The Seattle Sound: The Evolution of Chris Cornell -- Soundgarden
by wildwoman1313
by wildwoman1313
Chris Cornell, with his four-octave range, is blessed with the voice of a rock god. As one of the founding fathers of Seattle’s grunge movement, he has fronted such innovative bands as Soundgarden and Audioslave. I recently caught Cornell at Cleveland’s House of Blues as he stumps in support of his latest solo effort Scream, which dropped in March. Scream, stirring up controversy for its pairing of grunge-rocker Cornell with hip-hop producer Timbaland, has ruffled the feathers of fans, critics, and contemporaries alike who have accused Cornell of selling out. While it’s true Scream forces fans out of their Cornell comfort zone, I have to wonder if the panning of the new record isn’t more a knee-jerk reaction to change rather than to the music itself.
Born and raised in Seattle, Cornell spent a two-year period between the ages of nine and eleven fixated on The Beatles. He suffered a severe case of clinical depression during his teenage years and rarely left the house, spending that time drinking and playing drums and guitar. Then in 1984, when he was twenty years old, Cornell, on drums and vocals, formed Soundgarden along with Kim Thayil on lead guitar and Hiro Yamamoto on bass. The band soon recruited Scott Sundquist as drummer when Cornell assumed lead vocalist role for the band. Sundquist was replaced in 1986 by Matt Cameron, current drummer for Pearl Jam, while bassist Ben Shepherd replaced Yamamoto in 1990.
Named after a wind-channeling pipe sculpture that stands on property adjacent to Magnuson Park in Seattle, Soundgarden was the first of the Seattle grunge bands to sign with a major label and the last to achieve fame. It was only after Nirvana put grunge on the map with Nevermind and Pearl Jam scored with Ten in the early 1990s that Soundgarden rose to prominence. Since then the band has sold an estimated twenty million albums worldwide.
In addition to its punk and alt-rock roots, Soundgarden was influenced by the heavy metal bands of the 1970s, in particular, Led Zeppelin. Superunknown, the band’s breakout album, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts in 1994. Inspired by the writings of Sylvia Plath, Cornell wrote a dark and mysterious album whose lyrics are often interpreted to be addressing substance abuse, suicide, and depression. More experimental than the band’s previous releases, Superunknown incorporated Middle-Eastern influences and yielded the Grammy Award-winning singles “Black Hole Sun” and “Spoonman”. The album has been certified five times platinum in the States and earned Soundgarden international recognition.
Tensions arose within the band, however, during the recording of the 1996 follow-up album, Down on the Upside, when Cornell wanted to steer the band away from its grunge roots and the heavy guitar riffing that had become its trademark, and in April 1997, Soundgarden called it quits. Any future reunion of the band seems unlikely.
Coming up, Chris Cornell joins forces with members of Rage Against the Machine to form the supergroup Audioslave.
