Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto.

The band was one of the pioneers of grunge music, a style of alternative rock that developed in the American Pacific Northwest in the mid-1980s, and helped to popularize it in the early 1990s, alongside such Seattle contemporaries as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana.

Soundgarden achieved its biggest success with the 1994 album Superunknown, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and yielded the Grammy Award-winning singles "Spoonman" and "Black Hole Sun".

The band experimented with new sonic textures on their follow-up album Down on the Upside (1996), which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned several hit singles of its own, including "Pretty Noose", "Burden in My Hand" and "Blow Up the Outside World".

[4] Soundgarden's origins began with a band called the Shemps, which performed around Seattle in the early 1980s,[5] and featured bassist Hiro Yamamoto and drummer and singer Chris Cornell.

The band named themselves after a wind-channeling pipe sculpture titled A Sound Garden,[7] on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property at 7600 Sand Point Way, next to Magnuson Park in Seattle.

The B-side of "Hunted Down", "Nothing to Say", appeared on the KCMU compilation tape Bands That Will Make Money, which was distributed to record companies, many of whom showed interest in Soundgarden.

"[22] On September 5, 1989, the band released its debut major-label album, Louder Than Love, which saw it take "a step toward the metal mainstream", according to Steve Huey of AllMusic, describing it as "a slow, grinding, detuned mountain of Sabbath/Zeppelin riffs and Chris Cornell wailing".

[25] A month before touring for Louder Than Love was to begin, bassist Hiro Yamamoto, who was becoming frustrated that he was not making much of a contribution,[26] left the band to return to college.

[27] First the band played a few rehearsals with Jim Tillman from the U-Men, but it did not work, and soon Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana, officially replaced Hiro Yamamoto on bass.

"[67] At the tour's last stop in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 9, 1997, Shepherd threw his bass into the air in frustration after suffering equipment failure, and then stormed off the stage.

[87] He has recorded seven albums as the band's drummer: Binaural (2000), Riot Act (2002), Pearl Jam (2006), Backspacer (2009), Lightning Bolt (2013), Gigaton (2020) and Dark Matter (2024).

[95] The band's interest in new releases emerged from a 2008 meeting about their shared properties, both financial and legal, where they realized Soundgarden lacked online presence such as a website or a Facebook page.

[96] Eventually the musicians decided to create an official site handled by Pearl Jam's Ten Club, relaunch their catalog, and according to Cameron, seek "a bunch of unreleased stuff we wanted to try to put out".

Cornell stated that the moment "sort of sparked the idea: If Matt, Kim, and Ben can get in a room, rehearse a couple songs, and play, maybe we all could do that as Soundgarden.

"[97][96] On October 6, 2009, all the members of Soundgarden attended Night 3 of Pearl Jam's four-night stand at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.

The message linked to a website that featured a picture of the group performing live and a place for fans to enter their e-mail addresses to get updates on the reunion.

[101] Telephantasm: A Retrospective, a new Soundgarden compilation album, was packaged with initial shipments of the Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock video game and released on September 28, 2010,[102] one week before the CD's availability in stores on October 5, 2010.

[102] A previously unreleased Soundgarden song—"Black Rain"—debuted on the Guitar Hero video game and appears on the compilation album,[102][103] which achieved platinum certification status after its first day of retail availability.

[117] In March 2012 a post on the band's official Facebook page said a new song, "Live to Rise", would be included on the soundtrack of the upcoming movie The Avengers, based on the Marvel Comics franchise.

[120] On May 5, just before The Offspring began playing their set, the band appeared as a special guest at the 20th annual KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California.

[126] On November 15, 2013, drummer Matt Cameron announced he would not be touring with Soundgarden in 2014, due to prior commitments promoting Pearl Jam's album Lightning Bolt.

[138] From the outset, the investigation into the singer's death was described by a local police spokesperson as that of a "possible suicide", based on unspecified details in the room where his body was discovered.

[143] In September 2017, drummer Matt Cameron told Billboard that he and the other surviving members of Soundgarden had yet to make a decision about the future of the band following Cornell's death.

Members of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, Alice in Chains, Melvins, Foo Fighters, and Metallica together with other notable artists performed songs from Cornell's career.

[154] On December 1, 2020, Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron performed as "members of Soundgarden" alongside Tad Doyle, Mike McCready and Meagan Grandallat at MoPOP Founders Award tribute to Alice in Chains.

[158] Soundgarden were pioneers of the grunge music genre,[159][160] which mixed elements of punk rock and metal to make a sludgy, murky sound through the use of fuzzy-sounding distortion in the guitars.

[167]Though the influence of Led Zeppelin was evident, Q magazine noted that Soundgarden were "in thrall to '70s rock, but contemptuous of the genre's overt sexism and machismo.

[4] In 1994, Electronic Arts contacted Soundgarden's label A&M Records for a bid to license the band's music for a CD-based entry in the Road Rash video game series.

[198] Several bands from different genres have cited Soundgarden as an influence, including Biffy Clyro,[199] Stabbing Westward,[200] the Dillinger Escape Plan,[201] Cave In,[202] and Iceburn.