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Misery Business

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"Misery Business"
Song

"Misery Business" is the first single from pop punk band Paramore's second album, RIOT!.

Chart performance

On the week ending June 21, 2007, "Misery Business" managed to debut at #99 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Misery Business" is the first charting single for the group in the United States. In the following week the song went up 13 positions to reach #86. Due to increased digital downloads during the month of August 2007, most notably during the latter half of the month, it re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week of September 1, 2007 at number #34, which is its current peak. It also peaked at #4 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. On the iTunes chart it has reached 7th (as of August 18th)

The single, to date, has peaked at #31 on the UK Singles Charts. It is also the group's first charting single in the UK as well.

As of October 13th, 2007, the video for Misery Business has collected 15,803,982 on the popular video sharing website YouTube, making it the 31st most viewed video on YouTube of all time.

Music video

File:Paramore Misery.jpg
Paramore as they confront the girl in the blue dress.

A music video was filmed on April 15 2007 in Los Angeles, and features a school and a band performance. It is directed by Shane Drake who also directed the videos for "Pressure" and "Emergency".

The music video starts out with the band playing the song with an assortment of "RIOT!"s in the background. It switches from the band playing to a high school, where a girl in a blue dress and heavy makeup walks in. The girl pushes the school cheerleaders aside her as she walks into the hallway. She cuts off a girl's braid with scissors, grinning at the girl while showing it to her. Later, as she is walking down the hall, a boy comes out of the Nurse's Station with his arm in a sling. She proceeds to push him into the wall, further injuring him. The band plays more, and the girl walks up on a girl and a boy together, obviously in love. She pushes the girl's face out of the way, and goes into a passionate kiss with the boy, then leaves, smiling. It switches again to the band playing, then the band comes out of a classroom together. Hayley (Williams) and the girl confront each other in the hall. Hayley reaches into the girl's bra and pulls out pads, then uses a towel and wipes the girls makeup off, exposing her for what she is. The video ends as the band finishes the song.

FBR+ also released an alternate cut of the video that removes the high school clips and features only performance segments. [1]

Blasphemy post

In June 2007 Hayley posted on LiveJournal to explain some of the background to the song and because some of the lyrics could be seen as causing others to break one of the ten commandments by taking the Lord’s name in vain. She explained “Misery Business” was written as a form of catharsis, about a girl she once knew whom she felt very bitter about due to the adverse affect she had on a close (boy) friend of hers. The boy then finished that relationship and afterwards he and Hayley became an “item”. Referring to the lyrics "but God does it feel so good..." she stated that she did not "want to be held accountable for being the cause of so many people using his name in vain" and that when she is singing the song “I'm telling God that it feels good to stand up for myself and be victorious after long months of confusion and pain[2]."

Single release

A CD Single and two 7" Vinyls were released in the UK on 18th June. The CD single features a brand new song, "Stop This Song (Love Sick Melody)", and the two vinyls feature two covers: an electronic remix of "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters, and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2.

US Single (CD)

  1. "Misery Business" - 3:18
  2. "Stop This Song (Love Sick Melody)" - 3:23

Vinyl 1

  1. "Misery Business" - 3:18
  2. "My Hero (Electronic Mix)" - 3:39

Vinyl 2

  1. "Misery Business" - 3:18
  2. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" - 4:20

Australian Single (CD)

  1. "Misery Business" - 3:18
  2. "My Hero (Electronic Mix)" - 3:39
  3. "Stop This Song (Love Sick Melody)" - 3:23

Usage in pop culture

"Misery Business" was featured on the soundtrack of EA Sports' video game NHL 08.


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