Shoegazing: Difference between revisions

[[File:shoegazing_mbv_8089shoegazing mbv 8089.jpg|link=My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|right]]

'''Shoegazing''' is a subgenre of alternative rock and Alternative Dance that was pioneered and popularised by [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|My Bloody Valentine]] in the late 1980s-early 1990s. It's basically [[Psychedelic Rock]] taken [[Up to Eleven]], with a sound characterised by a huge wall of guitars playing drone-based riffs, breathy [[Perishing Alt Rock Voice]] singing, pounding drumming and a mix that builds up everything into a huge wall of sound where the individual instruments blend together. In addition, a danceable undercurrent tends to lie beneath this wall of sound (some bands emphasised this to the point of straddling the line between shoegaze and Madchester). In short, a perfect combination of aggressive and dreamy.

While shoegazing is basically [[Psychedelic Rock]] taken [[Up to Eleven]], it was influenced by [[Dream Pop]]'s emphasis on sound over actual song, and indie [[Noise Rock]] bands such as [[Sonic Youth]], [[Dinosaur Jr.]], [[The Jesus and Mary Chain]] and [[Velvet Underground]].

The name comes from a ''Sounds'' review of a Moose concert and was picked up by ''NME'' in reference to shoegazing bands' motionless live performances where they mostly stared at their effects pedals (to the right you can see [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|Bilinda Butcher]] doing exactly that). [[Ride]] singer Mark Gardener also attributed the motionlessness to an average presentation, in reaction to the "ego" of famous bands like [[U 2U2]]. Melody Maker's nickname for the movement was The Scene That Celebrates Itself, due to shoegazers' habit of moonlighting in each other's bands and attending each other's concerts.

The genre's first release was the EP ''You Made Me Realise'' by the Anglo-Irish band [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|My Bloody Valentine]] in 1988. They are also responsible for the most critically acclaimed and well-regarded shoegazing album, ''Loveless'' (1991), which seen as the ''essential'' shoegazing album for [[Crowning Music of Awesome|damn good reason]]. Other bands in the genre include: [[Ride]], [[Lush]], Chapterhouse, [[Slowdive]], Moose and [[The Verve]], the latter being a fusion of shoegazing, space rock and psychedelic rock. The only problem with these bands is that they suffer from a pretty bad case of [[Overshadowed Byby Awesome]] thanks to the pervasive presence and legendary reputation of the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine.<ref>You might say "But I know The Verve!", but the thing is, they never completely fit in with the scene and had a bit of a [[Genre Shift]] on the way to success.</ref>

In the 2000s the genre saw something of a resurgence with the indie crowd. In 2001 a band called [[My Vitriol]] released Finelines which is given credit with starting the shoegaze movement of the 2000s called Nu Gaze (Coined by Som Wardner himself from [[My Vitriol]]). Bands such as [[Silversun Pickups]], Asobi Seksu, Blonde Redhead, and The Big Pink were bands that followed this new movement. There were also [[Darker and Edgier]] bands that used the shoegazing sound to oppress or disquiet rather than uplift, like [[Singapore Sling]] (the first band to make a career out of this "darker" sound), [[A Place to Bury Strangers]], The Horrors, [[Jesu]], Have a Nice Life and The Angelic Process. There are also a few metal bands that have adopted some elements of shoegaze as well (such as Alcest, Deafheaven, [[Jesu]] again, arguably Nachtmystium), most of them usually being placed as metalgaze or or just post-metal. Then there are bands such as [[M 83M83]] and A Sunny Day In Glasgow who have aimed towards more electronic experimentation with shoegaze. Yeah, it's been incorporated into almost everything....

==The following are some artists that were part of the first wave shoegazers:==

* [[LushCatherine (Music)|LushWheel]]

* [[Slowdive (Music)|Slowdive]]

* [[Kitchens of Distinction (Music)|Kitchens of Distinction]]

* [[Spiritualized (Music)|Spiritualized]]

* [[Curve (Music)|Curve]]

* [[Pale Saints (Music)|Pale Saints]]

* [[The Verve (Music)|The Verve]] (one of the few shoegazing bands to not be from the Thames Valley/Southern UK; they were from Wigan, Greater Manchester)

* [[Starflyer 59 (Music)|Starflyer 59]] (but only for their first few albums)

* [[Blur (Musicband)|Blur]] on their first album represent one of the aforementioned bands that straddled the line between Shoegazing and Madchester, but dropped the whole thing with their next album to jump on the [[Britpop]] bandwagon. Once they reinvented themselves as a noisy art-rock band, some of their shoegazing influence started to reemerge on ''Blur'' and ''13''.

* [[Deerhunter (Music)|Deerhunter]]

* [[M 83 (Music)|M 83M83]]

* [[My Vitriol (Music)|My Vitriol]]

==[[Darker and Edgier]] shoegaze bands:==

=="Metalgaze" bands:==

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