10 Pop Songs That Are Actually Incredibly Dark

Throughout the 2010's, Paramore has always been on a gradual slope towards straight up pop music. The days of emo tinged pop punk may have been fun, but seeing Hayley Williams and co. move in a much more pop centric direction has been a far more interesting ride, pulling from acts like No Doubt on their self titled album along with sprinkling in bits of heaviness on songs like Now. The order of the day for rock has been the '80s though, and the opening track off of their album After Laughter was far from a pick me up.

After the fallout of the past few years of the band, Hayley seemed to channel a lot of that internal frustration and sadness into Hard Times, all while making the actual song sound like one of the sleekest grooves in the pop world. If you look past the glittery guitars though, Hayley sounds like she's hurting on here, talking about one day reaching rock bottom and wondering why she even tried working towards some of her goals.

That's the mindset of the whole record as well, from more sad songs like Told You So to the title being a reference to what happens after someone laughs, as you see their face slowly come back down to Earth. The groove might be closer to dance music half the time, but there's nothing wrong with using dancing as a way to let go of all of that negative emotion.