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Ten
Ten is het debuutalbum van de Amerikaanse rockband Pearl Jam en is uitgegeven op 27 augustus 1991 bij Epic Records. Ten is tot op heden het best verkopende album van de band en wordt gezien als een van de meest iconische albums van de jaren 90. Het won verschillende prijzen waaronder één gouden plaat in het Verenigd Koninkrijk, de platina status in Nederland en dertienmaal platina in de Verenigde Staten (meer dan 13 miljoen exemplaren werden verkocht).
Vanaf 2018 staat Ten op de eerste plaats van de Album Top 500 Allertijden van Veronica. Lezers van het gezaghebbende Amerikaanse blad Rolling Stone plaatsten Ten op plek 19 van de Top 100 Albums aller tijden in 2002.
Van het album verschenen vier singles: Alive, Even Flow, Jeremy en Oceans. Alive was de eerste single en is waarschijnlijk het bekendste nummer van de band. Het zorgde voor de enorme aandacht die eind 1991 voor de band ontstond en van Pearl Jam een van de grootste rockacts maakte. Jeremy werd begeleid door een veel op MTV gedraaide videoclip.
Het nummer Black is nooit als single uitgegeven maar veel geprezen. In de Top 2000 stond het in 2020 op plek zes en in 2021 op plek negen. In Vlaanderen stond dit nummer in de jaren 2015-2020 op nummer 1 van de Tijdloze 100 van Studio Brussel als allerbeste song aller tijden. In 2021 stond het op de tweede plek.
Ten is the debut studio album by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991, through Epic Records. Following the dissolution of their previous band Mother Love Bone in 1990, bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard began rehearsing with new guitarist Mike McCready. The group recorded a five-song instrumental demo tape that included contributions from Matt Cameron on drums. Copies of the demo were eventually given to drummer Dave Krusen and vocalist Eddie Vedder, both of whom were invited to audition for the band in Seattle. Many of the songs on Ten were instrumental jams or reworked Mother Love Bone songs for which Vedder provided lyrics.
Despite its reputation as a quintessential grunge album, Ten is often noted for displaying a stronger classic rock influence than other contemporary grunge releases, drawing comparisons to the work of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. The album is also characterised as having an anthemic, rich sound. Ten was not an immediate commercial success, but by late 1992, it had reached number two on the Billboard 200. The album produced three hit singles: "Alive", "Even Flow", and "Jeremy".
"Jeremy" became one of Pearl Jam's best-known songs, and received nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Hard Rock Performance at the 35th Grammy Awards. MTV put the video for "Jeremy" into heavy rotation; it received four awards at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year and Best Group Video. In 2021, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Beyond its role in consolidating the mainstream success of grunge rock in the early 1990s, Ten is generally considered to have been instrumental in the rise and dominance of alternative rock throughout the decade. The album has since been ranked by several publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. By February 2013, it had sold 13 million copies in the US, becoming the 22nd record to do so in the Nielsen SoundScan era, and has been certified 13× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Ten remains Pearl Jam's most commercially successful album.