Did Paramore break up?

Indie kids of oughties, there is no need to be in the business of misery: despite some odd social media behavior and a pretty well-spread rumor, it seems Paramore are not breaking up.

The band, currently consisting of frontwoman and keyboardist Hayley Williams, drummer Zac Farro, and guitarist Taylor York, seemed to be reaching the peak of their powers in 2023, but uncertainty means that it’s not quite the triumphant end of the year they may have been expecting.

After touring with megastar Taylor Swift and receiving critical acclaim for their sixth studio album, This is Why, it appeared they were ready to kick on and recreate the commercial success they had achieved with their earlier albums. However, a recent social media post had left fans wondering if their hopes for more music were about to be crush-crush-crushed.

The full text from the Instagram story that started all the tension reads as follows:

“Now that Paramore has spent the year touring behind This Is Why (and making sure to take better care of themselves while they’re at it), a chapter of the band’s career has come to a close. They’ve now fulfilled all label obligations and are effectively free agents. As for the future of Paramore, all three members agreed that there’s a level of uncertainty.”

So, it seems that the band (who have plenty of history when it comes to issues with music labels in the past, as well as more lineup changes than an NHL game) are effectively free to do what they want. And, from the wording of the text, it’s easy to see why some people are worried that in this case, doing what they want will be dissolving the band.

While this all might seem like the beginning of the end, in an interview with Uproxx the band confirmed they will be sticking together, with Williams stating: ‘The only thing that matters is we will still get to be each other’s community.’

That said, they have removed almost all of their social media content from Twitter/X and Instagram, and their website now returns a 404 error. While that may seem quite alarming, this could just be a consequence of their record label contract being up, as labels often manage social media pages for their artists. That’s the prevailing theory on the band’s subreddit, anyway.

Has Paramore disbanded before?

Although the band has never technically broken up, they have had plenty of lineup changes, and been on hiatus a few times. In 2010, Josh and Zac Farro, two of the founding members, left, with Josh claiming that the band was no longer focused on music but was too driven by what the label wanted. He also implied Williams received preferential treatment.

In 2015, another founding member named Jeremy Davis left (for the third time), but in 2017 Zac Farro returned to the fold. But since then it’s been a stable lineup, so fans can at least take comfort in this slice of consistency.