Pearl Jam
Loved by millions, as well as hated by millions for being loved by so many. Considered Seattle sellouts as well as the best band to emerge from the "grunge" scene. Pearl Jam was the biggest rock band in the world. Was. By their avoiding, ignoring, and even fighting many of the various commercial outlets that transformed them into stars, Pearl Jam's once-dedicated fans began losing interest, eventually moving on to the next big thing.

Long before Seattle broke open and "grunge" was born, bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard formed the seminal Seattle punk band Green River (1984); when that group dissolved a couple years later, they started the glam-leaning Mother Love Bone (1988) with singer Andrew Wood. Just before MLB's 1990 debut, Apple, was to be released, Wood died of a drug overdose. (Apple was released in '92 under the title Mother Love Bone.) Devastated, the group disbanded, but Ament and Gossard continued to play together, and in the summer of '90, they began making music with guitarist Mike McCready. Through those early jam sessions, the trio recorded a demo tape that was given to Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, who passed it along to a fellow surfer, Eddie Vedder, who was singing in a San Diego band. Vedder dubbed his own vocals onto the tape and mailed it back; one trip to Seattle, and Vedder's tremulous scream and troubled-man emotive power became the voice of the band. By fall, with drummer Dave Krusen, they had played their first Seattle gig using the name Mookie Blaylock (some basketball player), recorded a demo, and completed their first West Coast tour as the opening act for Alice In Chains. Although still avid basketball fans (especially Ament), the band changed its name to Pearl Jam.

In April '91, the stellar Temple Of The Dog was released; a tribute to Andrew Wood, the album featured Ament, Gossard, vocalists Vedder and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, and drummer Matt Cameron. In May '91, Pearl Jam released a promotional single with the songs "Alive," "Wash," and their version of the Beatles' "I've Got A Feeling," and then began recording their Epic Records debut, Ten. That same month, after a wrap party for the film Singles (in which Pearl played Matt Dillion's backing band, Citizen Dick), Krusen left the group, and several months later, Dave Abbruzzese joined. Released in August '91, Ten reached the number two spot on the Billboard charts a year after its release, thanks to MTV staples and radio hits as "Jeremy," "Alive," and "Evenflow."

By this time, Seattle was hip and Pearl Jam were it (along with Nirvana); the band appeared on Saturday Night Live, headlined Lollapalooza II as well as their own tours, and began racking up awards. The magnitude of the band's popularity became evident when their follow-up, Vs., was released in October '93, entering the Top 200 album chart at number one with record-setting sales of 950,000 the first week--350,000 within the first 24 hours. At this point, it seemed more about the band than the music; still, with better production and better songs ("Daughter," "Glorified G," "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town"), Vs. sold well, even without any music videos to promote it.

As the reigning kings of rock, Pearl Jam had a tremendous amount of influence and the power to make a difference--or so they hoped. In an effort to keep ticket prices under $20 on their 1994 tour, they took on the dominant ticket agency, Ticketmaster, and attempted to book a tour without using the corporation. After they were unable to find suitable venues that did not have exclusive contracts with Ticketmaster, they filed a memo with the U.S. Justice Department's anti-trust division, stating that Ticketmaster controls a monopoly and that the agency pressured promoters not to handle Pearl Jam. After Ament and Gossard spoke at Congressional meetings, an investigation was undertaken; however, a year later, the case was dropped.

While Ten was a big-rock record with raw, old-skool riffs and Vs. a cleaner, more accomplished version of the same formula with some variety and experimentation, when Pearl Jam returned with their third album, 1994's Vitalogy, they stripped away that big-rock formula for a heady mixture of near-punk noise jams (not the best formula for Vedder) and sparse paintings that highlighted the singer's voice. Although much of Vitalogy would normally be hated by mainstream America (such as "Spin The Black Circle" and "Bugs"), with the name of Pearl Jam attached, the record debuted at number one, and with a few radio-ready songs ("Nothingman," "Better Man," "Not For You," "Corduroy"), the band remained on top. However, with a string of canceled tour dates and no videos on MTV, they soon started to slip out of the reach of their fans.

Pearl Jam took a much-needed break in 1995 to back up "godfather of grunge" Neil Young on his Mirror Ball album before they started work on their own fourth LP. Despite waning interest in the band, the five musicians (now with Jack Irons in the Spinal Tap seat) went ahead recorded their least commercial record, 1996's experimental, worldbeat-influenced No Code, which again debuted at number one, but dropped off the charts rather quickly after that, despite widespread critical acclaim. Perhaps this is why Pearl Jam returned to a more straightahead rock sound on 1998's Yield; they even broke their "no videos" policy and agreed to make a video for one of its tracks, "Do The Evolution" (albeit it an animated one in which they did not appear). While these moves were warmly received, landing the album at number two on the charts, like its predecessor, Yield quickly faded after its first week. However, Pearl Jam were still a successful touring outfit, and their many huge live shows resulted a glut of concert albums. First they released Live On Two Legs the same year as Yield, and later, in 2000 and 2001, they issued an unprecented series of official bootlegs: 72 different live CDs, each containing a single concert in its entirety. Clearly, Pearl Jam still wanted to do things their own way, on their own terms.

Although many considered Pearl Jam's grunge glory days to be over by the time No Code came out, the band ironically scored their biggest radio hit in 1999 with a cover of the Cavaliers' 1964 one-hit wonder "Last Kiss"; the song had originally been issued as a fanclub-only single until demand from radio listeners prompted its commercial release. Still, despite this fluke success, the album that followed, 2000's Binaural, failed to make much impact in a market saturated by teen-pop. However, with their seventh album Riot Act--their strongest release in years--Pearl Jam seem set for a full-scale comeback, as the album arrives amid a sea of successful third-generation imitators (Creed, Nickelback) and renewed interest in Seattle/grunge due to the release of Nirvana's recent greatest-hits package.