Though they are responsible for popularizing the Seattle movement known as “grunge,” Pearl Jam proved to be more than a flash-in-the-pan. Leaping from obscurity to super stardom, the band sold more than 15 million copies of its first two albums. Vs., its second album, sold 1.3 million copies in its first 13 days of release. The band did not make any videos to promote Vs. Instead, it went back into the studio and recorded Vitalogy, which zoomed to number one. Pearl Jam returned to the studio for the more experimental Riot Act (2002), which included the Anti-George W. Bush track “Bu$hleaguer.” The band spent much of 2005 on the road, headlining shows and opening a couple of dates for The Rolling Stones. In 2006 band released for the label was a self-titled album that year, which found the band returning to its earlier hard-rock sound. The anti-Iraq War single, “World Wide Suicide,” became the group’s first number one Modern Rock single in a decade. Pearl Jam released Lightning Bolt in 2013. Pearl Jam has sold more than 85 million albums worldwide. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine referred to Pearl Jam as “the most popular American rock & roll band of the ’90s”. Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, its first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone magazine has deemed them one of the “Top Ten Live Acts of All Time.”
