A (Relatively) Brief History of Shoegaze

lucifer_sam · 03-29-2010, 03:08 PM

I had a lot of fun pooling together my collection to make the last Beginners' Guide to Shoegaze, so I figured, why not.

There seems to be at least some interest here in the nebulous world of shoegaze, which by an outsider's perspective probably constitutes a shedload of effects and not much else. The reality of the matter is that shoegaze had some interesting beginnings (I would say there's still quite a few smashing acts out there today) and is a story worth being told. While my expertise with any musical genre is somewhat cursory (seeing how I wasn't alive for most of it), I feel like I can offer a fair perspective on the story of how this endearing genre made its way into the world.

Many of the artists I feature here will not fit in to the traditional sense of the genre (e.g. My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Lush, etc.) but hold a significant amount of sway in how it actually fell together. This is an important point for me to stress, because they are the same roots that artists come back to again and again throughout shoegaze's somewhat tenuous existence. If you want the hour-long trial of the golden era (1989-1994), pick up a copy of Loveless and take a ride; otherwise, read on.

I hope you guys have as much fun reading this as I do writing it.

03-29-2010, 03:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
lucifer_sam Unrepentant Ass-Mod Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3,921	A (Relatively) Brief History of Shoegaze I had a lot of fun pooling together my collection to make the last Beginners' Guide to Shoegaze, so I figured, why not. There seems to be at least some interest here in the nebulous world of shoegaze, which by an outsider's perspective probably constitutes a shedload of effects and not much else. The reality of the matter is that shoegaze had some interesting beginnings (I would say there's still quite a few smashing acts out there today) and is a story worth being told. While my expertise with any musical genre is somewhat cursory (seeing how I wasn't alive for most of it), I feel like I can offer a fair perspective on the story of how this endearing genre made its way into the world. Many of the artists I feature here will not fit in to the traditional sense of the genre (e.g. My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Lush, etc.) but hold a significant amount of sway in how it actually fell together. This is an important point for me to stress, because they are the same roots that artists come back to again and again throughout shoegaze's somewhat tenuous existence. If you want the hour-long trial of the golden era (1989-1994), pick up a copy of Loveless and take a ride; otherwise, read on. I hope you guys have as much fun reading this as I do writing it. __________________ first.am