Paramore
photo: raph_ph · cc by 2.0 ↗Formed in Franklin, Tennessee, in 2004 around teenage vocalist Hayley Williams, Paramore rose out of the mid-2000s pop-punk and emo scene with 2007's Riot! before restlessly reinventing itself across three decades, moving through arena-pop-punk, synth-driven new wave, and beyond. Their 2013 self-titled album gave them their first Billboard 200 number one, and 2023's This Is Why won the Grammy for Best Rock Album, making them the first female-fronted band to take that award.
Hayley Williams has cited Björk among her wide-ranging musical influences and, in a 2023 interview, said Björk's example "changed everything" for her as an artist — visible in how far Paramore has been willing to stray from straightforward pop-punk into stranger, more textured territory.
listen forPlay "Army of Me," with its stomping industrial synth line under Björk's unshakeable vocal, then put on "Hard Times" — Paramore trades the industrial menace for '80s-glossed synth-pop, but the same willingness to build a rock song's core out of electronics carries through.
Williams has spoken about No Doubt and Gwen Stefani as a formative reference point — Paramore toured directly in No Doubt's orbit early on — for how a woman can front a guitar-driven rock band with both toughness and pop hooks intact.
listen forPlay "Just a Girl" and hear the tightly coiled guitar riff snap against Stefani's defiant, conversational vocal, then drop into "Misery Business" — Williams runs that same combination of a punchy guitar hook and an unapologetically pointed lyric.
Wikipedia lists Debbie Harry among the wide range of acts Williams cites as musical influences — a new-wave forerunner for the way Paramore mixes a tough, hook-driven rock chassis with pure pop instinct.
listen forPlay "Heart of Glass" and notice how a cool, detached pop vocal rides over a driving new-wave groove, then put on "That's What You Get" — Paramore's mid-2000s version trades disco slickness for pop-punk urgency but keeps that same pop-song-inside-a-rock-song feel.