By Marci Cohen, Head, Music Library, Boston University Libraries (retired)

Popular music has splintered into so many microgenres that my colleague Leo Martin, Head of Resource Management and Metadata at University of Houston Libraries, who started his library career as a music cataloger, recently gave yet another presentation on the topic at Association of Recorded Sound Collections conference in Memphis. I’ve attended at least three conferences where he’s addressed the issue. Keeping track of all the microgenres is dizzying. One of rock’s many subgenres, shoegaze, has been on the upswing for the last decade and a half after its roots in the late ‘80s and peak in the first half of the ‘90s.

The guitar-centric genre takes its name from the onstage stance of its purveyors. Instead of making eye contact with the audience, they are known for staring down at the floor, either at their feet or their boards with an accumulation of guitar effects pedals. Before settling on the term “shoegaze,” the British music press initially dubbed the movement “The Scene that Celebrates Itself” due to bands’ attending each others’ shows and talking up their fellow scenesters in the press. As with much in the British music press – the “inkies” Melody Maker, Sounds, and NME – there was a high churn rate. What the tastemakers heralded quickly became what they disdained in favor of the next hot artist or genre, in this case the rise of Britpop.

Like so many non-mainstream rock subgenres, shoegaze has its roots with the Velvet Underground and their use of drone and distortion. But the next foundation wasn’t laid until two decades later with the Jesus & Mary Chain’s groundbreaking debut Psychocandy (1985. Blanco y Negro) that amplified the distortion and buried the vocals. Jim Reid had lost the coin toss with brother William to become the band’s frontman. He acknowledged in their joint memoir Never Understood (2024, Da Capo) that he felt the need to get drunk enough to overcome his shyness to perform onstage. More of an inspiration than part of the genre is Dinosaur Jr. Introverted and unassuming leader J Mascis, hiding behind a wall of distortion and a curtain of hair, was the antithesis of ‘80s preening guitar gods such as Eddie Van Halen when the band emerged from Amherst, Massachusetts. Back in the UK, the Cocteau Twins, a key band on cult indie label 4AD, combined Robin Guthrie’s shimmering, chiming guitars and Elizabeth Frazier’s ethereal singing, in what some have wondered is a made-up language because the lyrics are so indecipherable.

But the ne plus ultra of shoegaze is My Bloody Valentine’s second album, 1991’s Loveless (Creation). It epitomized the defining elements of the genre: Hypnotic, woozy, distorted guitars from Kevin Shields. Vocals by Bilinda Butcher low in the mix, used as an instrument, with as many as 18 tracks of layered vocals on a single song (Gina Harp. 1992. “My Bloody Valentine.” Puncture. No. 24, p. 16. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://rapmm.rilm.org/en/pages/issue/28187?page=16). Their shows in support of the album were infamous for the blisteringly loud guitars. In 1999, Pitchfork had it atop their list of best albums of the 1990s, edging out bigger-selling releases by Nirvana and Radiohead. The reception of the album was so daunting that it took the band 22 years to finally produce a follow-up, with frequent rumors circulating throughout that gap about the imminent release.

Other defining characteristics were that this a genre for bands, not solo artists; reunited group the Veldt had five guitarists on their recent tour. With vocals minimized in the mix, this is no showcase for lyricists. Nor is it for peacock fashions; there’s no “look.” There’s a high concentration of female musicians. Initially, it was primarily a UK movement, running parallel to grunge. As it petered out, Lush successfully pivoted to Britpop with their third album, 1996’s Lovelife, with a sharp set of lyrics that cut through the guitar sheen, but they then went dormant. Ride broke up the same year, with guitarist Andy Bell going on to join the surging Oasis on bass in 1999.

Other notable acts from that initial burst included the Pale Saints, the Cranes, Slowdive, and Chapterhouse. Curve’s glamourpuss Toni Halliday and the Catherine Wheel’s Rob Dickinson strayed from the formula as charismatic performers rather than fading into the background. Outside the UK, the Drop Nineteens formed at Boston University but found more of an audience in Europe than the US. Straitjacket Fits emerged from the isolation of New Zealand, although they were in the mold of other Dunedin bands on the Flying Nun label that drew inspiration from the Velvet Underground. In the unfashionable period a decade after shoegaze peaked, Danish duo the Raveonettes drew acclaim for their take on the JAMC drone.

The Raveonettes marked the slow emergence of a shoegaze revival. The genre still operates on the fringes, and none of the bands are having the commercial or cultural impact of the initial era. Two New York bands signified new stirrings in the late ‘00’s, Crystal Stilts with 2008’s droning album Alight Of Night (Slumberland) and A Place to Bury Strangers with the distortion-heavy Exploding Head (2009. Mute). The ‘10s saw more bands pursuing the sound. Bandcamp describes Nothing as elder statesmen of that wave. Other bands of that era with more Google-proof names are Alvvays, DIIV and Ringo Deathstarr.

More recently Stockholm's Dead Vibrations released just a single self-titled album (2018), but their label Fuzz Club remains an intriguing source for shoegaze and related genres, notably Italy’s New Candys, who lean more heavily into psychedelia on last year’s The Uncanny Extravaganza. Peel Dream Magazine channeled My Bloody Valentine with 2020’s Agitprop Alterna (Slumberland). Other bands worth checking out include Hotline TNT, Sparkler, Cigarettes for Breakfast, and Blushing. With the de-emphasized vocals, foreign languages such as on “31” (2025) by Mexico’s Vondré are no barrier for an English-speaking audience. For the Charleston Hub audience, one band notable for their name although not exemplary for their music, The Library is On Fire, self-released their latest album Degeneration Elegies earlier this year.

There are opportunities to explore more. Simon Reynolds, the English music journalist who thoroughly documented postpunk with Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (2006. Penguin) will pick up where he left off with Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994 in June (White Rabbit). Slowdive toured the US last year, New Candys this year, and both are heading out across Europe this summer. Chapterhouse just wrapped up a US tour playing their 1991 debut Whirlpool (Dedicated). So there are occasions to see these purveyors live. Just remember to bring earplugs.

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