If anything, #10 seems pretty generous for Smashing Pumpkins, really.

That's what I thought.

though I dont care much for lists, but 21 for AiC seems ridiculous ....

Yep, also too high.

Why so?

They do well in all of the criteria (don't know about cultural impact, but whatever). I just have the feeling that the list would somehow look better if they just swapped places with Soundgarden.

I also thought Soundgarden would rank higher than Alice in Chains.

I'd think Soundgarden would beat AiC in musical impact, and they're about equal in popularity. Not sure about influence.

Id say both soundgarden and alice in chains would be equal to the peppers and pumpkins in impact and influence and lose out on popularity .... Chains were overall more popular than SG, SG had 1 big selling album , but Chains had Dirt which is about equal and several multi platinum albums , SG and Chains are about the same in impact, heck , Chains had the 1st grunge album in the top 50, and Man in the Box was huge before Nirvana came on , so I disagree big time there, and theyd tie influence .... so Chains rightfully are above SG , dont know about the positions on the list ..... when i see people like Mariah Carey and 2 Pac and Chains on the same list, i cant think straight ....

Soundgarden probably beat Alice in Chains in influence, though. After all, AiC were influenced by SG, who had been around a little longer and thus were more directly involved in the melding of alternative and heavy metal, which became the hard rock of the '90s. You're probably right about AiC being more popular, however. Both bands are about even, overall, I suppose.

Isn't most of that influence from Soundgarden's '80s material?

Yeah, you're quite right about that. Forget what I said, then. LOL. I suppose pave got it right by having Alice in Chains above them.

I doubt Kyuss should be on the list, and since they never had a charting album in the US, if they did make it, it wouldn't be for being big.



Superunknown went 5x platinum; Dirt went 4x platinum. Soundgarden had 1 other multiplatinum album, Badmotorfinger, and Alice in Chains had 2 others, 3 if you count Jar of Flies. But Soundgarden is probably bigger than AiC in the UK. AiC probably takes popularity, but not by much.

First grunge album in the top 50 would be secondary influence if it's anything. It wouldn't count for very much, because most of the subsequent grunge and post-grunge followed either Nirvana's or Pearl Jam's model of grunge rather than Alice in Chains', and because first grunge album in the top 50 is a small degree of popularization when it had previously charted and became much more popular later.

Alice In Chains (together with Faith No More) is pretty much the main influence for Alternative Metal if that counts for anything. I've heard a lot more bands cite AiC as an influence than Soundgarden. AiC also seems to be the more popular band, they still get plenty talk today for their classic albums whereas Soundgarden seems practically forgotten, if anything AiC owns in popularity instead of it being a close call. Soundgarden is just way overrated really.