By: KEVIN JOLLY
Staff Writer
One genre of music I’ve been listening to for the past two years or so and that I think deserves more interest is shoegaze. Shoegaze is a subgenre of alternative rock characterized by heavy instrumental distortion, unintelligible vocals which blend into the instruments, and a heavier focus on a song’s tone and atmosphere rather than a noticeable structure. This means there’s a lot of droning guitar feedback which is all indistinguishable from each other and there’s a lot of repetition, but it still works out in its own way.
The origin of the term ‘shoegaze’ is a little confusing. One of the earliest uses was to describe one unknown band’s lead singer having lyrics taped to the floor of the stage. The most common origin claims the term describes how the performers look on stage as they constantly have to focus on the floor to properly use their vast arrays of guitar pedals used to achieve the overwhelming distortion effect. But some others say the term described early British audiences who would stand relatively motionless and stare at the floor during performances, possibly under some kind of influence.
There are basically two bands considered to be the most notable of shoegaze, but the majority of the genre comes from pretty small Indie bands. ‘Slowdive’ is one of the big two, a British band that formed in the late 80s. Slowdive made music in the shoegaze genre throughout the early 90s but has since transitioned into more experimental albums.
The second and arguably most influential shoegaze band is another British band, ‘My Bloody Valentine’ which released an album, ‘Loveless’ in 1991 broadly described as the pinnacle of shoegaze. Most other bands, including Slowdive, were influenced by this album and is probably the largest single catalyst for kickstarting the genre. One song off the album was even featured in Sofia Coppola’s film ‘Lost in Translation’.
The decline of shoegaze began pretty quickly after it started, lasting only from the 80s to the 90s, but mostly just confined to the late 80s and very early 90s. Grunge in America was the main reason shoegaze didn’t last much longer into the 90s, as its overwhelming popularity which stretched into Britain and relative similarity forced the vast majority of indie shoegazers to disband, and the larger groups to adapt their sound more into grunge.