Hayley Williams of Paramore, who are on tour with Taylor Swift as we speak, has weighed in on the current pop stan discourse and how much of it revolves around sales and chart numbers. In a now-expired Instagram story (that Stereogum transcribed), she said:
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.
In a more recent story, Hayley 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.”
Depending on how much time you spend on social media and what your algorithm decides to feed you, you may or may not have witnessed the rise of these chart-obsessed stan wars (especially if you’ve shown any interest in Charli XCX or Chappell Roan lately). Our friend Eli Enis also recently wrote about this topic, and here’s a little more context from his piece: “Pop Crave, the pop culture “news wire” account that aggregates uncredited pop ephemera, is Nusic Twitter’s main media hub and also its most recognizable export, making it the Barstool of this world. Pop Crave’s most avid followers, I.E. the main demographic of Nusic Twitter, are people who don’t read music journalism but have the Metacritic page for their favorite artist bookmarked. They think they have the authority to make grandiose claims about an artist’s career based on unattributed @chartdata tweets.” (“Nusic Twitter” is Eli’s placeholder term for a music equivalent to the “Zynternet,” as he explains.)
Paramore will be out with Taylor through late August in Europe and the UK. See all dates below.
TAYLOR SWIFT / PARAMORE: 2024 TOUR DATES
Wed, Jul 17, 2024 Gelsenkirchen VELTINS-ARENA
Thu, Jul 18, 2024 Gelsenkirchen VELTINS-ARENA
Fri, Jul 19, 2024 Gelsenkirchen VELTINS-ARENA
Tue, Jul 23, 2024 Hamburg VOLKSPARKSTADION
Wed, Jul 24, 2024 Hamburg VOLKSPARKSTADION
Sat, Jul 27, 2024 Munich OLYMPIASTADION
Sun, Jul 28, 2024 Munich OLYMPIASTADION
Thu, Aug 01, 2024 Warsaw PGE NARODOWY
Fri, Aug 02, 2024 Warsaw PGE NARODOWY
Sat, Aug 03, 2024 Warsaw PGE NARODOWY
Thu, Aug 08, 2024 Vienna ERNST-HAPPEL-STADION
Fri, Aug 09, 2024 Vienna ERNST-HAPPEL-STADION
Sat, Aug 10, 2024 Vienna ERNST-HAPPEL-STADION
Thu, Aug 15, 2024 London WEMBLEY STADIUM
Fri, Aug 16, 2024 London WEMBLEY STADIUM
Sat, Aug 17, 2024 London WEMBLEY STADIUM
Mon, Aug 19, 2024 London WEMBLEY STADIUM
Tue, Aug 20, 2024 London WEMBLEY STADIUM