Pearl Jam & Taylor Swift: The Music Version of Barbenheimer
Pearl Jam released their twelfth studio album, Dark Matter today (April 19). However, they’re not the only big artist to drop a new album today.
Joining the legendary band with new music today is Taylor Swift. The pop superstar released her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which she announced while accepting the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album back in February.
Naturally, today is a busy day for both the Pearl Jam and Taylor Swift fanbases, both of whom have taken to social media to talk about their respective new albums. Such a simultaneous event seems rare, but really, we’ve seen something like this before.
Emerson Lotzia, Jr. on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, “Taylor Swift and Pearl Jam dropping their new albums on the same day.” He then accompanied his comment with a split still from the films Barbie and Oppenheimer.
That’s right, friends! We got ourselves a new Barbenheimer!
taylor swift and pearl jam dropping their new albums on the same day pic.twitter.com/GiHxFcvArw
— Emerson Lotzia, Jr. (@EmersonLotzia) April 19, 2024
In the comments of Lotzia Jr.’s post, someone pitched the names #TaylorJam and #PearlSwift. Perhaps the name should take a cue from the album titles and be called “Dark Poets” or “Tortured Matter.” Whatever you want to call it, we’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Eddie Vedder’s Praise of Taylor Swift
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Eddie Vedder's kind words about Swift last month. The Pearl Jam frontman had quite the compliment for the singer-songwriter and her fans.
In an interview with Mojo, Vedder detailed his experience of attending a Swift show with one of his daughters. He talked about how much of a community Swifties were, particularly with their practice of making friendship bracelets and trading them with other fans at shows.
Vedder noted, “The craziest thing was it reminded me of punk rock crowds, of being aligned with all of the misfits in our town, back in the day. It was galvanizing and powerful.”
Of course, Swift can’t please everyone. Just ask Courtney Love.
Fan Reaction to Dark Matter
So far, fan reaction to Dark Matter appears to be overwhelmingly positive. Plenty of fans have taken to social media to share their appreciation for the new album.
One fan wrote, “Yeah the new Pearl Jam album is awesome.” Another fan, referencing Swift, wrote, “The real Tortured Poets Department is those of us listening to the new Pearl Jam album and having no one to talk to about it.”
One fan truly hit the nail on the head by writing, “Huge, huge day for music fans of all generations, even after all these years and all these records and all these generation-defining hits, it’s hard to overstate how big a deal it is when there’s a new album out by Pearl Jam.”
