Pearl Jam were one of the forerunners of grunge, joining contemporaries Nirvana and Alice in Chains in pioneering the genre that defined Generation X and pervaded through the next decade of alternative rock.

They were formed in 1990 from the remains of Mother Love Bone. Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar) and Jeff Ament (bass) joined Mike McCready (lead guitar) in creating a demo and finding a singer and a drummer. Soon Dave Krusen (drums) and Eddie Vedder (vocals) were on board and the group was complete.

During the recording of their debut Ten the drummer changed twice, from Krusen to Matt Chamberlain then to Dave Abbruzzese. The album was released in 1991 and was a slow burning success; it is now twelve times platinum and considered a totemic album of the grunge era.

The follow-up was Vs and the band, responding to insistent comments about their commerciality, scaled down their promotional efforts in support of this album, relying upon touring to bring the music to the fans. However, soon they took exception to the service charges applied by Ticketmaster to ticket sales, and boycotted any future Ticketmaster-supported events or venues. This led to a self-imposed inability to play any US venues for nearly three years. By the release of third album Vitalogy in 1994 yet another drummer bit the dust as Abbruzzese continued to disagree with the promotional policy. Jack Irons (formerly of Red Hot Chili Peppers) was brought in instead.

No Code was a change of sound for the band, as they moved towards more ballads and, at times, a more stripped back feeling. When Yield was released in 1998 they said that they had returned to their earlier sound, but this failed to reach the heights of their first album. With yet another drummer change (Irons was replaced by former Soundgarden stickman Matt Cameron), Pearl Jam finally relented on their Ticketmaster stance and were able to undertake a more representative touring schedule. Binaural was their next release in 2000 and they toured widely with it. Unfortunately there was a fatal accident on the European leg in which nine fans were crushed underfoot. This almost caused the band to give up altogether, but ultimately they decided to keep going.

When Riot Act was released in 2002 it sold poorly. The album was gentler and softer than previous records. There followed a period during which Pearl Jam released 'best of' and b-sides compilations and the next studio album didn't arrive until 2006's Pearl Jam, which was hailed as a return to the old grungey sound.