Pearl Jam Celebrates 20 Years with New Documentary [VIDEO]

In 1991, music fans were obsessing over R&B tunes from Mariah Carey's sophomore album Emotions, rocking out to Smells Like Teen Spirit from Nirvana's Nevermind and discovering a new American grunge group named Pearl Jam.

The Seattle-based band, made up of Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, joined a music scene that was already populated by the likes of Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men and the recently retired R.E.M., who announced their break up on Wednesday.

Pearl Jam's current drummer, Matt Cameron, joined the group in 1998.

MTV and grunge music made sense at the time. And with the arrival of Ten, Pearl Jam quickly propelled to the top of the game, thanks to hits like Alive and Even Flow. The group's debut album went on to sell more than 9 million copies worldwide.

On Friday, the band will release Pearl Jam Twenty to celebrate two decades of Pearl Jam greatness. The film, directed by close friend and band fan, Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), promises a meticulously edited story from more than 1,200 hours of never-before-scene footage. Crowe tells the story of how Pearl Jam formed by way of Mother Love Bone and uses archival footage to show what the Seattle music scene was like during the '80s and '90s.

Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Jack Irons and others make rare appearances in the nearly two-hour documentary, which has already received rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

When you sit in your room playing guitar, you don't have to worry about being successful. It's not going to happen, it's just not gonna happen, lead singer Eddie Vedder says in the film's trailer.

To date, Pearl Jam has released nine studio albums, the most recent being Backspacer in 2009. The band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, with Ten remaining as their most successful release to date.

Pearl Jam Twenty is scheduled to run for one week in select cities that include New York, Houston and the band's hometown of Seattle.

Here is the official trailer for Pearl Jam Twenty, out Friday. The full schedule and ticket information for Pearl Jam Twenty is available on the film's official Web site.