Shoegaze
[1][13] It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups[2] who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state.
[15] My Bloody Valentine and their 1991 album Loveless are widely regarded as defining the genre;[16][17] other prominent shoegaze groups include Slowdive, Ride, Lush, Curve, Pale Saints, Swirlies, Chapterhouse, and Swervedriver.
[18] Most shoegaze artists drew from the template set by My Bloody Valentine on their late 1980s recordings, as well as bands such as The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins.
Shoegaze combines ethereal, swirling vocals with layers of distorted, bent, or flanged guitars,[3] creating a wash of sound where no instrument is distinguishable from another.
"[1] 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 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 by Sounds, in which the author referenced how singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig.
[21] Slowdive's Simon Scott found the term relevant: I always thought Robert Smith, when he was in Siouxsie and the Banshees playing guitar [on the 1983's Nocturne live video], was the coolest as he just stood there and let the music flood out.
[28] During early and mid 1980s, the English alternative rock and neo-psychedelia scenes produced several bands whose exploration of sounds and textures would impact shoegaze.
[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: the You Made Me Realise EP and album Isn't Anything.
[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.
[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 papers NME and Melody Maker.
[citation needed] 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".
[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 including Drop 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.
[54][55] Particularly in the mid-2000s, French black metal acts Alcest and Amesoeurs began incorporating shoegaze elements into their sound, pioneering the blackgaze genre.
[58] Further, since the late 2010s, some artists began prominently incorporating emo themes into shoegaze, with albums like Weatherday's Come In (2019) and Parannoul's To See the Next Part of the Dream (2021) being examples.
