Soundgarden

Along with fellow American rock bands Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Alice In Chains, Soundgarden was a key figure in the creation of the music genre “grunge,” which is also a style of alternative rock that developed in Seattle.

Soundgarden was the first band of the grunge era to sign to a major label, although Pearl Jam and Nirvana reached more commercial success. Soundgarden – comprised of Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd – didn’t mind Pearl Jam and Nirvana’s success, however, because the genre became immensely popular in the early 1990s.

Soundgarden was formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by lead singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil and bassists Hiro Yamamoto, although Matt Cameron eventually became the band’s permanent drummer in 1986 while bassist Ben Shepherd replaced Yamamoto in 1990.

Soundgarden achieved incredibly success with their 1994 album entitled, Superunknown. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and singles “Black Hole Sun” (Best hard Rock Performance) and “Spoonman” (Best Metal Performance) yielded the band Granny Awards. The band also won a MTV Video Music Award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video on “Black Hole Sun,” as well as a Clio Award for Best Alternative Music Video for “Black Hole Sun.”

Although they broke up because of an internal conflict over the creative direction of the band, Soundgarden has sold an estimated 20 million albums worldwide, including eight million records in the United States alone.

Lead singer Chris Cornell eventually went on to have a solo career before joining the remaining members of former rock band Rage Against the Machine (minus lead singer Zach de la Rocha) to form Audioslave – an American hard rock supergroup, which included the vocals of Cornell and lead guitarist Tom Morello. Audioslave sold more than eight million records worldwide, received three Grammy nominations and was the first Ameican rock band to ever perform an open-air concert in Cuba, but the band broke up in 2007 after releasing only three albums.

“Black Hole Sun” and “Spoonman” can still be heard on radio airwaves today. And Soundgarden continues to be one of the more popular bands of the 1990s and its influence on the grunge scene makes them American rock legends.