The 1989 song Soundgarden used to parody the stupid side of rock: “Ditch all the euphemisms”
Pretty much every band to come out of the Seattle grunge scene had been influenced by Soundgarden in some fashion.
They were one of the first bands in the door, having formed a solid decade before the Seattle scene reached its peak in popularity. Original bassist Hiro Yamamoto was roommates with Sub Pop Records founder Bruce Pavitt, and when it came time to release their debut EP Screaming Life, Sub Pop was the label that put it out.
This is all to say that, had you been a musician around Seattle before grunge went mainstream, you definitely knew of and probably had heard Soundgarden before. The band set the precedent for a number of their acolytes, including being the first act to sign to a major record label, A&M Records. But Soundgarden wasn’t about to sell out to the corporate rock stooges, and they had a song that perfectly laid out what they thought about the mainstream rock world.
‘Big Dumb Sex’ is perhaps the least subtle and nuanced song that Soundgarden ever released. On an album where the group finally found their feet, playing with detuned riffs, odd time signatures, and choppy grooves, ‘Big Dumb Sex’ included exactly none of those elements. And for good reason, too: it was meant to be a parody of hair metal bands.
At the time, that kind of satire reflected a growing divide between the emerging Seattle scene and the dominant hard rock culture of the late 1980s. Glam metal had become increasingly associated with excess, superficiality and formulaic songwriting, while bands like Soundgarden were pushing toward something heavier, darker and more emotionally complex.
“We thought we’ll ditch all the euphemisms and say what all the disco dance bands had been trying to say”
Chris Cornell
‘Big Dumb Sex’ deliberately exaggerated the clichés of mainstream rock to the point of absurdity, mocking the genre’s obsession with sex and macho posturing by stripping away any sense of subtlety.
The irony, of course, is that many listeners missed the joke entirely. Thanks to its huge riffs and chaotic energy, the track worked convincingly as a hard rock song even while parodying the style itself. That tension became part of Soundgarden’s appeal throughout their career, with the band often balancing sharp self-awareness against genuinely powerful musicianship. Even when they were making fun of rock conventions, they were still capable of sounding heavier and more compelling than many of the acts they criticised.
“We thought we’ll ditch all the euphemisms and say what all the disco dance bands had been trying to say for a decade,” guitarist Kim Thayil claimed. “It’s a parody of the whole genre of stupid rock.”
Chris Cornell goes full goofball on the track, spitting out “fuck” 35 different times throughout the song. It wouldn’t be the last time that Soundgarden took aim at what they saw as posturing wannabes: 1991’s ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ had its origins in Cornell’s own personal distaste of Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Ferrell.
“You just see it a lot with really beautiful people, or famous people, exploiting that symbol as to imply that they’re either a deity or persecuted somehow by their public,” Cornell told Spin in 1992. “So it’s pretty much a song that is nonreligious but expressing being irritated by seeing that. It’s not that I would ever be offended by what someone would do with that symbol.”
Check out ‘Big Dumb Sex’ down below.
