One Direction fans have turned on Hayley Williams of Paramore, after she accused the boyband of plagiarising her boyfriend’s group on their new single.
This week the boys premiered their new track ‘Steal My Girl’ - which will act as lead single from their imaginatively titled fourth album ‘FOUR’ - and while it’s received a predictably warm welcome from Directioners online, Hayley has been less complimentary about the lads’ latest release.
Hayley Williams of Paramore
The Paramore frontwoman was perturbed to notice the song’s introduction bore a striking resemblance to a guitar riff played by her boyfriend, New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert, and vented her frustrations on Twitter, writing:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the band’s die-hard fans were not exactly thrilled to hear her criticism, and fired back in their droves...
Hayley has since defended herself, claiming she didn’t mean any offence to One Direction themselves, and was more upset with “whoever pitched or co-wrote the song”.
One Direction. Obviously
Meanwhile, other Twitter users have now gone a step further and accused Hayley of being a hypocrite, with some online critics saying that the New Found Glory track she’s referring to sounds an awful lot like ‘Faithfully’ by Journey...
Oh dear.
This isn’t the first time One Direction’s songs have provoked debate over their riffs, with the introduction to ‘Live While We’re Young’ being heavily criticised for its striking resemblance to The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’.
Similarly, when ‘Best Song Ever’ first debuted last year, its introduction was compared to The Who’s track ‘Baba O’Riley’.
In case you want to make your own judgment about whether or not the new One Direction single is a rip-off of New Found Glory, then you can listen to ‘Steal My Girl’ below:
And here’s the video for ‘It’s Not Your Fault’:
And finally, in the interest of fairness, have a listen to ‘Faithfully’ here:
‘Steal My Girl’ will be available in the UK from 12 October, and will come with a special remix of the song by Liam Payne, dubbed the ‘Big Payno & Afterhrs Pool Party Remix’, as its B-side.