Bruce Cotler Bruce Cotler

IF THERE IS one Paramore song that everyone knows, it’s their 2007 hit ‘Misery Business’. 

The song was written by the band’s singer Hayley Williams when she was just 17 years old, and like most things that most people create when they’re in their late teens, it has aged pretty badly.

Hayley Williams acknowledged this fact herself at the start of last summer, when fans said they weren’t feeling that whole “Once a whore, you’re nothing more / I’m sorry, that will never change” line.

Williams told Track 7:

I had already done so much soul-searching about it, years before anyone else had decided there was an issue. When the article began circulating, I sort of had to go and rehash everything in front of everybody.

It was important, however, for me to show humility in that moment. I was a 17-year-old kid when I wrote the lyrics in question and if I can somehow exemplify what it means to grow up, get information and become any shade of ‘woke’, then that’s a-okay with me.

She explained that the song lyrics “literally came from a page in [her] diary”, and that the lyrics aren’t just problematic because they refer to another woman as a whore, but rather because they highlight the ways in which women are made to believe they are competing against each other.

It’s the way I tried to call her out using words that didn’t belong in the conversation. It’s the fact that the story was setup inside the context of a competition that didn’t exist over some fantasy romance.

SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

Over the weekend, Hayley Williams performed Misery Business in Nashville, Tennessee, and informed fans that it was the last time the song would be played live. 

At the Paramore concert in Nashville and they just announced that they won’t be performing Misery Business again for a long time after this show. Omg. pic.twitter.com/wARvoYGz76

— Tyler Matl (@TylerMatl) September 8, 2018

If the video won’t play, click here.

What I wanna say is, tonight we’re playing this song for the last time for a very long time. This is a choice that we made because we feel that we should. We think it’s time to move away from it. 

Although it was the song that introduced many fans to the band in the first place, they weren’t too upset by the decision. 

also, MizBiz will be missed too but i fully support pmore’s desicion. imagine playing a song at every show that you no longer relate to or feel kinda uncomfortable to play :/

— yai 🌈 (@toldyousolive) September 8, 2018

I just fully realized I’ll never see Misery Business live and I’m highkey sad but I support Paramore’s decision bc it’s their song & I still love them & their music w my whole heart & I would still literally die of happiness if I ever got to see them live

— Shrek Gioia 📼 (@CrankThatShrek_) September 8, 2018

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