Shoegaze

Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a style of alternative rock that emerged in southern England in the late 1980s. Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, released in 1991 (see 1991 in music) is said to have defined the sound, although this is increasingly disputed by those artists associated with the genre who claimed a closer identification with the more hypnotic, rhythm based bands like Loop.

Definitions

Shoegazing is characterised by a self-deprecating, introspective, non-confrontational feel. Common musical elements are distortion and fuzzbox, droning riffs and a Phil Spector-esque wall of sound from noisy guitars. Typically two distorted rhythm guitars are played together and 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 underneath the layers of guitars is often a strong sense of melody. While the genres which influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming. Chapterhouse utilised both samples and live drumming, while drummers such as Chris Cooper of Pale Saints and the late Chris Acland of Lush often displayed complex drum patterns.

The name was thought to be coined by the New Musical Express, noting the tendency of the bands' guitarists to stare at their feet (or their effects pedals), seemingly deep in concentration, while playing. In 2006 it was claimed that the name was invented as a term of mockery by Andy Ross, founder of Food Records, for members of his staff who attended gigs of emerging shoegazing acts such as Lush and Moose[1]. Many of the band members were young, inexperienced and shy. The subdued vocals were not just subdued for effect, but due partly to a lack of confidence in the singers. Melody Maker preferred the more staid term The Scene That Celebrates Itself, referring to the habit which the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegazing bands, often in Camden. The key record labels associated with the genre were Creation Records (My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive) and 4AD Records (Lush, Cocteau Twins, Pale Saints).

In the October 2001 issue of GuitarWorld shoegazer George Bradshaw said, "It's called shoegaze because you're looking at your feet switching your reverbs and delays the whole time."

Influences

The Velvet Underground was often cited as a major influence on the genre, as it had been on the earlier C86 movement. Many of the bands eschewed the punk era altogether, with artists such as The Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 giving birth to the genre directly rather than through oblique influences.

Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life traces shoegazing to a Dinosaur Jr tour of the United Kingdom. While not generally classified as a shoegazing band, Dinosaur Jr did share a tendency to blend poppy melody with loud guitars. Early Boo Radleys tracks were firmly modelled on the first two Dinosaur albums.

"The scene that celebrates itself"

The first stirrings of recognition came when indie writer Steve Lamacq referred to Ride in a review for the NME as "The House of Love with chainsaws". In the U.S. the music is sometimes now referred to as "dream pop".

The genre label was quite often misapplied. Key bands such as Ride, Chapterhouse and Slowdive emerged from the Thames Valley and as such Swervedriver found themselves labelled 'shoegazers' on account of their own (coincidental) Thames Valley origins - despite their more pronounced Hüsker Dü stylings. Curve were once described as "the exact point where shoegazer meets goth" and the genre did overlap with others to some extent. It was certainly the case that bands such as Blur, on occasion, adopted elements of shoegazing ('She's So High' for instance). The careers of second-wave shoegazers like Thousand Yard Stare and Revolver were caught up in a general backlash which affected the scene. In spite of this, bands like Chapterhouse, Ride and Slowdive ("the My Bloody Valentine Creation can afford" went one wry review) did leave behind several albums that on reflection have stood the test of time as indicative of early-mid 90s British indie.

The demise of shoegazing

The coining of the term "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" was in many ways the beginning of the end for the first wave of shoegazers. The bands became perceived by critics as over-privileged, self-indulgent and middle-class, exemplified by Spitfire. This perception was in sharp contrast to those bands who formed the wave of newly-commercialised grunge music that was making its way across the Atlantic, and those bands who formed the foundation of Britpop, such as Blur, Oasis and Pulp. Britpop also offered intelligible lyrics, often about the trials and tribulations of working class life, another contrast to the "vocals as an instrument" approach of the shoegazers which often left vocals as merely another noise in the mix, with little concern for lyrical content.

Post movement directions

Slowdive eventually became the alt.country-leaning Mojave 3, while other shoegazing bands either split, or moved in other directions. Mark Gardener and Loz Colbert of Ride, for example, released an album as The Animalhouse. In 2006, Gardener's first solo album, These Beautiful Ghosts was released in North America. Andy Bell of Ride later joined Oasis after his own Britpop project Hurricane #1 faltered. Several former members of shoegazing bands later moved towards post-rock and even trip hop.

Nugaze and current trends

After the initial first wave of bands whose careers petered out in the early 1990s, or moved in different directions, a number of bands such as Bethany Curve , Brian Jonestown Massacre and Airiel were able to take inspiration from these groups and pursue new audiences. In recent years the NME has pointed out the shoegazing influence in a number of up and coming bands, which it has called "nu-gazing". The genre has the same self-contained tendencies that lead to the showgazing label "the scene that celebrates itself." Clubs such as Club AC30, Sonic Cathedral and Club Violaine, along with the support of such labels as The Gaia Project, Elephant Stone Records, Hungry Audio and Bella Union are supporting more and more dream-pop and shoegaze bands. There are many holdouts of devoted players and listeners on both sides of the Atlantic, and a strong following in South America.

The first two albums by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are influenced by shoegazing.

There is another thread of shoegazer-influenced music, that maintains the emphasis of texture (through the use of guitar effects pedals and digital signal processing) but departs, to some degree, from the rock structures and full band instrumentation of shoegazer music. Also, there are little to no vocal elements. This “post-shoegaze” glitch and experimental electronic music has achieved some critical praise, especially the more recent releases by Ulrich Schanuss, Sennen, Televise and a rejuventated Telescopes alongside Fennesz and Tim Hecker. The duo Belong released an album in 2006 that also falls into this category. Also aspects of Flying Saucer Attack, Main, lovesliescrushing, and The Third Eye Foundation, explored this territory as well in the mid 90's.

Often using the digital studio of a computer, these artists focus a lot of attention on creating space and atmosphere. The Max/MSP software program is one tool that allows for guitar signals to be processed for the creation of music that is characterized as much by its textural aspects as its melodies, if not more so. The outcome tends to be compositions ranging from ambient stretches of droning tones, distorted walls of sound, and reverb-laden atmospherics. What separates this from other strands of glitch or noise compositions and places it in the realm of shoegaze are the inclusion of melodies that call to mind pop and rock music.

The genre, though derided to some extent by the music press at the time, has left something of a legacy, as the new crop of bands demonstrates. The last album by My Bloody Valentine, Loveless, released in 1991 is critically acclaimed to be the landmark album of shoegazing, with Ride's Nowhere and Slowdive's Souvlaki seen as a close contenders.

Currently, bands related to the new psycheldic rock, and punk scene in the American underground are displaying their influence by shoegazing bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and The Swirlies. Notable examples include Brooklyn based A Place To Bury Strangers whose guitarist, Oliver Ackermann is the creator of his own Death By Audio effects pedals, The Sky Drops, The Vandelles, The December Sound, Ceremony and even Maximillian Colby.

Shoegazing Timeline

Song samples

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External links