This Is Why (song)


"This Is Why" is a song by American rock band Paramore, released as the lead single from their sixth studio album This Is Why, on September 28, 2022. It was written by Hayley Williams, Taylor York, and Zac Farro and produced by Carlos de la Garza. The song was accompanied by its music video, released the same day.
The song won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.

Background

"This Is Why" was released on September 28, 2022. It was the last song written for the album, at which point Williams was "tired of writing lyrics", although guitarist Taylor York convinced Williams and drummer Zac Farro to work on one "last idea". Williams stated that it "summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last three or four years" and thought that following the COVID-19 pandemic and "the impending doom of a dying planet", "that humans would have found it deep within themselves to be kinder or more empathetic or something".

Composition

"This Is Why" has been described as post-punk, post-punk revival, art-punk, dance-punk, pop punk, indie pop, and alternative rock. This song is said to also incorporate influences from funk, soul, and dance. It is the band's first title track.

Critical reception

Quinn Moreland of Pitchfork wrote that the track "builds on the funky pop that colored 2017's After Laughter, but shifts away from its predecessor's bright gloss for something muddier and vaguely threatening" and called the chorus "spiky" with instrumentation from marimbas making for a "suspense" bridge, after which "the song creeps forward, ultimately never pulling itself out of its paranoid spiral". Ali Shutler of NME described it as a "snarling, defiant middle finger to the haters" and a "giddy statement of purpose" with "newfound urgency to the party-starting music that takes influence from their angsty days as scrappy pop-punkers" accompanied by a "disco stomp". Steffanee Wang of Nylon called it a "disillusioned anthem" as well as "explosive" and remarked that it "sonically fits in the neat in-between space between older pop-punk stuff and the electronic contemporary sound of 2017's After Laughter".

Accolades

PublicationAccoladeRank
ConsequenceTop 50 Songs of 20221
NMEThe 50 Best Songs of 20222
NylonFavourite Songs of 2022–
BBC Radio 1Hottest Record of the Year 20221

Music video

The music video was released the same day as the song, and was directed by Brendan Yates of the American punk band Turnstile and filmed in Malibu, California. It depicts the band performing and "frolick in the Malibu wilderness, amid the grasses, against the blue sky, and in the spare interiors of a house".
The music video for the band's song "Thick Skull" served as a direct continuation of the video, with Yates returning to direct.

Personnel