sexual awakening to have taken place
toxic in a relationship is not always the
within the first verse of Panic at the Dis-
girl’s fault, the music could no longer
co’s “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can
support me. It told me that I must either
Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off,”
exist as a boy’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl,
when Brendon Urie seductively whis-
or face that he wishes for me to die in a
pers, “I’ve got more wit, a better kiss,
plane crash.
a hotter touch, a better fuck/ Than any
boy you’ll ever meet/ Sweetie, you had
lyrics, some artists grow with us. In 2015,
me.” The only thing I knew for sure about
Paramore’s Haley Williams wrote on her
this lyric was that it contained the word
Tumblr, “Misery Business is not a set
“fuck” to imply something about sex, and
of lyrics that I relate to as a 26 year old
when you’re a middle school girl, that’s
woman. i haven’t related to it in a very
enough. I spent years fantasizing for a
long time. those words were written
boy to someday write a (nice) song about
when i was 17… admittedly, from a very
me, but it never occurred to me that I was
narrow-minded perspective.” As argu-
capable of writing a song myself.
ably the most successful woman in pop
Perhaps everyone grows out of
punk, Williams was the only musician
the genres and musicians that they em-
within the scene to apologize for lyricism
braced during their formative years, but
until last year. Glassjaw’s Daryl Palumbo
I find it significant that I fell out of touch
atoned for his “Pretty Lush” lyrics in an
with emo and pop punk as soon as I be-
interview with Alternative Press’s Jason
came in touch with the realities of being a
Pettigrew last December, explaining, “I
young woman. Pop punk served me well
was a young guy, and I was supposed to
when I felt sad or misunderstood, but
be a man and I was not. I apologize for
when I started dating, becoming more
saying any of that. You can be frustrat-
independent and empowered, learning
ed, but I really wished I had written better
that sometimes--wait for it--everything
lyrics. I wish I had better taste; I wish I
While we grow out of pop punk
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