{"id":516899,"date":"2026-04-07T02:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516899\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T02:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:39:11","slug":"what-is-shoegaze-and-why-did-it-make-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516899\/","title":{"rendered":"What is shoegaze and why did it make a comeback?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"What<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out)<\/p>\n

Mon 6 April 2026 17:30, UK <\/p>\n

On March 15th, 1991, Andy Ross, a British music executive and part-time journalist for Sounds magazine, attended a Lush show in New Cross. The openers, alongside Blur<\/a>, were the indie rock band Moose, whom Ross, in jest, referred to as \u201cshoegazers\u201d, named for the singer, Russell Yates\u2019 habit of looking down at his shoes during the set.<\/p>\n

According to guitarist Kevin McKillop, Yates actually could not remember his song lyrics and therefore, was reading lyric sheets on the floor, but the moniker lingered as a descriptor for the unique brand of atmospheric pop. Numerous musicians and journalists, in turn, criticised the term \u201cshoegaze\u201d:<\/a> music writer Paul Lester said that there was a \u201csense of derision\u201d within the name, while fellow writer Chris Roberts cast \u201cshoegazers\u201d aside as \u201ca throwaway comment in the pub\u201d (both quoted in Ryan Pinkard\u2019s 2024 book Shoegaze). Bands ranging from Pink Floyd to the Velvet Underground were referenced as examples of musicians remaining stoic on-stage, no different than the likes of Moose. <\/p>\n

Still, \u201cshoegazers\u201d stuck and was later attached to Slowdive in the earliest confirmed print use of the descriptor, written by Steve Lamacq for NME two months later, describing the band and their third EP, Holding Our Breath. While Moose\u2019s presence spawned the term itself, the sound of shoegaze traces back to the 1980s, heard in The Jesus & Mary Chain\u2019s noise-pop renditions and Cocteau Twins\u2019 dream-pop. Both originating in the Thames Valley region, shoegaze travelled across London, Oxford and Reading, with bands including Ride, Chapterhouse and Swervedriver, as well as the aforementioned Lush and Slowdive, following in its wake. <\/p>\n

Arguably the genre\u2019s most defining band, My Bloody Valentine,<\/a> formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1983. Eight years later, they would release 1991\u2019s Loveless, their pink-hued sophomore album that is heralded as shoegaze\u2019s North Star: a radicalisation of guitar distortion and melancholy introspection communicated in Kevin Shields\u2019 guitars, and his and Bilinda Butcher\u2019s vocals.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>(Credits: My Bloody Valentine)<\/p>\n

If shoegaze\u2019s sound can trace its roots in Phil Spector\u2019s \u2018Wall of Sound\u2019 technique<\/a> from the early 1960s \u2013 a production style that utilised the literal studio space as a tool to enhance a song\u2019s composition \u2013\u00a0then such was taken and placed within a context of an onslaught of noise. Shoegaze took melodies from psychedelia, pop, goth rock and punk to find beauty within aggression. The genre\u2019s sound resonates as though you can reach out and touch it through your speakers, engulfing you in its magnetic spectrum of reverb and distorted notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The electric guitar becomes a dominant force in various iterations of shoegaze, as its prospects for reinvention through different manipulations of its chords make it most essential for crafting the sonic world, and vocals, too, become an instrument for centring the genre\u2019s tone. Listen to a band like Cocteau Twins<\/a>, for instance, where the vocal stylings of Elizabeth Fraser may be difficult to decipher, but remain ethereal, nonetheless. <\/p>\n

The curious thing about shoegaze is that it is not forceful, but it will compel you to listen \u2013 each instrument layers on top of the other to form a texture unlike any other, forming a distinct haze that is both dream-like and electrifying, which is why the listener feels the need to dissect the noise, deciphering which guitar chords and drum beats are grounding the song\u2019s texture, or which vocals communicate the most emotion. Where lyrics may fade into the noise, a song\u2019s atmosphere takes precedent, and it is in such an environment that shoegaze finds its appeal.<\/p>\n

As the genre continued its expansion of sounds and techniques, reaching its pinnacle in the 1990s, the term \u201cshoegaze\u201d retained a somewhat negative connotation. That is, until the new millennium, when the genre was reevaluated upon its revival, thanks to the internet, and the first wave of shoegaze\u2019s second life came as the internet\u2019s overwhelming proliferation of music saw younger generations rediscovering the genre\u2019s discography. <\/p>\n

Shoegaze was also revived through film, as auteurs Gregg Araki and Sofia Coppola incorporated its sound into their soundtracks: Coppola had Shields compose original music for her 2003 film Lost in Translation, while Araki enlisted Cocteau Twins\u2019 co-founder Robin Guthrie to compose the score for his 2004 film Mysterious Skin \u2013 here, the emotive qualities behind shoegaze were heightened, as filmmakers made references to shoegaze\u2019s visual connotations in their works and amplified their sentiment in shoegaze\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n

In turn, \u201cnu gaze\u201d came to define the next generation of shoegaze bands that began to surface internationally, including France\u2019s M83, England\u2019s My Vitriol and Sweden\u2019s the Radio Dept. \u201cShoegaze\u201d began to be loosely attached to up-and-coming bands who cited its founders as inspiration, a practice that persists today<\/a> as newer bands across rock, metal, indie and pop enter the fold. Reunions began to take shape, as a result, with My Bloody Valentine being the first to return with their third album, 2013\u2019s m b v, and Chapterhouse, Swervedriver, Ride, Lush and Slowdive all following suit.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a>(Credits: Far Out)<\/p>\n

In the path of \u201cnu gaze\u201d came a shoegaze revival in the hardcore scene, as bands including Whirr, Nothing<\/a> and Deafheaven \u2013 the latter of whom\u2019s 2013 album Sunbather, established the subgenre of \u201cblackgaze\u201d, black metal and shoegaze \u2013 reimagined shoegaze\u2019s experimental nature by rooting it within punk and metal\u2019s structures, creating an atmosphere that grounded the sound in its chords but allowed for expansiveness, too. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (where Nothing formed) became the unofficial home of \u201cpost-shoegaze\u201d, as bands like Knifeplay and They Are Gutting a Body of Water<\/a> became associated with shoegaze\u2019s sonic influence, while paving the way for their own brands of experimental sound.<\/p>\n

Then, shoegaze coincided with yet another wave: this time, within the virality of TikTok fame<\/a>. Love or hate the platform, the ability to utilise the app\u2019s music feature to soundtrack fleeting moments of fandom, memory, hilarity and more meant that shoegaze could be revived in short-form content. Gen Z latched on to the genre\u2019s blend of whimsy and sorrow, using the likes of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine to set music to documentations of their day-to-day. In the early 2020s, shoegaze seemed the perfect companion to the strange, unknown futures that everyone was confronting, particularly the younger generations that found solace in its emotional undertones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surely, young fans\u2019 fixation with seemingly everything that the 1990s produced, as the last truly analogue decade, assisted in the growing fascination with shoegaze, once again. Some called this next wave \u201czoomergaze\u201d \u2013 first written by Harvey Solomon-Brady for WhyNow \u2013 heard in bands like Wisp and Jane Remover, representing shoegaze\u2019s return in a consumptive digital age. This persists today, as bands including Fleshwater, Turnstile and Glare continue to imagine shoegaze\u2019s merging with niches of rock and metal, remaining faithful to shoegaze\u2019s insistence on expanding the wavelengths of the electric guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cShoegaze\u201d may have begun as a divisive label, but it has since come to define one of music\u2019s most compelling subgenres that surely has shifted musicians\u2019 approaches to craft.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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