Before he was Soundgarden's singer, Chris Cornell was the band's drummer

Eddie Vedder's humble gas-station attendant roots

The singer was living in the San Diego area when a friend mailed him a demo tape recorded by Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard that lacked vocals. Vedder wrote lyrics for the three songs (one of which would later become the hit "Alive") and tracked his own vocals on the tape, then mailed it back to the band. Two weeks later, they invited him to move to Seattle to join the band.

The movie soundtrack that helped mainstream grunge

Cameron Crowe's 1992 film "Singles" coincided with the mainstream grunge explosion. The romantic comedy takes place in Seattle's music scene, making it a perfect Hollywood product for the time. It also featured cameos from some of the scene's stars, including Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell.

Why grunge artists loathed the term 'grunge'

As the music took off, the word quickly became a convenient marketing term that lumped together bands that were rather distinct. "'Grunge,' as a term, nobody liked that," Soundgarden's Kim Thayil once said. "Everyone thought, 'Oh this is a marketing thing. This is a way to file Seattle on a retail display in a record store.'"

The most popular drum sound of the 1980s was discovered by accident

You know it when you hear it: the distinct snare drum of songs like Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" or Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." It's called "gated reverb," and it's something most people associate, for better or worse, with the sound of the '80s. This Vox explainer breaks down how it was discovered by accident, thanks to a microphone typically used for communication that picked up additional sounds.

The long history of Kurt Cobain suicide conspiracy theories

Cobain died by suicide in 1994, but it wasn't long before fans began espousing conspiracy theories alleging that the government or his wife and lead singer of Hole, Courtney Love, had him killed. Seattle police revisited the case in 2014, but determined that it was indeed a suicide.

One man provides temporary vocals for nearly every character on 'The Simpsons'

Early in the production process, voice actor Chris Edgerly voices hundreds of characters so animators can create preliminary sketches. In this interview, he explains how he learned to mimic the characters' unique voice and tics.

Before 'Saturday Night Live,' Chevy Chase played in a band with the members of Steely Dan

Chase attended Bard College in the 1960s with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who'd later form the group Steely Dan, known for hits like "Reelin' in the Years" and "Peg." Chase played drums for the college band, which, at one point, was called the Very Bad Jazz Band.

Prince pioneered what would come to be known as 'the Minneapolis Sound'

Inspired by eclectic artists like Sly and the Family Stone, as well as lesser-known mentors and peers in the Twin Cities, Prince blended R&B, rock, pop, new wave, soul, funk, punk, and more, creating a sound that defied easy categorization.

Robert Fripp manipulated feedback to create his guitar part on David Bowie's 'Heroes'

The King Crimson guitarist placed markings on the studio floor that instructed him where to get the particular sounds he was seeking. Producer Brian Eno then ran the signal through a synthesizer and bent the sound waves with a joystick.

'Jesus Christ Superstar' was an album before it was a musical

Written in the late '60s by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who were hot on the heels of the successful "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Jesus Christ Superstar" was first recorded as an album in the style of other popular rock operas of the time, like The Who's "Tommy."

Rick James and Neil Young both played in a band that was signed to Motown

The Mynah Birds were a short-lived Canadian rock group active before either artist's career took off. In 1966, the band signed to Motown Records and released a single. That same year, they were dropped by the label after it was revealed that James had settled down in Canada to avoid US military service.

A 19-month-old boy went viral for his natural drumming skills

A mother gifted her husband a drum set for Christmas, but was surprised to find their young child take a liking to the instrument. The musician couple noticed that over time the young boy taught himself proper form and how to keep up with the beat of the music. TikToks they filmed of their son went viral and amassed millions of views.

The first music delivered by podcast was the Grateful Dead

In 2001, Dave Winer pioneered the podcast by using his RSS feed to send the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'" to his subscribers. That would pave the way for the podcasting revolution, which came just a few years later, along with a corresponding music genre: podcast theme music.

He signed to Columbia Records in 1972

Springsteen had been performing solo at various venues, including some famous folk spots in Greenwich Village. Columbia executives saw this performance of “Growing Up”—which would later appear on his first album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ”—and invited him to formally audition for the label before signing him.

Sondheim was the king of the patter song

Patter songs are up-tempo numbers that match beats and syllables, requiring singers to flex serious verbal dexterity. Stephen Sondheim's patter songs are some of the most famous in Broadway history, featuring rapid-fire speech and clever turns of phrase. This video breaks down some of the finest examples.

Minor Threat inadvertently created the straight edge movement

The DC hardcore band released the song “Straight Edge” in 1981, which detailed singer Ian MacKaye’s decision to abstain from alcohol, drugs and promiscuous sex. The track inadvertently inspired legions of young hardcore kids to similarly declare themselves “straight edge,” which eventually grew into its own subgenre.

How the cicada entered popular music

For significant swaths of the country, cicadas are a calming summer soundtrack. In the past few decades, though, the insects' distinct sound have also entered the music world, providing drone and ambience for a range of musicians.

Carole King regrets writing a song excusing domestic violence

While working at the Brill Building, Carole King became one of the architects of the classic girl group sound, penning hits like the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and the Chiffons’ “One Fine Day.” One song she regrets writing, though, is the Crystals’ “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss),” a song she now believes normalizes domestic violence.

Coachella's early years were seen as a success story for alternative culture

From 2007, this oral history of Coachella provides an interesting snapshot of the festival before it became an international attraction. There are interesting stories about the festival's chaotic first year and interviews from artists who frame the festival as a success story for alternative art.

Philadelphia's Cornbread claims to be the first modern graffiti artist

Darryl McCray began writing his nickname, "Cornbread," across his hometown of Philadelphia in the 1960s. That style was a way of posting a personalized signature across neighborhoods and would become known as "tagging." In time, that style spread to New York, where it took off among other young people.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Apple's first backer recruited his own CEO to help manage the company

Wanting Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to focus on developing Apple computers, Mike Markkula brought in his colleague from Fairchild Semiconductor, Michael Scott. As employee number five, Scott helped professionalize the fledgling computer company and getting manufacturing off the ground. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Drum shields help prevent mic bleed and dampen drum sound

Made of plexiglass or acrylic, the shields are commonly seen in churches and live venues to prevent drums from overpowering other instruments, improving the quality of the audio mix.

Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman

The name change was just one facet of his self-created myth. From the moment he arrived in Greenwich Village’s folk scene, he was crafting tall tales about his life, including a claim that he'd spent the previous six years working for a carnival.

Chris Rock believes TV ruined stand-up

Chris Rock is one of comedy’s stand-up superstars, breaking through with several specials in the ‘90s. In this interview with stand-up legend David Steinberg, Rock explains how comics began working towards landing a spot on TV rather than focusing on creating a long, inspired stand-up set.

An ear doctor with hearing loss seeks to help those with hearing loss enjoy music

Alex Chern, an ear doctor who has hearing loss himself, dreams of restoring the ability to experience "all the richness and the beauty of the sound of music" for patients—not just functional hearing. Hearing aids amplify sound waves and aren't designed to work well with music that may have varied pitch and volume. Chern is studying how hearing loss and engaging with music may affect cognitive decline.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.