meant to feel like a conversation with other fans of the genre, young and (ahem) old. There's going to be plenty of interaction, which I hope will feel somewhat reminiscent of the message boards and forums I used to frequent as a teenage scene kid.
More than anything, I hope music fans and artists alike will be psyched to hear a highly considered spectrum of "EMO" in all its forms. And yeah, of course you'll hear some Paramore.
Each episode of the podcast will explore an album either important to Williams or important to the genre, and she'll (controversially) approach it via shuffle instead of in its intended order — and first up on the docket is none other than the Twilight soundtrack.
You can listen to the first episode of the pod, which features music from the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Panic! at the Disco, the Postal Service, Wet Leg, the Used and My Chemical Romance, now via BBC Sounds.
Paramore got back into the studio together for the first time since recording 2017's After Laughter at the beginning of this year after Williams released back-to-back solo albums: 2020's Petals for Armor and 2021's FLOWERS for VASES / descansos.
Though the argument is already compelling in its simple titular form, Williams will dive deep into the history of the term's designation of sub-genres with a 20-part series, chronicling important music from emo's inception to its modern-day iterations. The podcast comes as part of BBC Sounds' Back to Back programming, and who better to spearhead it than the foremost purveyor misery business? (Plus, she's apparently always had a fantasy of being like Jack Black in School of Rock.)
In a statement, the singer-songwriter said of the project:
Not long ago, people started calling me a "veteran" of my scene and of the music industry. It sounds so funny to me because most of the time I still feel like a fan. The serious truth is I have, in fact, grown up in this scene for the last two decades. I guess that's a pretty long time. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to publicly nerd out about bands and songs that make my favourite sub-genre feel like home to me. And while it will be fun to take some trips down memory lane, I'm just as excited, if not more, to play music from new artists I'm discovering all the time.
Everything Is Emo is meant to feel like a conversation with other fans of the genre, young and (ahem) old. There's going to be plenty of interaction, which I hope will feel somewhat reminiscent of the message boards and forums I used to frequent as a teenage scene kid.
More than anything, I hope music fans and artists alike will be psyched to hear a highly considered spectrum of "EMO" in all its forms. And yeah, of course you'll hear some Paramore.
Each episode of the podcast will explore an album either important to Williams or important to the genre, and she'll (controversially) approach it via shuffle instead of in its intended order — and first up on the docket is none other than the Twilight soundtrack.
You can listen to the first episode of the pod, which features music from the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Panic! at the Disco, the Postal Service, Wet Leg, the Used and My Chemical Romance, now via BBC Sounds.
Paramore got back into the studio together for the first time since recording 2017's After Laughter at the beginning of this year after Williams released back-to-back solo albums: 2020's Petals for Armor and 2021's FLOWERS for VASES / descansos.