Artist Playlists
- Driven by the snarling vocals of Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins defined the early ‘90s alt-rock scene with a powerful blend of dream pop, grunge, and prog. Formed in Chicago in 1988, the group built a huge student following with 1991's Gish before hitting the mainstream with the Butch Vig-produced Siamese Dream. 1995's GRAMMY®-nominated Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness spawned several MTV hits, while electro-tinged followup Adore further showcased their depth. Five years after their 2000 split, Corgan revived the Pumpkins with an almost entirely new lineup.
- Billy Corgan's Smashing Pumpkins helped define the sound and attitude of alt-rock in the '90s. The band's ragged edge came from guitar heroes like Jimi Hendrix and J Mascis, but they also took cues from Bauhaus' sense of drama, New Order's clean lines, and even Queen's high camp—a mixture that made them one of the alternative scene's most versatile bands.
- For all their rat-in-a-cage rage, Smashing Pumpkins can unspool epic drama with artful restraint. Digging into their catalog reveals quiet wonders, like the slinky, industrial groover "Eye" and the softly twanging "To Sheila," which is built around a minimal acoustic riff. Even their bleariest rock opera, "Glass and the Ghost Children," centers on an eerie calm within a storm.
- Smashing Pumpkins translate '90s angst into an evocative mix of dream pop, prog rock, goth, and grunge. The band's sound has rippled throughout various forms of alt-rock: Their swirling guitar effects echo in Starflyer 59's shuddering shoegaze and Deftones' seething mix of metal and melody, while younger bands like Silversun Pickups fully embrace the Pumpkins' drama, even nailing Billy Corgan's throat-ripping howl on "Lazy Eye."
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
- “I think these times call for a different level of understanding,” Billy Corgan says about creating art during a global pandemic. “A lot of people are having a hard time for a host of reasons, all of which are important. And so it's me trying to drop in the middle of that, parachute in with music and say, ‘Okay, well, this is the closest approximation I have to what I'm dealing with, and I hope that connects with you on the other side of this wire.’” In his candid conversation with Zane Lowe, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman opens up about his complicated relationship with playing guitar, bucking the trend with his music throughout his career, and returning to synthesizers on the band’s upcoming double album, CYR. Corgan also curated an exclusive Apple Music playlist of classic songs that soundtracked pivotal moments of his life and career featuring the likes of Humble Pie, Donovan, Bee Gees, and duo Bill Emerson & Cliff Waldron, whose music helped him reconnect with his bluegrass roots. “For me, personally, bluegrass has been a sort of late-in-life discovery, because I ultimately figured out it was the music of my ancestry,” he says. “I've sort of reclaimed this music for myself as a way of understanding that these songs are very much about my family. My grandfather was a coal miner and had black lung. I mean, you can't get any more American mythic than stuff like that. He was a bootlegger.”