i know we've talked a lot about MCR and their rebellion against the nostalgia circle jerking of WWWY, but i think it's super important to consider it alongside hayley williams' speech, which happened around 20 minutes before MCR's set.
i think it's important because they were both fighting similar wars in the beginning. they were fighting to be respected in a genre that they were helping to catapult into the public consciousness. they were both treated like shit by their peers, villified by the media and disrespected by 'fans' in the scene, and only by prioritising their own creativity and art and by cultivating a fan base that appreciated it, did they manage to shake that shit off.
wwwy is a festival created for the sake of those looking to relive the emo days of yesterdecade. and that's fine. there's nothing wrong with nostalgia, and nostalgia tours - if the years you're reliving are good ones. if they're the best you have to offer.
for paramore and mcr, the best is yet to come. for paramore, the noughties were filled with misogyny and sexism, and now there's less of that. for mcr, the noughties were filled with homophobia and pressure to conform, and now there's less of that too. for them both, the early 2000s was a period of time where they had to work harder than everyone else to get a foot in the door.
and in 2022, you have them headline your nostalgia festival, because guess who kept selling all their tickets and releasing good music while the sexist, homophobic creeps kept falling into obscurity, or put behind bars, or cancelled on twitter? guess who's still big enough to pull those emo crowds?