Dream Pop
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Dream Pop
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| Development phase: | Mid 1980s |
| Place of origin: | Great Britain |
| Stylistic precursors | |
| Twee-Pop , Post-Punk , Ethereal , Folktronica | |
| Pioneers | |
| Galaxie 500 (80s), Cocteau Twins | |
| Instruments typical of the genre | |
| Electric guitar - electric bass - drums - guitar synthesizer | |
| Stylistic successor | |
| Shoegazing , Chillwave (from 2010) | |
| Mainstream success | |
| Low | |
| Subgenres | |
| Nu gauze | |
Dream Pop is a sub-genre of alternative rock or indie pop .
History of the genre concept
Dream Pop emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid to late 1980s, when bands like Cocteau Twins , The Chameleons or A. R. Kane (the term first appeared in a review of him) elements of post-punk and Ethereal together with light elements Mixing pop melodies. The term is primarily used in the United States, but e.g. B. also from the British Melody Maker magazine (especially from the journalists Simon Reynolds and Chris Roberts).
style
The essence of Dream Pop is a focus on ethereal textures and moods instead of driving rock riffs. Breathy, often high-pitched female voices or almost whispered male voices usually determine the singing. Song lyrics often have introspective or existential motives. Album covers often tend to have very minimalist designs and / or soft, pastel or blurry images with no lettering on them. The album covers are often related to nature. The 4AD record label is one of the most frequently mentioned labels in connection with Dream Pop, but labels such as Creation , Fontana or Slumberland have also released style-defining sound carriers in this regard.
History and important artists
Influences
Early songs that influenced the genre include Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground and # 9 Dream by John Lennon . These songs already contain all the important elements of Dream Pop, for example breathy vocals and an atmospheric, wide sound. Other artists who are considered influences include Cocteau Twins , Sonic Youth , Hüsker Dü , Spacemen 3 , The Cure and Galaxie 500 (see their album On Fire ).
Starting times
In the late 1980s to the early 1990s, British bands such as Seefeel , the early The Verve , Kitchens of Distinction , The Flaming Lips , The Chameleons , The Dream Academy and No-Man represented the genre.
At the same time, a more guitar-oriented dream pop scene emerged in the United States with bands like Mazzy Star and Ars Poetica. In Europe, some dream pop bands also mixed folk elements or electronic content into their compositions. An important band in this "mix style" is The Legendary Pink Dots .
Further development
In the late 1990s and early 2000s bands such as Sigur Rós , The Flaming Lips , Mercury Rev , Dubstar , Asobi Seksu , Broken Social Scene , Readymade , Halou or Trespassers William were given this genre name. Many have also been categorized as Shoegaze , which gave rise to a new sub-genre, Nu Gaze , among music critics ; the term ambient pop was also applied to some of these bands .
Dream pop is often seen as the "anti-rock" genre, along with other more textual genres such as trip-hop , slowcore or post-rock .
In 2008 dream pop experienced an unexpected renaissance when relatively successful indie acts such as Silversun Pickups , The Hush Sound , Beach House or Lykke Li released records with typical dream pop elements. Also, The xx , School of Seven Bells and the Wild Beasts are among this renaissance. Some successful artists have approached Dream Pop, for example Goldfrapp . These started with dance, but then turned to a mix of dream pop and folktronica .
Influences on other genres
A louder, more aggressive style of dream pop became known as shoegazing . Shoegaze lanyards were Lush , Slowdive , My Bloody Valentine or Catherine Wheel . These bands kept the atmospheric parts of Dream Pop, but added the intensity of (again influenced by post-punk ) bands like The Chameleons or Sonic Youth . So Shoegaze used the textures and moods of Dream Pop, but rejected the passivity of the genre.
Individual evidence
- ^ McGonigal, Mike: My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (33 1/3) , Continuum Books, ISBN 0826415482 , 2007
- ↑ Simon Reynolds: Pop View; 'Dream-Pop' Bands Define the Times in Britain , The New York Times , December 1, 1991