Soundgarden

Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Scott Sundquist was brought in to play drums in 1985 so that Cornell could focus solely on vocals. Sundquist was soon replaced on drums by Matt Cameron in 1986. Yamamoto left in 1989 and was replaced initially by Jason Everman and shortly thereafter by Ben Shepherd. Soundgarden disbanded in 1997 and reformed in 2010. Following Cornell's death in 2017, Thayil declared in October 2018 that Soundgarden had disbanded a second time. The surviving members of the band have since continued to occasionally work together, including reuniting for a one-off concert in tribute to Cornell in January 2019, then again in December 2024 for a benefit concert in Seattle, with Shaina Shepherd on vocals, under the anagram Nudedragons, and for Soundgarden's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2025, joined by Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlile on vocals.

Soundgarden was one of the pioneers of grunge music, a style of alternative rock that developed in the American Pacific Northwest in the mid-1980s, and helped to popularize it in the early 1990s, alongside such Seattle contemporaries as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. They were the first of a number of grunge bands to sign to the Seattle-based record label Sub Pop, through which they released two EPs: Screaming Life (1987) and Fopp (1988). Soundgarden's debut album, Ultramega OK, was also released in 1988 by the Los Angeles-based independent label SST Records; although the album did not sell well nationally, it garnered critical acclaim and the band's first Grammy Award nomination. Soundgarden was the first grunge band to be signed to a major label when they signed to A&M Records in 1988. The release of their second album, Louder Than Love (1989), was the band's first album to enter the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 108, and spawned two radio hits: "Hands All Over" and "Loud Love".

Soundgarden's third album, Badmotorfinger (1991), helped usher in the mainstream success of grunge. The album was buoyed by the success of the singles "Jesus Christ Pose", "Outshined", and "Rusty Cage", reached number 39 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The band's fourth album, Superunknown (1994), expanded their popularity; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and yielded the Grammy Award-winning singles "Spoonman" and "Black Hole Sun". Soundgarden experimented with new sonic textures on their follow-up album Down on the Upside (1996), which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned several hit singles of its own, including "Pretty Noose", "Burden in My Hand", and "Blow Up the Outside World". In 1997, the band broke up due to internal strife over its creative direction and exhaustion from touring. After more than a decade of working on projects and other bands, they reunited in 2010. Republic Records released their sixth and final studio album, King Animal, in 2012.

By 2019, Soundgarden had sold more than 14 million records in the United States and an estimated 30 million worldwide. VH1 ranked them at number 14 in their special, 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock list. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.

History

Formation and early recordings (1984–1988)

Soundgarden's origin is a band called the Shemps, which had performed around Seattle in the early 1980s and included bassist Hiro Yamamoto and drummer and singer Chris Cornell. Following Yamamoto's departure, the band recruited guitarist Kim Thayil as its new bassist. Thayil moved to Seattle from Park Forest, Illinois, with Yamamoto and Bruce Pavitt, who later started the independent record label Sub Pop. Cornell and Yamamoto stayed in contact, and after the Shemps broke up Cornell and Yamamoto started jamming together, and were eventually joined by Thayil.

Soundgarden was formed in 1984 and included Cornell (drums and vocals), Yamamoto (bass), and Thayil (guitar). The band named themselves after a wind-channeling pipe sculpture titled A Sound Garden, on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property at 7600 Sand Point Way, next to Magnuson Park in Seattle. Cornell originally played drums while singing, but in 1985 the band enlisted Scott Sundquist to allow Cornell to concentrate on vocals. The band traveled around playing various concerts with this lineup for about a year. Their first recordings were three songs that appeared on the 1986 compilation album for C/Z Records called Deep Six: "Heretic", "Tears to Forget" and "All Your Lies". It also featured songs by fellow grunge pioneers Green River, Skin Yard, Malfunkshun, the U-Men, and the Melvins. In 1986, Cornell's then-girlfriend and future wife, Susan Silver started managing Soundgarden. In the same year, Sundquist left the band to spend time with his family and was replaced by former Skin Yard drummer Matt Cameron.

A Soundgarden performance one night impressed KCMU DJ Jonathan Poneman, who later said: "I saw this band that was everything rock music should be." Poneman offered to fund a release by the band, so Thayil suggested he team up with Bruce Pavitt. Poneman offered to contribute $20,000 in funding for Sub Pop, effectively turning it into a full-fledged record label. Soundgarden signed to Sub Pop, and the label released "Hunted Down" in 1987 as the band's first single. The B-side of "Hunted Down", "Nothing to Say", appeared on the KCMU compilation tape Bands That Will Make Money, which was distributed to record companies, many of whom showed interest in Soundgarden. Through Sub Pop, the band released the Screaming Life EP in 1987, and the Fopp EP in 1988, and a combination of the two, Screaming Life/Fopp, in 1990.

Ultramega OK, major label signing, and Louder Than Love (1988–1990)

Though major labels were courting the band, in 1988 they signed to the independent label SST Records for their debut album, Ultramega OK, released on October 31, 1988. Cornell said the band "made a huge mistake with Ultramega OK" because they used a producer suggested by SST who "didn't know what was happening in Seattle." According to Steve Huey of AllMusic, Soundgarden demonstrates a "Stooges/MC5-meets-Zeppelin/Sabbath sound" on the album. Mark Miremont directed the band's first music video for "Flower", which aired regularly on MTV's 120 Minutes. Soundgarden promoted Ultramega OK on a tour in the United States in the spring of 1989, and a tour in Europe which began in May of that year—the band's first overseas tour. Ultramega OK earned the band a Grammy Award nomination for Best Metal Performance in 1990.

The band signed with A&M Records in mid-1988, which had caused a rift between Soundgarden and its traditional audience. Thayil said, "In the beginning, our fans came from the punk rock crowd. They abandoned us when they thought we sold out the punk tenets, getting on a major label and touring with Guns N' Roses. There were fashion issues and social issues, and people thought we no longer belonged to their scene, to their particular sub-culture." The band began work on its first album for a major label, but personnel difficulties caused a shift in the band's songwriting process. According to Cornell, "At the time Hiro [Yamamoto] excommunicated himself from the band and there wasn't a free-flowing system as far as music went, so I ended up writing a lot of it." On September 5, 1989, the band released its debut major-label album, Louder Than Love, which saw it take "a step toward the metal mainstream", according to Steve Huey of AllMusic, describing it as "a slow, grinding, detuned mountain of Sabbath/Zeppelin riffs and Chris Cornell wailing". Because of some of the lyrics, most notably on "Hands All Over" and "Big Dumb Sex", the band faced various retail and distribution problems upon the album's release. Louder Than Love became Soundgarden's first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 108, and it was also the first grunge album to enter that chart. This accomplishment was aided by two singles — "Hands All Over" and "Loud Love" — that gained the band exposure on MTV's Headbangers Ball, and mainstream rock radio stations outside of Seattle such as KNAC, WMMS, KRZQ, WBCN, Z Rock and KISS-FM.