How many grunge albums sold over one million copies?
“The rest of the country and the world and probably a lot of the bands that play in Seattle now think that what the Seattle scene was about is Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Alice in Chains—guitar-based rock with punk influences and ‘70s influences,” Chris Cornell considered, in a 1994 interview, continuing, “And that’s so far from what was going on”.
The concept of the ‘Seattle sound’, loosely highlighted by the vague descriptor of ‘grunge’, is perhaps the largest marketing tactic employed by the music industry. As Cornell noted, the industry (and audiences, as a result) latched on to the subversive energy that grunge afforded them, and after the glittering era of glam metal hedonism that dominated the airwaves prior, who could blame them? Grunge was a much-needed alternative, but what the media failed to recognise was the rich history that the subgenre grew from.
“What was left out was the completely experimental music, from free jazz to theatrical bands to a lot of very gothic-bent bands,” Cornell added, indicating that while grunge did indeed plant its roots in the punk scene of the 1980s, it founded its signature darkness in the gothic and its inherently experimental guitar tunings and stylings in a wide range of musical niches. Where grunge became known for its nihilism and distortion, it was, in fact, much more multifaceted than the media gave it credit for.
Glaringly absent were the women who defined grunge’s sound and ethos: Bam Bam, fronted by the formidable Tina Bell, emerged in Seattle in 1983 as one of grunge’s progenitors, though they never achieved their due recognition on account of the sexism and racism Bell was subject to. Olympia, Washington’s Bikini Kill and their singer, Kathleen Hanna, kickstarted the riot grrrl movement, merging punk rock with a feminist reckoning of intersectional oppressions, combating forms of abuse, patriarchy, classism and more. Beyond Seattle, female-fronted bands including Hole, L, Babes in Toyland, Lunachicks and countless others persisted in the male-centric landscape that unjustly prioritised their male counterparts.
Still, in grunge’s wake, the era would be defined by the so-called ‘Big Four’ of the genre: Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam, all of whom would eventually reach millions in album sales, as grunge began to trickle into the mainstream.
Which grunge albums sold over one million copies?
While Green River’s 1985 EP Come on Down is often credited as the first grunge record, Cornell and his band Soundgarden (of whom both appeared on the 1986 compilation Deep Six) would achieve more recognition, particularly with their third album, 1991’s Badmotorfinger, which has sold over 2million copies. In the 1990s, it achieved a million and was named among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992, and its follow-up, 1994’s Superunknown, saw their proper breakthrough, evolving their lyrical and sonic darkness into new realms that resulted in the selling of over 6m copies.
Before breaking up in 1997, their final album, 1996’s Down on the Upside, took a melodic spin, favouring acoustic and raw sounds, and while selling a lesser 1.6m copies in the United States, the album rounded out Soundgarden’s first iteration and grunge’s initial wave.
Alice In Chains experienced somewhat of a slow burn to fame with their debut album, 1990’s Facelift, only selling under 40,000 copies in its first six months but then, thanks to MTV’s rotation of their single, ‘Man in the Box’, Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell’s unmistakable harmonies would gain momentum and begin to make ‘grunge’ a household name. Facelift would go on to sell over 3m copies, and each of Alice In Chains’ successive albums, from 1992’s Dirt, their 1995 self-titled project, 1996 MTV Unplugged live album, to their 1994 EP Jar of Flies, would see their sales reach the millions.
“There was always an optimism, even in the darkest shit we wrote,” Cantrell reflected to The Skinny in 2013, “With Dirt, it’s not like we were saying, ‘Oh yeah, this is a good thing’. It was more of a warning than anything else, rather than, ‘Hey, come and check this out, it’s great!’,” noting that “there was always a survivor element” to Alice In Chains’ music.
When Green River disbanded in 1987, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament attempted to continue with the formation of Mother Love Bone, fronted by vocalist Andrew Wood, but Wood’s premature death in 1990 would see the band’s early end. Slowly beginning to write music in the aftermath, Gossard, joined by Ament and guitarist Mike McCready, recruited Eddie Vedder on vocals and Dave Krusen on drums, eventually performing under the name Pearl Jam.
Their 1991 debut album, Ten, and its heavy classic rock influences would spark a sensation, going on to sell 13m copies in the United States as of 2013. Like Alice In Chains, whom they opened for in their early days, each of their successive releases would see millions of sales. Following up with 1993’s Vs, 1994’s Vitalogy, 1996’s No Code and 1998’s Yield, Pearl Jam’s popularity spilt into the second wave of post-grunge.
With Kurt Cobain as the reluctant “voice of a generation”, Nirvana and their 1991 album Nevermind continue to reign as the highest-selling grunge album (and one of the most successful albums of all time), with over 30m copies sold worldwide. Nevermind found popularity in its introspective songwriting, channelling a sensitivity soundtracked to hard rock and acoustic melodies, alongside its unforgettable album cover and the unprecedented breakthrough of its lead single, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Following the phenomenon of Nevermind, Nirvana’s follow-ups, In Utero and the MTV Unplugged gig, would achieve millions in sales, leading up to Cobain’s passing in 1994, after which their pre-Nevermind debut album, 1989’s Bleach, would also eventually reach over one million sales.
Several bands across grunge’s many iterations, including the supergroups Mad Season and Temple of the Dog, would see millions in sales, but the ‘Big Four’ spearheaded grunge’s takeover of the mainstream, earning the majority of Platinum-status record sales and growing to define the era.
