Shoegaze

Shoegaze (originally shoegazing and also known as dream rock) is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterised by ethereal soundscapes, obscured vocals, and extensive use of guitar effects and distortion. Rooted in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, the Velvet Underground, and psychedelic pop of the 1960s, the genre originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s mainly among British acts who based their sound on groups such as Cocteau Twins, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine. "Shoegazing" was coined in 1991 by music executive Andy Ross when describing Moose and first used by the British music press as a pejorative for bands with a motionless stage presence and guitarists who directed their look down towards their effects pedals. It was sometimes used interchangeably with "dream pop". The original scene developed after the introduction of Kevin Shields' glide guitar technique on My Bloody Valentine's 1988 records You Made Me Realise and Isn't Anything. Concentrated in London and the greater Thames Valley region, its core acts included Ride, Swervedriver, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Lush, and Moose; they often attended each other's concerts, shared producers and labels (Creation and 4AD), and adopted similarly abstract approaches to album artwork. Another journalists' term of derision, "The Scene That Celebrates Itself", was applied to these musicians and adjacent non-shoegaze acts such as Stereolab. Shoegaze reached its peak in 1991 with the release of My Bloody Valentine's second album, Loveless, but was overshadowed by the rise of the American grunge scene and the following Britpop movement. In subsequent years, a gradual critical reassessment was driven by new listeners discovering the genre through the Internet. Numerous revivals have since emerged in the form of nu gaze (sometimes "second-wave shoegaze") and blackgaze in the 2000s, grungegaze in the 2010s, and zoomergaze in the 2020s. Other music styles,...