歷史
1980年代
摩爾和瑞納多（一起或各自）更早的開始和各種短期的朋克搖滾團體一起進行表演。瑞納多是“葛林‧布蘭卡（Glenn Branca）”合奏團的成員。摩爾和戈頓後來也和布蘭卡合奏團一起表演。戈頓具有良好的藝術背景，在二十世紀80年代早期，紐約市的藝術界和音樂界之間有相當大的交集。在“葛林‧布蘭卡”和“Rhys Chatham”合奏團短暫的合作之後，戈頓開始和各種各樣的音樂團體進行表演。她和摩爾在音速青年正式成立之前就開始了約會；後來他們結婚並有了一個女兒“可可海列寇頓摩爾”（Coco Hayley Cordon Moore）。
音速青年最早的演出之一是1981年6月在紐約市蘇活區的“White Columns”展廳舉行的一個為期10天的會演；這個名為“噪音盛宴”（Noise Fest）的會演由摩爾組織，布蘭卡和查森的合奏團也參加了這個會演。在這個演出中音速青年的陣容為：摩爾、寇頓、鼓手理查‧艾德森和鍵盤手安‧德馬汀斯。德馬汀斯沒有堅持到下一次的演出，然而隨後瑞納多幾乎立刻加入進來。摩爾在這個音樂會之前就確定了“音速青年”這個名字：把“MC5”樂隊的“音速弗瑞德‧史密斯”（Fred "Sonic" Smith）和雷鬼藝術家“Big Youth”的名字組合在一起。
作品
專輯
Sonic Youth1 (Neutral, 1982)
Confusion Is Sex2 (Neutral, 1983)
Sonic Death3 cassette (Ecstatic Peace, 1984)
Bad Moon Rising (Homestead, 1985)
EVOL (SST, 1986)
Sister (SST, 1987)
The Whitey Album4 (Enigma/Blast First, 1988, as Ciccone Youth,
with Mike Watt, J Mascis and Suzanne Sasic)
Daydream Nation (Enigma/Blast First, 1988)
Goo (DGC, 1990; Deluxe Edition, 2005) #96
Dirty (DGC, 1992; Deluxe Edition 2003) #83
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star (DGC, 1994) #34
Screaming Fields of Sonic Love5 (DGC, 1995)
Washing Machine (DGC, 1995) #58
Made in USA6 (Rhino, 1995)
A Thousand Leaves (DGC, 1998) #85
SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century (SYR, 1999)
SYR5 (SYR, 2000, Kim Gordon, DJ Olive and Ikue Mori)
NYC Ghosts & Flowers (DGC, 2000)
Murray Street (DGC, 2002) #126
Sonic Nurse (DGC, 2004) #64
Rather Ripped (DGC, 2006) #71
1 Reissued in 1987 by SST, in 2006 by Geffen
2 Reissued in 1987 by SST
3 Reissued in 1988 by SST as Sonic Death—Early Sonic 1981–1983
4 Reissued in 2006 by Geffen
5 DGC pre-major label best of, to coincide with back catalogue reissue/summer 1995 tour with R.E.M. and headlining Lollapalooza
6 Movie Soundtrack
EP
Kill Yr Idols (Zensor, 1983) †
TV Shit (Ecstatic Peace, 1993)
SYR1: Anagrama (SYR, 1997)
SYR2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom (SYR, 1997)
SYR3: Invito Al Ĉielo (SYR, 1998)
Silver Session (For Jason Knuth) (Sonic Knuth Records, 1998)
In The Fishtank 9 (with Instant Composers Pool and the Ex) (Konkurrent, 2002)
SYR6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (SYR, 2005)
其他登場作品
Pump Up the Volume Motion Picture Soundtrack (1990) (Song "Titanium Exposé")
If I Were A Carpenter Compilation (1994) (Song "Superstar")
Judgment Night Soundtrack (1993, song "I Love You Mary Jane", together with Cypress Hill)
My So-Called Life Television Series Soundtrack (1995) (Song "Genetic". The song now appears on disc one of Dirty (Deluxe Edition).
Hidros 3 (To Patti Smith) with Mats Gustafsson (2004)
Sonic Youth is perhaps referred to in the survival-horror videogame "Silent Hill" when the main protagonist is in the elementary school looking at the record of the teachers. The teachers' names are T. Moore and K. Gordon.
單曲
1985年 - "Flower/Halloween"
1986年 - "Flower/Satan is Boring"
1986年 - "Halloween II"
1986年 - "Into the Groove(y)"
1986年 - "Starpower" #26
1988年 - "Teenage Riot" #20
1989年 - "Candle"
1990年 - "Kool Thing" #7
1990年 - "Disappearer"
1992年 - "100% (song)|100%" #4
1992年 - "Youth Against Fascism"
1993年 - "Sugar Kane"
1993年 - "Whore's Moaning - Oz '93 Tour Edition"
1994年 - "Bull in the Heather" #13
1996年 - "Little Trouble Girl"
1998年 - "Sunday"
2006年 - "Helen Lundeberg"
