Claim: Soundgarden was a Seattle contemporary of the grunge band Pearl Jam.
Evidence: Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label -LRB- A&M Records in 1988 -RRB- , though the band did not achieve commercial success until they popularized the genre in the early 1990s with Seattle contemporaries Pearl Jam , Nirvana , and Alice in Chains.