shoegaze
experimenting into the ether
shoegaze (verb): "to play an instrument (especially a guitar) with one's head down, as though gazing at one's shoes"
That emo guy plays shoegaze at the coffee shop on Fridays.
David Bowie called it “nice dinner music”. Brian Eno revered one record as “the vaguest piece of music ever to become a hit”. So what is shoegaze? As defined by the Reddit thread “What is shoegaze?”, the subgenre’s name refers to the characteristic performative demeanor that artists embodied: waifish guitar players, motionless onstage with their eyes glued to the pedals at their feet. Indeed, as Urban Dictionary points out, it was a lot of emo guys playing coffee shops, averting their eyes from the audience. Although some bands consider this label derogatory, it sums up the aesthetics of the scene well: shoegaze is not about visuals and showmanship. At least in its beginnings, it was all about “dreamy detachment” from the world—getting lost in the sound. That sound is characterized by its dramatic guitar effects, “obscured vocals”, distortion, reverb, feedback, and volume, volume, volume.
My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When (Live)
a brief introduction to shoegaze
Despite its cult-like following both at the zenith of its popularity in the 1990s and contemporarily, "shoegaze" has never become a household name. In fact, most people, perhaps sans a niche community of self-identified music nerds, would admit to having never heard of the genre. So why shed light on this musical movement, if it's so niche, so seemingly irrelevant in the fabric of today's music industry? To me, it's because shoegaze, as a movement carried on the shoulders of some of music's most inventive minds, encapsulates the essence of what music-making should be: always curious, always pushing the boundaries, always seeking to make noise in a way that's new, fresh, challenging. The genre is admirable in its intention: always to push music further, never to settle for a tired formula, for something tried. It earnestly attempted to shatter the fetters of typical instrumentation, and for that, it deserves attention.
It makes sense, then, that the genre would be so aptly named ("'shoegazing' was first recorded in 1991, in the New Musical Express (NME), but has become more widely used since the turn of the century, with a revival of interest in the genre"): the goal of making reactive, expressive, noisy, boundary-pushing music is inherently incompatible with the visual showmanship & commercialization of artistry in the contemporary music world. Of course prodigies like Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine or Jim and William Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain would choose to stare at the floor, away from the crowd, making themselves paradoxically anonymous, in favor of letting the music speak, reach, touch.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine - Part 1: Obsession | Jazzmaster 60th Anniversary | Fender
the who's who of shoegaze
influences
So much of shoegaze feels reactionary: much of the music-making process, as elucidated by shoegaze god Kevin Shields in the Fender clip, was imbued with a sense of spontaneity and exploration. However, like all other musical movements, it was a specific cocktail of musical influences and cultural influences that engendered shoegaze's ascendance. As for musical influences, many bands credit The Velvet Underground's white noise phase and The Cure's pre-pop experimentation. As for cultural influences, the movement took root in the United Kingdom during a period of intense political and cultural stagnation. Psychocandy, the Jesus and Mary Chain's seminal record, was described as "a reaction to the stagnant political ad popular music climates in Margaret Thatcher's Britain".
Explore this Reddit user's guide to shoegaze and see the ways different artists use the genre's roots to take dramatically different routes.
all across the UK
Map taken from the documentary Beautiful Noise
experimentation
Even at its commercial apex, during which headlining bands were split into the camps of Creation Records and 4AD Records, shoegaze is best described as a community. This communal element enabled experimentation both in the studio and live; bands pushed each other to move further, to add new layers to the ethos of "dreamy detachment" that motivated all. Guitar effects were constantly, consistently toyed with: intense reverb and using guitars to emulate synths were key. Producers like Alan Moulder worked tirelessly to break formulas, to repurpose instruments to make untraditional sounds. This was all made possible by the idea of creating this dreamland, this mood. Shoegaze musicians aimed to create unfamiliar landscapes and atmospheres through distorted vocals and instrumental volume. This focus on constructing mood aligns with the historical roots of the movement; building these "cathedrals of sound", as shoegaze devotees like to call tracks, was a form of escapism from the rigidity of Margaret Thatcher's conservative regime. Artists needed to push the boundaries of music as a means to wholly envelop themselves in moods of their own construction; the outside world was abysmal but music could be something different!
"You're listening in a way you wouldn't be listening if the vocals were right here and you could hear everything." - The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan on MBV's lyricism
Spotify
From Cocteau Twins' "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires": Now vanity gone / Whose servants desert me / I've mostly been pressed / Now live down impression / Lead weight that seemed hopeless / The yoke that was young kids / I'm noosing the snares, I hung nets just to find you
androgyny & inclusion
Shoegaze is a controversially etic term. It was constructed by the notoriously critical British press as a means to subvert the artistry of prolific bands of the Movement; instead of directing attention to some of the more revolutionary components of the musical scene, the press tended to dwell on and cut down the homologous behaviors of performers and their fans. For example, according to Robin Guthrie of the Cocteaus, the press would relentlessly patronize performers with Scottish accents in interviews. It makes sense, then, that many bands are notoriously reclusive (fans rejoice when enigmatic Kevin Shields gives a rare interview) from media attention; many even contest their belonging to the ‘shoegaze’ genre just because of the derogatory roots of the name. Unfortunately, this historicl rift between the press and performers disabled what could have been an important trend in the spotlight: how shoegaze, characterized by artists’ androgyny and lack of veneered pandering to media attention, opened doors for female artists. The sullen, eyes-glued-to-the-floor persona of shoegaze performers enabled women to assume leading positions in prolific bands easily; the androgynous trend enabled artists to be just artists, not female artists. As compared to scenes like punk, shoegaze, without drawing attention to itself, included women in an unprecedented way. Record labels like 4AD (one of the most prominent shoegaze labels, along with Creation Records) signed myriad female-fronted bands. Furthermore, women contributed to and shaped the scene in several other ways. Namely, Emma Anderson and Miki Berenyi, who would later go on to form the band Lush, created and printed fanzines which were circulated throughout the scene. Perhaps none of this collaboration would be possible without these two vital fibers of the scene: how the callous treatment from the British press created a sense of community, and how androgyny enabled widespread participation from all kinds of people.
From zine Sowing Seeds
From zine Woosh
legacy
What now of shoegaze? Devotees continue to await the highly-anticipated third studio album from My Bloody Valentine (their last release was their self-titled MBV in 2013). But that's not to say that the genre remains in the hands of the greats from the '90s. Modern dream-pop/shoegaze bands continue to take inspiration from prolific bands of the OG scene. Bands like M83 and (my personal favorite) Bent find commercial success in their ambient or LOUD releases. Perhaps more significantly, contemporary bands that don't themselves release distortion-heavy rock cite records like Loveless as formative in their musical journeys. Isn't that what music is all about: confluences of different musical currents, flowing from around the world, coming together to push music forward, into the ether?
My Bloody Valentine - "When You Sleep"[LIVE] 8/23/13 Keven Shields Shoegaze Primal Scream Ride
bibliography & images cited
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Barker, David. 33 1/3 Greatest Hits. Continuum, 2006.
Bazilian, Emma. “Shoegazing.” Adweek, vol. 56, no. 7, 2015, pp. 35–36.
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Dent, Susie. Fanboys and Overdogs : the Language Report. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Fitzgerald, Daniel G. The Un'Gathering of the Tribes: Performing, Writing, and Remaking Masculine Identity at 1990s Alternative Rock Festivals, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Ann Arbor, 2013. ProQuest, http://www.wesleyan.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1418004907?accountid=14963.
Fitzgerald, Helen. "My Bloody Valentine: The Clarendon, London". Melody Maker, 1986. My Bloody Valentine. Rock's Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/my-bloody-valentine-the-clarendon-london.
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Hodgkinson, James A. An Unstable Reference: A Sociological Examination of the Relationship between Music and Language, University of Surrey (United Kingdom), PhD dissertation, 2000. http://www.wesleyan.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/301586724?accountid=14963.
Jones, Nicholas W. Only Shallow, University of Southern California, MA thesis, 2007. http://www.wesleyan.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/304806358?accountid=14963.
“Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine – Part 1: Obsession | Jazzmaster 60th Anniversary | Fender.” YouTube, 16 July, 2018, youtube.com/watch?v=qd1Xmr2YY7c&feature=youtu.be
Lefaivre, Adam. Characterizing and Classifying Music Genres and Subgenres Via Association Analysis, University of Lethbridge (Canada), Ann Arbor, 2019. ProQuest, http://www.wesleyan.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2276076707?accountid=14963.
Mejia, Paula. Taste the Floor: The Jesus and Mary Chain's Pro-Confusion, Politicized '80s Pop and 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2Psychocandy's1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2 Demonic Success, The George Washington University, Ann Arbor, 2014. ProQuest, http://www.wesleyan.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1618233504?accountid=14963.
“My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When (Live).” YouTube, 23 Aug. 2008, youtu.be/3DEnwUAzPG4.
“My Bloody Valentine – “When You Sleep” [LIVE] 8/23/13 Keven Shields Shoegaze Primal Scream Ride.” YouTube, 6 Sept. 2013, youtube.com/watch?v=hik_Wkncojs&feature=youtu.be
Provis, Victor. Shoegaze. Le Mot Et Le Reste, 2018.
Reynolds, Simon. "My Bloody Valentine: "It's The Opposite Of Rock 'N' Roll"". Spin, 2008. My Bloody Valentine. Rock's Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/my-bloody-valentine-its-the-opposite-of-rock-n-roll.
Rogers, Jude. "Diamond Gazers: Shoegaze". Guardian, The, 2007. Chapterhouse, Moose, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive. Rock's Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/diamond-gazers-shoegaze.
“Spacemen 3 Sowing Seeds zine interview early 88.” Leaders of Men, Blogspot. http://theleadersofmen.blogspot.com/2012/05/spacemen-3-sowing-seeds-zine-interview.html
True, Everett. "My Bloody Valentine, The Membranes, The Sperm Wails: Boston Arms, London". Melody Maker, 1988. The Membranes, My Bloody Valentine, The Sperm Wails. Rock's Backpages. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/my-bloody-valentine-the-membranes-the-sperm-wails-boston-arms-london.
IMAGES CITED
