Shoegaze

By: Wilson Yu ('24)

Shoegaze, otherwise known as dream pop, is a genre of alternative rock and indie music that some people must have already heard before, but they just never knew the exact genre it existed under (I was one of those people until recently). Today, I’m here to introduce you to the origins of this melancholic and distant genre of music, as well as guiding you to explore more music from this genre. 

Shoegaze emerged near the period of late 1980s British indie rock, however, it was the result of a continuous development of sounds from several fragmented genres (Allmusic). According to Sweetwater, it comes from “1960s psychedelia, 1970s post-punk, and 1970s and ’80s American noise rock”. 

Two bands marked the beginning of the shoegaze genre: Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain (Sweetwater). Additionally, My Bloody Valentine’s sound is another source of inspiration that many bands in the shoegaze genre would try to recreate. Their album Loveless is considered greatly to be one of the best albums produced from this genre of music. Each band demonstrated their unique take on the genre, but the general form for a shoegaze song stayed consistent throughout each band’s music. 

The general form for a shoegaze song comes directly from its name. Performers of this genre of music would quite often be fiddling around with their pedals on stage as they strummed their guitars. This constant gazing down towards the pedals the performer’s shoes were stepping on earned the genre’s name (intended originally as an insult for both criticizing the motionless actions of the performers and distaste from other contemporary British rock and pop bands). 

This “fiddling” with the pedal is what gives the shoegaze genre its unique sound. Similar to another arguably more popular genre of alternative rock that emerged at around the same period, grunge, it utilizes lots of distortion. Usually to be raw and “filthy” sounding (music industry how to). 

By itself, distortion is quite dry, and what shoegaze does to create an ambient soundscape is through the usage of a LOT of reverb and a LOT of delay. It scatters the distortion and creates the distant sound that shoegaze fans are familiar with. 

Oftentimes this usage of distortion, reverb and delay scatters around and creates so much noise that it can get quite messy. That messiness, however, is all a part of the aesthetic when you’re listening to shoegaze. It should be also noted that the shoegaze genre plays well with its structure and “loudness” of its songs, oftentimes having a balance between quiet and loud parts to create a dynamic range of emotion.

Whilst listening to shoegaze, one is expected to feel as if they’ve started floating into the universe, drifting into the dark beyond. There’s never usually any place in a shoegaze song that is completely devoid of sound, only quieter sections that drag you along to the next explosive chorus. 

The community that shoegaze was built around was very within-the-circle. Commonly being described as “a scene that celebrates itself,” you’d see a lot of shoegaze bands attending the performance of another band to either enjoy and listen to the music, or collaboratively performing with them. 

However, this tightly-knit community of bands that indulged in only the music within their scene, soon started losing popularity. In contrast, grunge, the alternative rock genre mentioned earlier that was based on American soil, saw a greater growth and wider reception from the public as time went on. Many bands would either disband or find a different sound to explore, leaving the shoegaze mantra behind. 

Currently, the shoegaze genre remains as an obscure genre that a lot of people both don’t know about, and don’t listen to. However I encourage you, fellow reader, to go and listen to some shoegaze!