Hayley Williams goes all Cosmopolitan

Paramore’s leading lady Hayley Williams this week has, for some reason, been forced to come out and explain her decision to pose for Cosmopolitan magazine. Apparently she had been getting some heat for being a “hypocrite” which seems somewhat strange for me.

It seems as though some people in "the scene" have focused on this and have labelled it as an attempt to take the spotlight from her bandmates, and I suppose that the "hypocrite" calls are to do with the fact that she has always been the reluctant focal point in the band, and has always been keen to stress that Paramore was a band, and not just about her. I am not quite sure why this changes that, but still, people (especially on the internet) will bitch about anything these days.

It is a shame that she has had to come out and set the record straight, but I anticipate it was only to be expected

I am not quite sure what harm it does that she is on the cover, and getting some much deserved exposure, and lets face it, she looks great on it.

She has hit back anyway and said that she takes her role as role model seriously, and that she has now come to accept her role as a powerful female, rather than trying to keep out of the spotlight, like she has done for a long time.

Being a Paramore fan since the very beginning, she has done that with much grace and class since day one. Always keen to refocus the media attention on her bandmates as much as herself, she has always been one to champion the efforts of the team, rather than just herself. It is not her fault that she became the integral cog in the Paramore machine, and it was always going to be like that. That is the same for most female led bands, and is no different from any band in such a situation, whether you are Paramore, Lacuna Coil, or Evanescence.

In spite of the tight musicians in the band, the leading lady will always get the attention.

I presume that a lot of the heat may also have something to do with the fall out from the Farro brothers quitting the band at the back end of last year, and your opinion on this will perhaps be affected by your thoughts on THAT scathing blog that they wrote.

Anyway, I for one like Hayley Williams, and she looks awesome in these pics, so fair play to her. It is unusual to see "rock chick/emo chick" looking girls on covers of mags like these, like she so correctly points out, so its refreshing to see her use her status to get on things like this.

She has posted the following statement, and I say fair play to her . . .

"As much as I tell myself I don't care and I wear whatever I want there will always be those moments when I'm at the check out line and I see some gorgeous person on the cover of a magazine and I'm like 'Ugh, is that how it's gotta be?' only to realise that next month, that girl on the cover is gonna be me. What a hypocrite right? No. My number one goal when the band began was to make myself invisible. I've turned down a lot of magazine covers, but it never made people focus on me any less, so this time I'm taking a different approach. All three of us in Paramore have our own roles. And finally I will accept mine. I'm going to be okay with being a 'powerful female'. I'm going to use that role to make a difference.

I'm hoping that the more a magazine will take a chance on a girl like me, the more a girl will have a frickin' chance in hell to be unique, powerful, strong in her weaknesses and confident in her flaws."

You go girl.

Haterz gon’ hate, but those pics are scorching.

It is also great to see musicians from this scene crossing over into the mainstream, and spreading the word. It is something that we should be embracing as fans of the genre, rather than sticking our noses up at it.

Paramore are due to drop their next album, the follow up to 2009's Brand New Eyes, later in the year, and it will be interesting to see how the material sounds, considering the lack of Farro bros input in the creative process.

I am sure that it will sound unmistakably like Paramore, but it will still be good to see in what direction it goes in.

In the meantime, I have no problem whatsoever with Hayley moonlighting on these sorts of photo shoots.

None whatsoever . . .