Shoegaze Music Guide: History and Artists of Shoegaze

Shoegaze music is a style of guitar-based indie rock that came of age in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, a wave of shoegaze bands had also popped up in the United States. Also known as dream pop, the shoegaze genre takes its name from the psychedelic, layered, and even spooky sounds produced by the genre's artists, who—as legend has it—would stare downward toward their guitars, and their shoes, as they performed on stage.

The most commercial shoegaze albums—by groups like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush, and Dinosaur Jr.—got minor airplay on MTV and alternative rock radio. On the other extreme, the most intense shoegaze music can be buried in layers of fuzz bordering on noise rock.

In many ways, the shoegaze genre centers around a single band: My Bloody Valentine. Their success opened the door for other bands.

• My Bloody Valentine: Formed in Ireland by US-born guitarist Kevin Shields, the group built a reputation for sonic tapestries bathed in reverb, distortion, and psychedelia. Starting with their first album, Isn't Anything, and heavily reinforced by the follow-up, Loveless, the group created a signature shimmer based on Shields's constant manipulation of the vibrato arm on his guitar.
• Rise of shoegaze: Following My Bloody Valentine's underground success, shoegaze groups began popping up in the British and Irish music scenes. The late ‘80s and early ‘90s saw the rise of Ride, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Catherine Wheel, Spacemen 3, Lush, Moose, Mojave 3, Swervedriver, and Chapterhouse. Many of these artists moonlighted in each other’s bands and shared bills at live shows.
• Shoegaze in the US: Shoegaze also found adherents in the United States, with a strong scene in the northeast thanks to the college radio popularity of Galaxie 500 and Dinosaur Jr. The shoegaze scene blended easily into the grunge scene that dominated American alternative rock in the early ‘90s. Minor alt-rock bands like Hum and Dig scored MTV hits on the strength of shoegaze-style riffs and textures.
• Shoegaze out of the spotlight: As the ‘90s wore on, shoegaze groups would lose market share to heavier grunge as well as Britpop groups like Oasis and Blur, thus ending shoegaze's brief run in the mainstream spotlight. But the genre lives on via playlists and Internet radio.
• Contemporary scene: Groups like Deerhunter, Beach House, Blonde Redhead, and even the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have incorporated much of shoegaze's aesthetics. Even Neil Halstead, former frontman of Slowdive, carries on with a well-regarded solo career, and each passing year brings rumors of a new album from My Bloody Valentine.

The shoegaze sound is characterized by several key elements:

1. 1. Atmospheric, layered guitars: Building on the legacy of My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, most shoegaze guitarists multitrack their instruments and bury them in reverb, which creates a distorted wall of sound. Shields' signature sound also comes from moving the vibrato arm on his Fender Jazzmaster as he strums chords. This has helped make the Jazzmaster the guitar of choice for many shoegazers.
2. 2. Vocals buried deep in a mix: Like other indie rock genres including post-rock and math rock, shoegaze rarely prioritizes lead vocals among other instruments. A shoegaze vocalist typically plays other instruments and only occasionally sings. When they do, their voice is notably buried in the mix. My Bloody Valentine's second album, Loveless, exemplifies this mixing technique.
3. 3. Contrast between vocals and guitars: Most shoegaze albums show tremendous contrast between heavily distorted guitars and clean, pristine vocals often performed by female singers like Slowdive's Rachel Goswell and Lush's Miki Berenyi. Strong examples of this contrast can be heard on Slowdive's Souvlaki, My Bloody Valentine's mbv, and The Jesus and Mary Chain's “Just Like Honey,” off their debut album, Psychocandy.

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