This weekend, I did a bit more thinking and investigating about Hayley Williams. I read her tweets, read her lyrics from her latest album (which I’d forgotten to do, apparently) and listened to some of her latest music.
It was interesting. Overall.
I’ve always liked “Ain’t it Fun.” It’s cute and catchy. Her other new songs are OK, but they’re not up to the level of her previous work, IMHO.
I also took some time out last night to watch the music video for her new version of “Hate to See Your Heart Break” which I didn’t like at all. “Hate to See Your Heart Break” is the kind of song I loathe hearing the most from pop musicians- it’s one that tries, and fails, to harness the great and powerful beauty out of sadness and darkness. As a personal valuation, I do wish that pop musicians like Hayley would stick to what they’re good at- making pop music.
I have a whole library of goth music that tackles sadness and isolation with more beautiful style, and greater understanding, than what is displayed in Hayley’s song. Hell, any song from Elend, Dark Sanctuary, Die Verbannten Kinder Eva’s, Avrigus, or from any one of the other thousands of underground goth bands approaches this stuff better than “Hate to See Your Heart Break”. I cringed throughout the song in the same way that a b-boy would cringe had Hayley started rapping and break dancing midway through it.
That isn’t to say that it is a terrible song. It’s OK, I guess, and I do appreciate the sentiment, but from my perspective it did seem amateur hour. To the average teen I’m sure it would be profound.
I do like how Hayley isn’t afraid of criticizing me in her lyrics. Others are. Perhaps her exposure to me has led her to see me more as a real person, instead of as some weird and ponderous entity. I learned some new things from her lyrics. I can’t say what; it’s personal, but I do value my new knowledge.
Most of her tweets weren’t the least bit surprising. Her twitter feed is exactly what you’d expect for a twenty- something pop star, complete with selfies, work updates, random thoughts, and pictures of assorted tchotchke. It’s generally a fun, light read.
There’s not much there, though, that’s really great, funny or inspiring, or that gives one a thought that Hayley might be able to transcend her C-list celebrity status should she care to. As an example, let’s compare her dumb, tone-deaf MLK tweet with Taylor Swift’s twitter masterclass on the same day.
Hayley’s tweet on MLK day was frankly a stupid one. She displayed a total deafness to the public’s opinions with a grating, antagonistic image of King talking about “moving forward”. Moving forward? To where, exactly? Into the third world? Into economic disaster and recession?
*Nobody* likes MLK anymore. Everyone moved on from caring about him a good ten years ago. This is why Selma bombed so very, very hard at the box office. Nobody likes MLK. Even blacks are sick of staring at his ugly, condescending glare at this point. He’s tiresome, so very, very tiresome, and people are sick to death of hearing about him and his message in general.
Taylor, as usual, seems to get things like this in a way that lesser stars like Hayley can’t. Taylor’s tweet on MLK day was an inoculous message about the power of love, which is something that everyone can get behind. And she made it a point to not show MLK’s ignorantly lecturing mug, too. Well done, Taylor.
You know that audience that made American Sniper such a monster hit? Those are the people that would identify with Taylor’s tweet. She’s their celebrity. You know all of those people that saw Selma? All six of them? Those are fans of Paramore.
Compounding the dumbness was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen on a celebrity twitter feed- the picture Hayley posted yesterday of her soon-to-be husband sitting besides a picture of Snoopy wearing, of ALL things, a fucking Malcolm X hat! Holy shit, that’s a stupid picture!
I can kind of get the Snoopy thing, although it’s wierd to see. The Malcolm X thing is incomprehensible and repellant- the only whites who would publically show themselves as supporters of black racial violence in this day and age are utter fools.
Not to mention that blacks themselves don’t like seeing whites wearing Malcolm X regalia, and for very good reason. X himself would have been appalled to see his name used to mass market clothes to shallow white kids. I remember well the controversy in the early nineties when some clueless white boys started wearing those hats and blacks deservedly chewed them out. In that picture, Hayley’s fiance reminded me of those dumb kids. Not a good thing.
As I said before, I have no knowledge of this man, and now, I would prefer it stay that way, thank you.
Well… I don’t know. I still love Hayley’s music, especially her earlier stuff. And these are just my random thoughts from the last few days; nothing more, nothing less.
The jury is still out on the future here, and, TBH, I think I’d like to stop writing and go have fun with someone. So these thoughts will be shelved for now.