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Originally Posted by GravitySlips
I think I agree with the majority of what you've said there. The band that becomes most well known out of a scene is usually going to be the most influential, but of course that doesn't mean there aren't other fantastic (or better, even) bands around.
That said, I think that in early 90s England - pre-internet, where people had to buy records and go to gigs and bands couldn't promote their music on myspace or whatever other website - I think back then, marketing plays a lot less of a role. Especially in a fairly underground scene as shoegaze was at the time. The reason MBV came to the fore of that scene is because they produced a brilliant and unique album, and they were amazing live. Although these are subjective statements, I think something has to be said for a band who produce an album like Loveless that goes on to become the figurehead of an entire genre (and a fairly cerebral genre, as well)... it's not merely through hype, or luck of the draw that some other band didn't get there first. If the album was merely just hype-at-the-time, then it would be forgotten about like so many other underground albums that were initially praised/popular have been forgotten about.
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Again, 'figurehead' of a genre, like earlier you mentioned them being king, it just sounds hyped to me. The genre itself I guess got a push from some influential magazines at the time and they would use someone as the prime example of the genre as the genuises to exemplify it. Other bands did do good shoegage before the Loveless album, I would argue with fewer banal melodies often as well. As I said before I don't mind if some people really like them, but if we are talking about some objective place in history I think questions can definitely be asked. And it can take quite a long time for things to be questioned if something is really big at the time (
with critics, not simply in a popular sense) as received opinions can be passed down with the weight of the years behind them, they are the things that people listen to first.