Sonic Youth were one of the most unlikely success stories of underground American rock in the ’80s. In 2006 Rather Ripped was made one of the Top 3 albums of the year, not bad for a band whose pedigree stretched back a quarter of a century. Stylistically they have moved away from their Punk roots and the more dense soundscapes of their earlier albums as can be heard on Washing Machine. Through the 1990s and into the 21 st Century Sonic Youth have continued to be both influential and critically successful. However, both were bigger sellers in Britain where Goo made No.32 and Dirty got to No.6. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1990 Goo made the Top 100 of the American album charts, a feat replicated two years later by Dirty. The album’s sales and the band’s visibility were helped by the release of the single, Teenage Riot, which picked up significant airplay. In 1988 Daydream Nation, although a bigger seller, was still more of a critical success than a sales story, however, in 2006, it was chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. The following year Sistergained massive critical approval, but being distributed and marketed by an indie label meant that sales were not as good as they should have been. It was followed by Confusion Of Sex and Bad Moon Rising in the next couple of years before the release of EVOL in 1986, which saw the band, at last, begin to break through in America and to establish itself as a truly important group. Sonic Youth’s self-titled debut album was a live recording at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall which came out in 1982. Many people see Sonic Youth as a pivotal influence on indie and alternative rock. Many of their influences came from the British Punk scene and they initially found far wider acceptance in Europe than back home in New York City. Formed in 1981, Sonic Youth hit upon the name for the band by combining the nickname of the MC5’s Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith with the reggae artist Big Youth.
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