Pearl Jam’s Twenty Years of Producing Great Music
The American rock band was formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. From its formation as a band, the line-up included Eddie Vedder on the lead vocals and guitar, Jeff Ament on the bass guitar, Stone Gossard on the rhythm guitar, and Mike McCready on the lead guitar. Currently, the band’s drummer is Matt Cameron of Sound Garden. The band was formed after the disbandment of Ament and Gossard’s previous band, Mother Love Bone. Over the course of their music career, the band is known for not adhering to the traditional practices of the music industry. The band has also undergone series of band member changes.
Entering the music scene with ‘Ten’ in March 1991, the album was slow to sell. However, by the year 1992, it became breakthrough success reaching a certified gold status and being number two on the Billboard chart. In support of ‘Ten’, the band toured relentlessly and became known for their intense live performances. In October 1993, Pearl Jam released their second album ‘Vs.’. On its first week of release, ‘Vs.’ sold 950,378 copies and it outperformed all the other Billboard top ten entries for that week combined. While on tour for ‘Vs.’, the band wrote and recorded most of the track for their next album ‘Vitalogy’. ‘Vitalogy’ was then released in November 22, 1994 on vinyl. Two weeks later on December 6, 1994, it was released on CDs and cassettes. The ‘Vitalogy’ CD became the second fastest selling CD in history as it sold more than 877,000 units during its first week of release. Exactly five years after the release of Pearl Jam’s debut album, they released their studio album ‘No Code’. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, but quickly fell down and the band spent little time touring for ‘No Code’. The band’s fifth studio album, ‘Yield’, was released in February 1998. It debuted at number two on the Billboard charts but it also dropped quickly, as with ‘No Code’. On May 2000, Pearl Jam released their sixth studio album, ‘Binaural’. ‘Binaural’ sold just over 700,000 copies and it was Pearl Jam’s first studio album that failed to reach the platinum status. Pearl Jam then decided to record every show on their 2000 Binaural tour. Between 200 and 2001, the band has already released 72 live albums, while setting a record of having the most albums to debut on the Billboard 200 at the same time. Their European tour ended in tragedy during the Roskilde Festival in Denmark where nine fans died. On November 2002, the band released their seventh album, ‘Riot Act’ which includes the track ‘Arc’, a tribute to the nine people who died at the Roskilde Festival. Their eight album entitled ‘Pearl Jam’, was released in 2006. In 2009, the band reissued four editions of their debut album ‘Ten’. As follow up for their ‘Pearl Jam’, the band released their ninth studio album ‘Backspacer’ in 2009. It debuted at number one on the Billboard music charts.
Not only is Nirvana’s legendary ‘Nevermind’ album celebrating its 20th anniversary this 2011. Twenty years has passed since Pearl Jam released their debut album ‘Ten’. It was released in August 27, and during those times, music critic have doubted the band. With Pearl Jam albums and 60 million records yet, the band is considered to be among the most influential rock band of the 90s. Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ album matched the ‘Nevermind’ of Nirvana for having a platinum record-for-platinum record. As of now, Pearl Jam continues to be one of the most respected names in rock music over the past 20 years, and the album ‘Ten’ started it all. With songs such as Alive, Black, Even Flow, and Jeremy that are forever entwined with that era, they are still holding up really well these days. In commemoration of their 20th anniversary as a band, they have a whole year celebration this 2011 with festivities like the release of their album ‘Live on Ten Legs’, re-issues of their albums ‘Vs’ and ‘Vitalogy’ in deluxe format, as well as the upcoming release of the film ‘Pearl Jam Twenty’ which was directed by Cameron Crowe along with a book and a soundtrack album. Pearl Jam tickets are also available for their upcoming tour.
