Soundgarden

"Soundgarden was this tremendous band out of Seattle, which had become the center of the world in the wake of Nirvana's success. We were grateful when they came our way. Everyone on the lot was into Soundgarden, and really believed in the band. Theirs were records we would've bought if we didn't help make them; we weren't going to give up until we'd promoted them as well and reached as many people as we could. They made challenging music, and Chris Cornell had a voice of the ages. In any period, that voice would've been successful. We also put out the Temple of the Dog project, which was made up of members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. I didn't realize it was the first record Eddie Vedder ever appeared on. It was just an amazing effort, sold a million copies, and took Soundgarden to a new platform. It was the right band, the right label, at the right time."--Jerry Moss

"We think these guys will be huge. This is a band that does it the way they want to, and we're comfortable with that. If you let somebody special flourish, you can't go wrong."

"I'm overwhelmed by [Badmotorfinger]. I love it. It's so gratifying when artists provide from their hearts, and the record company can simply get behind it. We're working every possible market and radio outlet we can find."--Al Cafaro, A&M Records President, Billboard, September 2, 1991

Soundgarden signed to A&M Records in 1989 by Brian Huttenhower.

LOUDER THAN LOVE

Soundgarden took its name and that of its song "Black Hole Sun" from sculptures in their hometown of Seattle,WA.

BADMOTORFINGER

"Jesus Christ Pose" was the first single from Badmotorfinger. The song ran nearly seven minutes in length and was supported with a music video. MTv refused to air the video. Kim Thayil told Billboard, "For us to make a commercial video for MTv would be making a video for another group of people altogether--not necessarily our crowd at this point."

Thayil told Billboard how "Jesus Christ Pose" was created. "Matt was drumming this weird riff and Ben was playing the bass. Then I sort of came in with this squeaky, noisy thing over the top. Then Chris wrote a change and some lyrics."

Cameron Crowe included Soundgarden in his film "Singles" by using live footage of the band. Soundgarden was also heard in Eric Bogosian's movie, "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll."

Badmotorfinger was supported with features in metal, alternative and mainstream publications and by targeting metal, alternative and mainstream radio and retail. Album promotion began a month before the album release by providing the 150 Concrete Marketing stores a cassette player with a 5-song sampler from Badmotorfinger to use for in-store listening. Customers received a flyer about the band and could enter a telephone contest. About 150 people per day entered the contest for a chance to meet Soundgarden. The result was the customers created interest in the album before its release. 

The second phase of promotion was contest held over six weeks to win a 1969 Firebird and a trip to see Soundgarden in concert in New York. The contest ran on the Video Jukebox Network. Video Jukebox created a one-minute spot that ran one or two times every hour. The spot featured Soundgarden music, information about the band and a 900 number to call to enter the contest.

In retail stores there were bin cards and counter cards. 

In its first month of release Badmotorfinger sold about 200,000 copies.

SUPERUNKNOWN

Superunknown debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in 1994.

On April 9, 1997, Soundgarden announced that it was disbanding, By that time, their A&M albums had sold more than 20 million copies.

OFFICIAL PROMOTION BY A&M RECORDS/UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

Soundgarden: Live From the Artists Den 2019 press release