What I Have Learned from Paramore’s ‘Rose Coloured Boy’
It has been almost a year since Paramore released their fifth album, After Laughter, a complete twist and change to their original sound. With many issues and problems they had faced with the members of the band and doubting whether or not they should continue, the trio, with the reunion of Zac Farro have come back strong with this new sound.
It is only recently they released “Rose-Coloured Boy”, their fourth video from this album, displaying the trio as three presenters of a news program, showing their “perfect” selves for the world to see, but when the camera turns off, things look completely different. The trio, particularly Hayley displays all the pushes of being on display, from everyone who is basically not on stage, telling them what they should and shouldn’t do, a lot of which tells them, particularly Hayley one reoccurring theme, telling her to smile. It is only when Hayley sees her younger self, asking her why she is doing this that she finally breaks out of that bubble of perfection, upsetting many people in the process. It is unclear at the end if all this is in her head as the camera points to her smiling and acting perfect for the camera again but it does show, both inside her mind and off the camera the fake perfection that the media tries to deliver, showing how easy it is to hide everything behind a simple smile.
Not only is this mentioned in both the music and the video, this is also shown in Paramore’s last video, “Fake Happy”, singing how easy it is to fake everything behind a smile but also the fact that people can constantly tell us to smile, making us feel better when all it really does is bottle up all that negative energy just so that all people see is a fake version of ourselves.
The thing I have always loved about Paramore is that they always display the truth in their songs, whether it be through a heavy head banging rock piece or through an upbeat pop piece. This and “Fake Happy” in particularly show how common it is for people to tell us to be happy when we don’t feel like it. In an age where mental health is finally being taken seriously, we are encouraged to talk more when we feel low. We all struggle at some point in our lives and we shouldn’t have to bottle them up. Sometimes, we need to break. We just need to talk to someone when we are in those low moments, but the worst part of it is that people can turn away and distance themselves. The best part of it is though is that there will always be someone, whether it is at your university, a friend or family member, there are people, who are there to support you, no matter what circumstances you’re in.
So my piece of advice, and the one thing I’ve learned from “Rose-Colored Boy” is that its okay not to be okay. If you don’t want to smile, don’t. Never let anyone tell you how to feel. If you want to be happy, be happy. If you want to be sad, be sad but always know that there are people out there who always care about you, no matter the circumstances.
Click here to watch to “Rose-Coloured Boy”
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By Becky AbelÂ
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