The band Chris Cornell thought was out of everybody’s league: “Better than any other”
None of the members of the Seattle grunge scene were looking to be that level of popular. They certainly had aspirations beyond living off of gas station hot dogs and playing to 20 people, but playing in stadiums around the world felt unthinkable compared to what was happening in the hair metal scene around the same time. While Chris Cornell was every bit the rock god people were looking for, he admitted that one of his fellow Seattle groups handled fame better than anyone else.
Looking back on how Soundgarden’s career unfolded, though, they always seemed to be either too early or too late for primetime. Although they had been one of the founding members of the scene before the 1990s even started, they seemed to be too punk for the mainstream and too arena-ready for their peers. Even when they got endorsements from people like Kurt Cobain, their music was always second fiddle to whatever Alice in Chains and Nirvana were doing.
By the time they finally reached the pinnacle of their success, though, the grunge wave was on its way out. While Superunknown should be counted among the all-time classics for grunge purists, the fact that Cobain was found dead only a few months before it came out meant that the genre’s days were already numbered. It would take a new kind of band to punch o through and keep throwing shots for the full 12 rounds, and that band wouldbe Pearl Jam, led by Eddie Vedder.
“I think music is the greatest art form that exists,” Eddie Vedder once said, mirroring the same feeling mos of the band’s fans have, “and I think people listen to music for different reasons, and it serves different purposes. The best songs are the ones that make you feel something.”
Pearl Jam burst out of the Pacific Northwest to become a worldwide phenomenon with their unique brand of alternative rock. The group, led by the empirical vocal talent of Eddie Vedder, have been crafting searing songs with a purpose for decades. Arriving in the late ’80s, they begrudgingly hold the title as one of grunge’s inspiring forefathers and are pioneers of rock music’s shift from glamour and glitz to grime and grit. Even now, in the second decade of the 21st century, Pearl Jam are as potent as ever.
Whereas Soundgarden spent the most time building up their success, Pearl Jam was practically hurled into the limelight when they arrived. Although Mother Love Bone’s demise left a sour taste in almost every member’s mouth, having Eddie Vedder get gravelly on tunes like ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Alive’ was what fans needed to hear, practically being a breath of fresh air from the high singers clogging up the airwaves.
Even though this sudden success was too much for Cobain to take, Vedder had a plan for what to do with Pearl Jam. Rather than try to say yes to everything, they made the most out of scaling things back, balancing the big hits like ‘Better Man’ with wild experiments across albums like No Code or Binaural.
While Soundgarden would call it a day right as the 2000s were dawning, Cornell still thought that Pearl Jam was the archetype for how an alternative band should cope with fame, saying, “[They’re] better than any other band almost in history to have had that kind of enormous success, they dealt with it really eloquently. I think that set a great example to other musicians that, you know what, you can actually control the media spotlight. I think they stayed vital.”
And for those stuck around after the glitter faded, Pearl Jam turned in one of the more unique careers of any grunge act. While many of their recent albums haven’t exactly had radio singles, they are still unique detours for them, whether that’s the new wave style of Backspacer, going full stadium rock on Lightning Bolt, and even flirting with a bit of Talking Heads-style songs on Gigaton.
So, while Pearl Jam might not have taken the road that most people wanted them to take during the first part of their career, they’re a much better band for what they became. Anyone can have that fame for a few minutes, but Vedder had his eye on a career rather than a musical fireworks show.
