| Shoegaze | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1980s, Ireland and United Kingdom |
| Derivative forms | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Blackgaze | |
| Other topics | |
Shoegaze (originally calledshoegazing and sometimes conflated withdream pop)[12] is a subgenre ofindie andalternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitardistortion and effects,feedback, and overwhelming volume.[1][13] It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s amongneo-psychedelic groups[2] who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state.[1][14] The name comes from the heavy use ofeffects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during such concerts.[15]
My Bloody Valentine and their 1991 albumLoveless are widely regarded as defining the genre;[16][17] other prominent shoegaze groups includeSlowdive,Ride,Lush,Curve,Pale Saints,Swirlies,Chapterhouse, andSwervedriver. A loose label given to the shoegaze bands and other affiliated bands in London in the early 1990s was "the scene that celebrates itself".[18] Most shoegaze artists drew from the template set by My Bloody Valentine on their late 1980s recordings, as well as the sound of Scottish bands such asThe Jesus and Mary Chain,Teenage Fanclub, andCocteau Twins.[1]
In the early 1990s, shoegaze was sidelined by Americangrunge and earlyBritpop acts, resulting in relatively unknown bands breaking up or reinventing their style altogether.[1] Since the late 2010s, a renewed interest in the genre has been noted, namely amongnu gaze andblackgaze bands.
Shoegaze combines ethereal, swirling vocals with layers ofdistorted, bent, orflanged guitars,[3] creating a wash of sound where no instrument is distinguishable from another.[1] The genre was typically "overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning riffs, waves of distortion, and cascades of feedback. Vocals and melodies disappeared into the walls of guitars."[1]
In a 2016 article forHuffPostAndy Ross claimed he coined the term "shoegazing" at a show on 3 September 1991 which featuredChapterhouse,Slowdive andMoose, because the bands' members seemed to be in "a state of trance by the footwear lurking semi-motionless beneath their low-slung guitars".[19] 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 bySounds, in which the author referenced how singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig.[20]
According toAllMusic: "The shatteringly loud, droningneo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegaze by the British press because the band members stared at the stage while they performed".[1] The term was also used by the British music press to describedream pop bands.[21]Slowdive'sSimon Scott found the term relevant:
I always thoughtRobert Smith, when he was inSiouxsie and the Banshees playing guitar [on the 1983'sNocturne live video], was the coolest as he just stood there and let the music flood out. That anti showmanship was perfect so I never really understood why people began to use "shoegaze" as a negative term. I think if Slowdive didn't stand there looking at what pedal was about to go on and off we'd have been shite. [...] I am glad we were static and concentrated on playing well. Now it is a positive term.[22]
However, to some, the term was considered apejorative, 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.[3]Lush's singerMiki Berenyi explained:
Shoegazing was originally a slag-off term. My partner [K.J. 'Moose' McKillop], who was the guitarist in Moose, claims that it was originally leveled at his band. Apparently the journo was referring to the bank of effects pedals he had strewn across the stage that he had to keep staring at in order to operate. And then it just became a generic term for all those bands that had a big, sweeping, effects-laden sound, but all stood resolutely still on stage.[3]
Ride'sMark Gardener had another take on his group's static presentation: "We didn't want to use the stage as a platform forego... We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that too."[14]
"All I Wanna Do", a song fromthe Beach Boys' 1970 albumSunflower, was retrospectively viewed as a precursor to shoegaze, and was one of many influences on both the shoegaze anddream pop scenes of the early 1990s.[24][25][26]
Post-punk actsSiouxsie and the Banshees andThe Cure were formative influences on shoegaze.[27] Slowdive named themselves after the Siouxsie and the Bansheessong of the same name and took inspiration from the group at their beginnings, while their contemporariesLush were originally called "The Baby Machines", a line from aSiouxsie Sioux lyric.[28] During early and mid 1980s, the Englishalternative rock andneo-psychedelia scenes produced several bands whose exploration of sounds and textures would impact shoegaze.[27] Those bands includedthe House of Love,Spacemen 3, andLoop, the latter two of whom were notable influences on shoegazers Ride and Slowdive.[29][30]
American underground bandsSonic Youth,Dinosaur Jr., andPixies were also cited by various shoegaze bands as touchstones for their respective sounds.[29][30][31][32] Proto-punk bandthe Velvet Underground also proved very influential for many shoegaze acts.[29][30][33]
According toAllMusic, most bands drew from the music ofMy Bloody Valentine as a template for the genre, as well as groups such asCocteau Twins andthe Jesus and Mary Chain.[1] British dream pop duoA.R. Kane have also been credited with producing a template for the genre in the late 1980s.[34][35] My Bloody Valentine'sLoveless is referred to as the genre's defining album .[17]
After garnering some local popularity with their 1987 twee/noise pop single, "Sunny Sundae Smile", My Bloody Valentine started to move their sound more and more into experimentation with noise and complex series of effect pedals—as seen in their 1988 breakthrough: theYou Made Me Realise EP and albumIsn't Anything.[36] Michael Azerrad's bookOur Band Could Be Your Life cited an early 1990sDinosaur Jr. tour of the United Kingdom as a key influence.[37]
Whereas contemporary alternative rock movements of the time period were extremely male-dominated (Britpop, grunge), My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Pale Saints,Curve and many other popular shoegaze acts had at least one prominent female musician who contributed key vocal elements and/or integral writing components to the music. In the 2014 filmBeautiful Noise, Kevin Shields noted that there were as many women as men in the shoegaze community.[38]
The Scene That Celebrates Itself was the social andmusical scene in the early 1990s within London and theThames Valley area. The term was coined byMelody Maker'sSteve Sutherland 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.[39]
Bands lumped into the 'scene' by the press included several of the bands that were branded with the shoegazing label, such asChapterhouse,Lush,Moose and other (mainlyindie) bands such asBlur (prior to the release of their single "Popscene"),Thousand Yard Stare,See See Rider andStereolab.[39][40] A prime example were Moose, who often swapped members with other bands on a given night. Moose's Russell Yates and Stereolab guitaristTim Gane would often trade places, while "Moose" McKillop often played with See See Rider.[41] Gane and his Stereolab colleagueLætitia Sadier even played on the 1991 session by Moose forJohn Peel'sBBC Radio 1 show.[42]
The bands, producers and journalists of the time would gather in London and their activities would be chronicled in the gossip pages of the music papersNME andMelody Maker. The most famous club and focal point was Syndrome, which was located onOxford Street and ran weekly on Wednesday nights. TheNME, in particular, embraced the scene, and the unity of the bands was probably advantageous to their careers, because when one band had a successful record, the other bands could share the publicity. The scene was extremely small and revolved around fewer than 20 individuals.[citation needed]
The first stirrings of recognition came when indie writerSteve Lamacq referred to Ride in anNME 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 theThames Valley,Swervedriver found themselves labelled shoegazers on account of their own Thames Valley origins, despite their more pronounced Hüsker Dü-meets-Stooges stylings.[43]
The coining of the term "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" was in many ways the beginning of the end for the first wave of shoegazers. The bands became perceived by critics as over-privileged, self-indulgent, and middle-class.[3] This perception was in sharp contrast with both the bands who formed the wave of newly commercializedgrunge music which was making its way across the Atlantic, as well as those bands who formed the foundation of Britpop, such asPulp,Oasis,Blur andSuede.[14]Britpop also offered intelligible lyrics, often about the trials and tribulations of working-class life; this was a stark contrast to the "vocals as an instrument" approach of shoegaze, which often prized the melodic contribution of vocals over their lyrical depth.
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 topost-rock than shoegaze. Slowdive would be dropped from Creation Records just a week afterPygmalion's release,[44] andTarantula would also be deleted from their catalogue a week after its release.[45]
Lush's final album,Lovelife, was an abrupt shift from shoegaze to Britpop, which alienated many fans; the 1996 suicide of their drummerChris Acland signaled Lush's dissolution. Following a long gap from My Bloody Valentine sinceLoveless, aside from their 2008 reunion tour, the band releasedm 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."[46]
Several former members of shoegaze bands later moved towards dream pop, post-rock, and the more electronica-basedtrip hop.[14]Neil Halstead,Rachel Goswell, and Ian McCutcheon of Slowdive would formMojave 3, while guitaristChristian Savill would formMonster Movie.Adam Franklin of Swervedriver releasedlo-fi albums under the monikerToshack Highway.[47] The use ofelectronic dance andambient elements by bands such as Slowdive andSeefeel paved the way for later developments in post-rock andelectronica.[3]
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.[48] In particular, a Lush and Ride tour of the US in 1991[49] directly inspired the spawning of American shoegaze groups includingDrop Nineteens, Half String[50] and Ozean.[51] Columnist Emma Sailor of KRUI in Iowa City opines:
The insularity and introversion of British shoegaze was an intention[al] backlash against their country's mainstream. But when the shoegaze sound was exported to America, it arrived unattached from the cultural context that originally prompted its gloomy moods.The result? American indie bands gave shoegaze an entirely new image. Where the sound once was tightly linked with introversion, it was now attached to summery, outward looking songs with a focus on celebrating youth.[52]
About DC-basedVelocity 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." Other notable American shoegaze influenced bands of the early-to mid-1990s includedLilys,Swirlies, The Veldt, andMedicine.[53]
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.[14] Also various heavy metal acts were inspired by shoegaze, which contributed to the emergence of "post-metal" and "metalgaze" styles.[54][55] Particularly in the mid-2000s, Frenchblack metal actsAlcest andAmesoeurs began incorporating shoegaze elements into their sound, pioneering theblackgaze genre.[56]
In eastern Asia the genre has become increasingly popular with bands such as Cocteau Twins influencing the creation of new "art school" shoegaze.[57] Bands likeTokyo Shoegazer andFor Tracy Hyde have increasingly adopted western elements, with some bands combining Indie music with shoegaze and psychedelic rock.[58] Further, since the late 2010s, some artists began prominently incorporatingemo themes into shoegaze, with albums likeWeatherday'sCome In (2019) andParannoul'sTo See the Next Part of the Dream (2021) being examples.[59][60]
In the early 2020s, shoegaze became popular amongGeneration Z people and onTikTok, with artists such asJane Remover,Quannnic, andWisp becoming popular. Multiple outlets described this as shoegaze's "revival" or "resurrection".[61][62][63][64] Irish bandFontaines D.C. have commented on shoegaze influences in their sound, particularly My Bloody Valentine, their fourth albumRomance was particularly noted for this sound by reviewers.[65][66][67]
The dream pop bands were lionized by the capricious British music press, which later took to dismissing them as 'shoegazers' for their affectless stage presence.
The full extent of their pioneering guitar manipulation – responsible for a whole scene of "shoegaze" musical admirers, stand up Ride, Moose, Lush etc., etc., ...
...the recent trend for combining metal's sense of threat with the immersive idyll of shoegazing is undeniable, and only one aspect of the ongoing cross-pollination taking place in extreme music. For his part, r views the 'metalgaze' movement as less entropic than cyclical.
Media related toShoegazing at Wikimedia Commons| Precursors | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Styles and fusion genres |
| ||
| Related topics | |||
