Sonic Youth also played a role in bringing Nirvana to DGC records in 1991. Grunge posed an interesting dilemma for the band; alternative tastes had changed, and so had the expectations of success in the wake of Nirvana's triumph. Perhaps unwisely, Butch Vig, who also produced Nevermind, was chosen to produce Dirty (1992). This caused an assumption among those still unfamiliar with the band that the music was going to be grunge; those familiar with the band feared the music would be grunge.

     

It wasn't; if anything it resembled Sister, avoiding the hypnotics of Daydream Nation, and the hard rock aspects of Goo. It was their most overtly political album; "Youth Against Fascism" rails against President Bush (Sr.), although paranoia, confusion, madness, death remain favorite lyrical obsessions; "100%", "Drunken Butterfly", and the disarming "Wish Fulfillment" stand out. Vig gets crystal clear sound from Moore and Ranaldo, just as he did with Nirvana, but the band still sounds like Sonic Youth, with 5 extra years of songcraft under their belt since Sister. The album peaked at #83, and earned them a gold record.

It was inevitable that the band would stumble, and that moment arrived with the 1994 album Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star. Momentum resulted in the album debuting at #34 on the American charts; it never climbed any higher. It's unclear exactly what the reason for this was, except that the album is perhaps the band's quietest; not loud enough for the grunge fans (who were always barking up the wrong tree with Sonic Youth) or noise fans (who had always been suspicious of the band moving to the majors). It is a good album; it even has moments approaching true beauty. While the band's song structure was more conventional than ever, it still was way off-kilter and idiosyncratic.

The band headlined the Lollapalooza package tour in 1995, and recorded their followup, Washing Machine (1996), a return to the noisefests of the SST days, but within the concise song structures the band had become reliable at creating. Particularly strong is the closer, "The Diamond Sea" The album peaked at #58 on the charts, and earned the band their best notices since Daydream Nation. This period represents the peak of the band's mainstream popularity; it would be willfully back to the fringe after this.