The alternative band Chris Cornell called the greatest: “The best version”
Outcasts, misfits, and oddities: alternative rock boasts one of the most extensive and enduring legacies of any rock subgenre. Depending on who you ask, the roots of alternative rock can be found anywhere from the post-punk boom of the late 1970s to the rebellious sounds of youthful outfits like The Kinks back in the 1960s. What cannot be disputed, however, is that the 1990s were a golden age for alternative rock, with countless now-iconic groups – Soundgarden being a prominent example – beginning to break into the musical mainstream.
Emerging from the blossoming grunge scene of Seattle, Washington, back in the mid-1980s, Soundgarden were an utterly essential outfit in establishing the sounds of that movement. As they progressed, however, the Chris Cornell-fronted outfit refused to conform to any sonic expectations, instead adopting an expansive and ever-adapting sound which drew upon everything from heavy metal to alternative rock. Not only did this development help to make Soundgarden one of the most beloved outfits of the grunge movement, but it also acted as a staunch rebellion against the cookie-cutter sound that grunge quickly became.
Originally, grunge was born from an amalgamation of influences, revolving predominantly around the world of hardcore punk. Like with any niche subgenre that gets picked up by the mainstream, however, grunge soon descended into little more than a fashion, with rich kids donning worn-out flannels and singing songs of self-loathing accompanied by a Superfuzz pedal.
Meanwhile, the wider alt-rock scene was becoming increasingly conformist, too. The success of groups like REM set the standard for the alt-rock sound, but it inevitably led to countless pretenders to the throne peddling unimaginative records. Cornell and Soundgarden were particularly frustrated by this conformity, both in grunge and wider alternative rock.
In fact, it was that disenfranchisement with the increasingly tight parameters of alternative rock which inspired Soundgarden’s endearingly eclectic output. During a 2014 interview with Radio.com, Cornell revealed his disappointment with the alt-rock scene of the early 1990s, highlighting, “This idea that alternative had to be somewhat androgynous. You couldn’t be, in any way, aggressive. It was jangly. If you were a guitar band, you couldn’t have keyboards, you couldn’t have a trumpet.”
“You couldn’t do anything except for this rigid template, and I always wanted to smash that,” he continued. To the songwriter and his band, that rigid template stood against everything that the alternative rock banner should have stood for. “That didn’t make any sense,” he declared. “How did this whole generation of bands and musicians that came from a free-for-all of post-punk indie immediately corner themselves in this corner of ‘we can only do five things’?”
There were, of course, groups who pulled off those five specific things expertly, but as the scene became more and more saturated, the less engaging its various groups became, at least in the mind of Chris Cornell. “The Pixies seemed to be the best version of that, so why bother?” He concluded, “The best version already exists.”
Pixies were certainly the kings of alternative rock for much of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and their distinctive image birthed a deluge of lesser bands all attempting to evoke the same sounds, which were themselves imitations of old-school post-punk. It is difficult to disagree with Cornell’s account of the period; it might have fostered a reputation as a golden age, but in reality, there were only a handful of groups driving the scene forward into new and interesting directions.
