How popular was Soundgarden in the 90s?
Very popular. It took until their 4th and 5th albums to get there. Their two big albums of that time were Superunknown and Down on the Upside. They won two Grammies, several MTV video awards and sold 20 million albums worldwide with Superunkown going five times platinum. They toured with Guns and Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, Metallica, and did all of Lollapalooza. That’s pretty big. Their style of “alterna-metal” influenced the coming generation of nu-metal bands as well as them being Sub Pop’s first band to go major and also Kurt Cobain signed Nirvana to Sub Pop partly because Soundgarden was on the roster. Superunknown reached #1 on the billboard charts in the US, Australia, and New Zealand and 3 singles from the record all hit #1. Down on the Upside debuted at #2 selling 300,000 copies in it’s first week. Very popular. Chris Cornell went on to Audio Slave selling another 12 million albums with them…1 of their 3 albums debuted at #1 moving 200,000 copies it’s first
