The Black Parade album turned 20 and Olivia Rodrigo did the coolest thing
📖 8 min. read
I hope you're well. I also hope you're familiar with Olivia Rodrigo, My Chemical Romance or (most likely) Taylor Swift because the most improbable thing happened over the last couple of weeks and I need to talk about it.
(If you want to sit this one out, go for it. I'm only writing about this because it's such a niche situation and I've been a fan of MCR and Taylor for 15 and 20 years respectively.)
So, if we wind back to 2006, My Chemical Romance released their album 'The Black Parade'. If, like me, you ever had an emo phase or are a fan of rock music, you've most likely heard of it. The whole album tells the story of a man diagnosed with cancer and how he feels in his last days. Over the years since its release it's become pretty influential, to say the least.
But here's the thing. It never hit #1 in the album charts.
Now, to be fair it's not the top candidate to get the top spot on the charts. It's hardly cheerful and it has a very particular demographic. The album only ever reached #2.
Skip forward to 23rd October 2026 and the album turned 20 years old. Of course, the band celebrate with a re-release of the Black Parade.
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Meanwhile, Olivia Rodrigo, a 23 year old former Disney star has just released her third album, 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love'. Olivia was born in 2003, so it's highly unlikely she was listening to the Black Parade when it was released in 2006.
Since forming her own career separate from Disney, Olivia has proven over time and with her own style that she is hugely into rock. And she's done her homework. She knows her stuff. Her latest album features duet "what's wrong with me" featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. I had to Google him, and I'm the person with a music blog!
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So what does that have to do with My Chemical Romance or Taylor Swift?
Well, Taylor Swift has become the best-selling singer/pop person whatever over the last decade. Her career was arguably on the brink of flopping back in 2019, but that's a story for another day.
Taylor is a big big fan of releasing different variations of the same album. There may be a voice note attached to one album copy; another may have different artwork or a remix of a song. As far as the charts are concerned, they all class as the same album. Granted, I understand someone maybe prefer one version to another or you may genuinely enjoy collecting different varieties and that's fine. That's up to you. By this point, however, there's no denying that Taylor uses this method to boost her sales. And she does this at risk of blocking... Well. Everyone else. How did she get her most recent album 'The Life of a Showgirl' to stay at #1 for 15 weeks straight? Variants, my friend. Variants.
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At this point, I'd like to make it explicitly clear that I am a fan of all parties mentioned, but that doesn't mean I won't critique their actions!
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Now let's get back to 2026. My Chemical Romance and their fans are getting ready to celebrate 20 years of the Black Parade. Olivia Rodrigo has released 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love' and it's charting at #1.
Olivia attends a MCR concert, posts them on her Instagram story and tags with them with a string of heart emojis. Absolute fan girl behaviour and I approve.
By the following weekend, her album has dropped to #2 and the Black Parade FINALLY HITS #1! It's taken them 20 years, but it's happened eventually. Could it have happened without Olivia posting them and figuratively stepping back to allow them the top spot? Most likely not.
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A couple of days later, My Chemical Romance's manager, Brian Schechter is quoted by the New York Times as saying (about Olivia) "she could easily try to block the band from being No 1, but from everything I saw she didn't do anything".
Gerard Way, the front man of the band later said at their gig on 30th October "Next year, we wanna go and make a record. We're probably not doing any shows. There's no secret code to that"
He continued "Let's have fun. You deserve to have fun! You don't wanna be stressed out, thinking, like 'Oh, what does this number on this box mean?' We actually don't really do that [...] Do you know how much of that [...] is coincidence?"
Allegedly, this looks like not one, but two digs at a very super famous chart-topping popstar. Maybe a blonde-haired woman with three cats. Maybe Taylor. Maybe she is the popstar who is forever littering the scene with "Easter eggs" when a lot of things just turn out by chance. Maybe she is the singer who would sent out a secret code and let her fans get all worked up in a tizzle? Hmm... Maybe. Allegedly. We could carry on going down that road but I'll save that for another day.
Anyways, I'm glad I could share this with you and hopefully I've managed to explain it in clear terms. So for those of you who were unaware, considered yourselves enlightened I guess. Idk.
Speak soon,
Bryony
