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To this day, no one can define quite what "grunge" meant back in the early 1990's, but everyone agrees that the Seattle outfit Soundgarden were one of the hard-edged genre's pioneers. Typically, the band is lumped together with other certified grunge acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and it's true that they shared many of the same local stages before they all hit it big. However, Soundgarden were one of the only bands on the scene who actually knew how to play their instruments. Most grunge acts built on the loud and sloppy rock style established by punk music. Soundgarden, on the other hand, played grunge music like a heavy metal band, unleashing massive anthems and blistering, intricate guitar solos. Frontman Chris Cornell had a haunted wail that carried perfectly over guitar god Kim Thayil's fetishistic, fractured playing and the band's aggressive live shows became legendary. But if most metal bands at the time played straightforward songs about either world destruction (heavy metal) or girls (hair metal,) Soundgarden were channeling another, weirder world. Fractured lyrics and bursts of sludgy, druggy noise ultimately made Soungarden less accessible than many of their Seattle-scene peers, while still earning the band a devoted following. This also explains why, even though Soundgarden are considered to have been the first "grunge"act to sign with a major label (A&M,) they were the last one to achieve mainstream commercial success. With 1994's Superunknown, Soundgarden finally made it onto the radio with the dark, atmospheric anthem "Black Hole Sun."Paired with a terrifying video of plastic, smiling people melting in what may or may not have been a nuclear blast, the single helped Soundgarden break sales records and sell out stadiums. Unfortunately, success and heavy drug use proved divisive for the band and their post-Superunnknown career was spotty until they officially broke up in 1997. Since then, Chris Cornell has cut his hair and joined the hard-rock band Audioslave with members of Rage Against the Machine, while Kim Thayil has played on records with numerous contemporaries including The Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra and Dave Grohl.

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