Why the internet is confusing Taylor Swift’s new album with ‘Dead Poets Society’

It seems music lovers are confusing the name of Taylor Swift's new album with the title of a throwback Hollywood movie starring the late Robin Williams.

Swift announced the April 19 release of her upcoming album, "The Tortured Poets Department," during an acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammy Awards on Feb. 4.

After Swift's surprise announcement, Google searches for the 1989 drama "Dead Poets Society" skyrocketed 588%, according to NoDepositRewards.com, an online group that promotes casinos around the world.

Prior to the album release, fans couldn’t find too many commonalities between the two aside from both titles using the word “poets.” Then, the music video for “Fortnight” dropped April 19 and featured “Dead Poets Society” alums Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles.

Swift referenced the cameos on X, writing, “tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets.”

Sharing a black-and-white photo of the actors playing doctors in Swift’s storyline, Hawke wrote on Instagram, “‘Todd’ & ‘Knox’ from DEAD POETS SOCIETY are now PhDs in THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT,” referring to their former characters.

“It’s quite an honor,” Hawke captioned the post. “Thank you @taylorswift for the opportunity to be in the music video for your song FORTNIGHT feat. @postmalone.”

Charles also took to social media, posting a black-and-white shot of himself and Hawke heading to film the the music video, alongside throwback picture of them in “Dead Poets Society.”

“Here’s a couple of tortured old poets about to board an early flight to be pop stars for a day. Been through a lot with this dude over the years, but safe to say this was a most memorable day,” he wrote in part. “We were treated with such class by Taylor and her crew from beginning to end. What I’ll remember most was the laughter. There was a lot of it. Like we were 17 all over again.”

Before the music video, fans also pointed out that “Dead Poets Society” was released in 1989, which is the title of one Swift’s albums. "The Tortured Poets Department" also features some songs exploring sorrow and heartbreak, topics the movie explored, too.

Come to think of it, Williams’ character in the movie, an unorthodox English teacher named John Keating, inspires his young students to live by the Latin credo carpe diem, or “seize the day.” Didn’t Swift say kind of the same thing in her 2014 hit “Shake It Off”?

“The Tortured Poets Department” dropped April 19 as a surprise double album, complete with 31 songs capturing themes of love, sorrow, resilience, addiction and manipulation, among others.

Many Swifties believe some songs from the album point to Swift’s ex, Joe Alwyn, noting that the album’s title is also similar to the name of of a WhatsApp chat Alwyn was once in called “The Tortured Man Club.” Once the 31 songs were released, however, more theorized that she was not only writing about Alwyn, but also her rumored romance with Matty Healy and current boyfriend, Travis Kelce.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com