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 once again.

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 the band's sixth studio album, King Animal, in 2012, the last album to be released in Cornell's lifetime.

Cornell died by suicide in 2017, resulting in the band's second breakup. They continued to occasionally reunite: first for a one-off tribute concert to Cornell in January 2019, second in December 2024 under the anagram Nudedragons for a Seattle benefit concert, and third in November 2025 for Soundgarden's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined by Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlile, both on vocals. Despite being officially defunct as a band, the surviving members are working on Soundgarden's planned seventh and final studio album using unfinished tracks that were recorded by Cornell prior to his death. The band performed at the halftime show for a Seattle Seahawks game on September 9, 2026. The band was joined by Momsen on vocals and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready on guitar, and played "Outshined" and "Spoonman".

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.