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Shoegaze (also known as shoegazing) is a subgenre of indie rock and alternative rock characterised by its ethereal soundscapes, use of obscured vocals, heavy guitar effects, distortion, and audio feedback, often producing an immersive "wall of sound". Shoegaze originated in the United Kingdom during the late 1980s among Neo-psychedelia groups, influenced by the post-punk and dream pop movements. Initially, the name was applied by the music press to rock bands who usually stood motionless, staring down at their guitar pedals during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state.
A loose label given to the shoegaze bands and other affiliated artists in London during the early 1990s was "The Scene That Celebrates Itself". Early shoegaze groups drew from Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain, alongside the template set by My Bloody Valentine on their albums Isn't Anything and Loveless.
The genre reached its peak in the early 1990s, particularly in the UK's underground rock music scene, but was soon sidelined by American grunge and early Britpop acts, leading many bands to break up or reinvent their sound. By the 2000s and 2010s, shoegaze experienced a revival, which was later known as "nu gaze"
/ref> and led to the emergence of Fusion genre such as blackgaze, and influenced several internet microgenres such as chillwave, shitgaze and witch house.
The genre is typically "overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning , waves of distortion and cascades of feedback. Vocals and melodies disappeared into the walls of guitars". According to Pitchfork, "emotionally, shoegaze turns its focus inward. The extreme noise eliminates the possibility of socializing while the music is playing, leaving each member of the audience alone with their thoughts. It's music for dreaming". It is sometimes conflated with dream pop. Early UK shoegaze was influenced by American bands such as Dinosaur Jr., Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth.
A defining characteristic of shoegaze is its use of heavily processed Electric guitar. Guitarists often employ a wide range of effects such as Reverberation, delay, chorus, tremolo, and distortion to produce a layered and immersive wall of sound. A notable technique within the genre is the use of the "glide guitar", developed by the Irish-English band My Bloody Valentine, in which pitch bends are achieved via the whammy bar during chord strumming to create a woozy, undulating effect. These textures are frequently described as blurred or atmospheric and are designed to blend seamlessly, creating a continuous sonic field.
A notable pattern within shoegaze is the frequent use of band and release names containing Phonestheme—clusters of sounds that evoke movement or fluidity (e.g., Swirlies, Swervedriver, Whirlpool, Swoon). According to a study written by Zac Smith, this trend has been interpreted as an unconscious branding strategy that reflects the genre's emphasis on swirling, indistinct textures and fluid sound design.
While many contemporary alternative rock scenes such as grunge and Britpop were largely male-dominated at the time, shoegaze bands including My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Lush, Pale Saints, and Curve, among others, featured at least one prominent female member who contributed significantly to their sound and songwriting. In the 2014 film Beautiful Noise, Kevin Shields noted that "there seemed to be as many girls around as guys" in the shoegaze scene.
In a 2016 article for HuffPost, Andy Ross claimed he coined the term shoegazing at a show on 3 September 1991 which featured Chapterhouse, Slowdive and Moose, because the bands' members seemed to be "sucked into a state of trance by the footwear lurking semi-motionless beneath their low-slung guitars". Alternatively, The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music (1992) claimed that the first use of the name was in a concert review for Moose, published by Sounds, in which the author referenced how singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig. (1992). 9780851125794, Square One. ISBN 9780851125794
According to AllMusic: "The shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegaze by the British press because the band members stared at the floor while they performed". The term was also used by the British music press to describe dream pop bands. Slowdive's Simon Scott found the term relevant:
However, to some, the term was considered a pejorative, especially by a part of the English weekly music press who considered the movement as ineffectual, and it was disliked by many of the groups it purported to describe. Lushs singer Miki Berenyi explained: Ride's Mark Gardener had another take on his group's static presentation: "We didn't want to use the stage as a platform for ego... We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that too". I
The song "Tomorrow Never Knows",: "Adam Franklin (Swervedriver): I feel like the template for shoegaze is probably ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ by the Beatles. Surely that’s the first shoegaze song, with all those samples and weird horn sounds that are being spliced together." recorded by the Beatles in 1966 and released on their album Revolver, "All I Wanna Do" from the Beach Boys' 1970 album Sunflower, and Brian Eno's 1974 debut album Here Come the Warm Jets, have all been retrospectively viewed as forerunners of shoegaze. Slowdive, who were fans of Eno's work, approached him to produce their album Souvlaki. Although he declined to produce, he spent a few days recording with the band, resulting in the tracks "Sing" and "Here She Comes".
Early British post-punk bands were formative influences on the first wave of shoegaze. Wire's 1979 single "Map Ref" would later be covered by My Bloody Valentine. Slowdive named themselves after the Siouxsie and the Banshees song of the same name, released in 1982, and took inspiration from the group in their early days, while Lush were originally called "The Baby Machines", a name taken from a Banshees lyric. Other influences include Robert Fripp's echo-laden guitar on David Bowie's 1977 song 'Heroes'", as well as the Cure, with their "gothic, textured sound" — particularly on their 1982 album Pornography.: "Developed from The Velvet Underground’s noisy garage rock, Cocteau Twins’ dreamy, ethereal pop music and The Cure’s gothic, textured sound from the early 1980s, shoegaze grew from a myriad of sounds and artists.
Scottish band the Jesus and Mary Chain are credited with laying the groundwork that would later define shoegaze. In 1985, they released their debut album Psychocandy, which mixed traditional pop with Noise pop and guitar feedback. The album had a massive influence on alternative rock, encouraging bands in the scene to experiment with loud, distorted sounds.: " Psychocandy opened up a space where bands could experiment with jarring noise and guitar distortion. A space that would lead to the creation of a new genre: shoegaze.": J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.): "If one of shoegaze’s defining characteristics is its particular fusion of noise and melody, then the first band you could reasonably accuse of being shoegaze is another seminal Scottish act: the Jesus and Mary Chain." Another prominent Scottish group who played a key role in the underground music scene and helped define what would become shoegaze were Cocteau Twins.: Nick Chaplin (Slowdive): "...Scottish trio the Cocteau Twins had a keystone influence on what became shoegaze. This had much to do with their dreamy, atmospheric sound, masterminded by guitarist-producer Robin Guthrie, as well as the otherworldly singing of Elizabeth Fraser, whose unintelligible and frequently nonsensical vocals were buried cryptically deep in the mix. Just try listening to a song like 1983’s “Sugar Hiccup” or 1990’s “Cherry-coloured Funk” and deny their influence on the swirling sounds of Slowdive, Chapterhouse, and Lush."
American underground bands Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and Pixies were also cited by various shoegaze bands as touchstones for their respective sounds. Additionally, Galaxie 500 were initially associated with the original shoegaze scene but were later seen as "heartbreakingly apart". They would go on to be influential in the development of slowcore and dream pop.
In 1988, My Bloody Valentine released their breakthrough third EP, You Made Me Realise, and their debut album, Isn't Anything. In 1991, their second full-length album, Loveless, was released, becoming the definitive shoegaze album and frequently appearing at the top of "greatest shoegaze album" lists.
Well-known meeting spots included Syndrome, a weekly indie club in a basement on Oxford Street, and venues such as the Camden Falcon, the Borderline, and the Underworld. Outside London, shoegaze bands often toured together, and when the music press eventually took notice, the scene was quickly named and sensationalized.: "Some of the more well-known meeting points were Syndrome, a weekly indie music club hosted in a basement bar in Oxford Street, and venues like the Camden Falcon, the Borderline, the Powerhaus, and the Underworld. Outside of London, the shoegazers also found themselves being booked on tours with each other. When the music papers inevitably took note, it was only a matter of time before it was given a name and sensationalized."
The phrase "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" was coined by Melody Maker in 1990 in a near-contemptuous gesture, focusing on how bands involved in the scene, rather than engaging in traditional rivalries, were often seen at each other's gigs, sometimes playing in each other's bands and drinking together. (1992). 9780851125794, Guinness Publishing. ISBN 9780851125794
Bands lumped into the 'scene' by the press included several of the bands that were branded with the shoegazing label, such as Chapterhouse, Lush, Moose and other (mainly indie) bands such as Blur (prior to the release of their single "Popscene"), Thousand Yard Stare, See See Rider and Stereolab. A prime example were Moose, who often swapped members with other bands on a given night. Moose's Russell Yates and Stereolab guitarist Tim Gane would often trade places, while "Moose" McKillop often played with See See Rider. Gane and his Stereolab colleague Lætitia Sadier even played on the 1991 session by Moose for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show." Peel Sessions: 16 April 1991 - Moose ", Keeping It Peel, BBC
The first stirrings of recognition came when indie writer Steve Lamacq referred to Ride in an NME review as "the House of Love with chainsaws".
The shoegaze genre label was quite often misapplied. As key bands such as Slowdive, Chapterhouse and Ride emerged from the Thames Valley, Swervedriver found themselves labelled shoegazers on account of their own Thames Valley origins, despite their more pronounced Hüsker Dü-meets-The Stooges stylings.Lester, Paul (12 September 1992). "Whatever Happened to Shoegaze?" Melody Maker, p.6. Retrieved 12 April 2007 from Proquest Research Library.
Many shoegaze bands would either disband or change their sound during the mid-1990s. Ride disbanded before the release of their fourth album, Tarantula, which would shift to a more contemporary alternative rock sound. Slowdive's third album, Pygmalion, would shift to a more experimental sound that was stylistically closer to post-rock than shoegaze. Slowdive would be dropped from Creation Records just a week after Pygmalions release, and Tarantula would also be deleted from their catalogue a week after its release.
Lush's final album, Lovelife, was an abrupt shift from shoegaze to Britpop, which alienated many fans; the 1996 suicide of their drummer Chris Acland signaled Lush's dissolution. Following a long gap from My Bloody Valentine since Loveless, aside from their 2008 reunion tour, the band released m b v in February 2013. Shields explained their silence by noting, "I never could be bothered to make another record unless I was really excited by it".
While shoegaze briefly flared and then faded out in the UK, the bands of the initial wave had an immense impact on the development of regional underground and college rock scenes in the US. In particular, a Lush and Ride tour of the US in 1991 directly inspired the spawning of American shoegaze groups including Drop Nineteens, Half String and Ozean. Columnist Emma Sailor of KRUI in Iowa City opines:
About DC-based Velocity Girl's 1991 single "My Forgotten Favorite", Sailor goes on to note, "Could anything be more different—and yet so similar—to Slowdive? The hazy production and dreamy, high pitched female vocals are there, but the outlook is entirely different".
During the mid 1990s, emerging American Christian rock label Tooth & Nail Records signed Starflyer 59 as one of its first acts. Band frontman Jason Martin, having been inspired by acts like The Cure, The Smiths, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, led Starflyer 59 to exhibit strong shoegaze influence with its first three projects, all featuring monochromatic cover art: Silver, Gold, and Americana. Despite the chaotic production process of Gold and Martin's dissatisfaction with the album, Gold went on to reach nearly triple the sales of Silver, Easy Come, Easy Go (CD liner notes). Starflyer 59. Tooth & Nail Records. 2000. TND1195. along with becoming a hallmark of the shoegaze genre, reaching number 41 on Pitchfork's 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time list. Starflyer 59 would later depart from its shoegaze sound, shifting between softer indie rock and modern alternative rock. Although, 2004 studio album I Am the Portuguese Blues features a harder alternative rock sound reminiscient of Starflyer's original shoegaze era. It contains a large portion of fully redeveloped demo work recorded between Americana and following pop-oriented album The Fashion Focus. In 2024, Starflyer 59 released its seventeenth studio album Lust for Gold, designed as a modern, refined tribute to its shoegaze era.
A resurgence of the genre began in the late 1990s (particularly in the United States) and the early 2000s, that helped usher in what is now referred to as the "nu gaze" era. Also various heavy metal acts were inspired by shoegaze, which contributed to the emergence of post-metal and metalgaze styles. Particularly in the mid-2000s, French black metal acts Alcest and Amesoeurs began incorporating shoegaze elements into their sound, pioneering the blackgaze genre. The term shitgaze, a microgenre that further developed in the mid-2000s, was originally coined by the Midwestern rock band Psychedelic Horseshit to describe their style of music, with the label becoming one of the earliest examples of an internet microgenre, and later appropriated by wider online music critics and blogs. Notable acts in the scene include the Hospitals, No Age, Times New Viking, and early Wavves.
In the early 2020s, shoegaze experienced a revival among Generation Z, through internet spaces such as TikTok, with newer bands like Julie, Wisp and Fleshwater as well as an influence on digicore artists like Quannnic and Jane Remover. Multiple outlets described this as shoegaze's "revival" or "resurrection". Irish band Fontaines D.C. have commented on shoegaze influences in their sound, particularly My Bloody Valentine; their fourth album Romance was particularly noted for this sound by reviewers.
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