Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s by bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Ride.
It lasted there until the mid-1990s, with a critical pinnacle reached from 1990–91 and a new zenith achieved again from resurgence in the early 2010s. The British music press—particularly NME and Melody Maker—named this style "shoegazing" because the musicians in these bands stood still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state, hence the idea that they were gazing at their shoes. The heavy use of effects pedals also contributed to the image of performers looking down at their feet during concerts.
The shoegazing sound is typified by significant use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blend into the creative noise of the guitars A general description given to shoegazing and other affiliated bands in London in the early 1990s was The Scene That Celebrates Itself.
In the early 1990s, shoegazing groups were pushed aside by the American grunge movement and early Britpop acts such as Suede, forcing the relatively unknown bands to break up or reinvent their style altogether. In the 2000s, there was renewed interest in the genre among "nu gaze" bands.
Common musical elements of shoegazing consist of distortion, droning riffs and a "wall of sound" from noisy guitars. Typically, two distorted rhythm guitars are played together to give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.
Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but a strong sense of melody generally exists underneath the layers of guitars. However, lyrics are not emphasized, nor are vocals. While the genres that influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming.
The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig. The term was picked up by the NME, who used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands' guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals—while playing, seemingly deep in concentration. Melody Maker preferred the more staid term The Scene That Celebrates Itself, referring to the habit that the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegazing bands, often in Camden, and often moonlighting in each other's bands:
The first bands to attract the shoegazing label (Catherine Wheel, Slowdive, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, Ride, Moose, Lush and Pale Saints) were largely influenced by My Bloody Valentine, and emerged in the wake of that band's 1988 breakthrough (with the "You Made Me Realise" single and album Isn't Anything). The shoegazing label has more recently been applied to My Bloody Valentine themselves, although Kevin Shields stated that the band had never used any chorus, flanger or delay effects pedals.
Other artists that have been identified as influences on shoegazing include The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, The Chameleons, The Cure, Bauhaus, Galaxie 500, and The Smiths.
Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life cites an early 1990s Dinosaur Jr. tour of the United Kingdom as a key influence. While not classified as a shoegazing band, Dinosaur Jr. did share a tendency to blend poppy melody with loud guitars and laconic vocals. A lengthy 1992 US tour featuring My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and Yo La Tengo raised the genre's profile in the US considerably.
It lasted there until the mid-1990s, with a critical pinnacle reached from 1990–91 and a new zenith achieved again from resurgence in the early 2010s. The British music press—particularly NME and Melody Maker—named this style "shoegazing" because the musicians in these bands stood still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state, hence the idea that they were gazing at their shoes. The heavy use of effects pedals also contributed to the image of performers looking down at their feet during concerts.
The shoegazing sound is typified by significant use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blend into the creative noise of the guitars A general description given to shoegazing and other affiliated bands in London in the early 1990s was The Scene That Celebrates Itself.
In the early 1990s, shoegazing groups were pushed aside by the American grunge movement and early Britpop acts such as Suede, forcing the relatively unknown bands to break up or reinvent their style altogether. In the 2000s, there was renewed interest in the genre among "nu gaze" bands.
Common musical elements of shoegazing consist of distortion, droning riffs and a "wall of sound" from noisy guitars. Typically, two distorted rhythm guitars are played together to give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.
Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but a strong sense of melody generally exists underneath the layers of guitars. However, lyrics are not emphasized, nor are vocals. While the genres that influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming.
The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig. The term was picked up by the NME, who used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands' guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals—while playing, seemingly deep in concentration. Melody Maker preferred the more staid term The Scene That Celebrates Itself, referring to the habit that the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegazing bands, often in Camden, and often moonlighting in each other's bands:
The shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegazing by the British press because the bandmembers stared at the stage while they performed.The term was often considered pejorative, especially by the English weekly music press who considered the movement as ineffectual, and it was disliked by many of the groups it purported to describe,
Shoegazing was originally a slag-off term. My partner [K.J. "Moose" McKillop], who was the guitarist in Moose, claims that it was originally leveled at his band. Apparently the journo was referring to the bank of effects pedals he had strewn across the stage that he had to keep staring at in order to operate. And then it just became a generic term for all those bands that had a big, sweeping, effects-laden sound, but all stood resolutely still on stage. - Miki BerenyiRide's singer Mark Gardener had a different take on the groups' static presentation:
"We didn't want to use the stage as a platform for ego, like the big bands of the time did, like U2 and Simple Minds. We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that, too."The most commonly cited precursors to shoegazing are Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3 and Loop. Common musical threads between the different bands included garage rock, '60s psych, and American indie bands like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.
The first bands to attract the shoegazing label (Catherine Wheel, Slowdive, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, Ride, Moose, Lush and Pale Saints) were largely influenced by My Bloody Valentine, and emerged in the wake of that band's 1988 breakthrough (with the "You Made Me Realise" single and album Isn't Anything). The shoegazing label has more recently been applied to My Bloody Valentine themselves, although Kevin Shields stated that the band had never used any chorus, flanger or delay effects pedals.
Other artists that have been identified as influences on shoegazing include The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, The Chameleons, The Cure, Bauhaus, Galaxie 500, and The Smiths.
Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life cites an early 1990s Dinosaur Jr. tour of the United Kingdom as a key influence. While not classified as a shoegazing band, Dinosaur Jr. did share a tendency to blend poppy melody with loud guitars and laconic vocals. A lengthy 1992 US tour featuring My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and Yo La Tengo raised the genre's profile in the US considerably.
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