Long summer nights caused me to aimlessly scroll across social media and streaming services in hopes of entertaining myself. When different types of visual media didn’t satisfy me, I turned to Spotify to listen to music instead.
I was not sure exactly what I wanted to listen to, but I knew that I did not want to hear anything too high energy considering how tired I was.
After around 15 minutes of bouncing from profile to profile, I ended up on one of my friends’ rock playlist. I gave up on looking for something specific and gave it a listen.
“Leave” by Whirr was the first song to play and immediately, I was infatuated.
The loud guitar riffs and echoed vocals captured my exact emotions in that moment. I knew that I needed to hear more music like this. My curiosity led me to find out the name of this subgenre: shoegaze.
Shoegaze is a subgenre of alternative rock with obscured vocals, guitar distortion and overwhelming volume. The name shoegaze comes from the action of how many guitarists in this genre stare downwards at their pedals as they play, as if they were gazing at their shoes.
The roots of shoegaze began in the 1980s with bands such as the Cocteau Twins, The Cure and the Velvet Underground. These are some of the few bands considered pioneers of this style of rock.
Gaining popularity in the 1990s, My Bloody Valentine was the first band to be given the label shoegaze, marked by loud riffs and reverbed vocals. It was around this time period that shoegaze began to grow. Along with My Bloody Valentine, other bands such as Slowdive, Lush and The Telescopes, started to gain traction for a similar sound.
Over time, this subgenre steadily declined in popularity over the course of the 2000s due to the rise of other subgenres, punk being the primary one. Very few bands continued to carry on the shoegaze sound. Whirr is one of those few bands remaining from the 2010s, along with Title Flight. But they would not be able to carry on long enough – new sounds overshadowed shoegaze and the genre slowly faded away.
The resurgence in popularity of this once forgotten subgenre, began only two years ago. One of the major contributions to the revival of shoegaze can be credited to the Nu-Metal band, Deftones.
Don’t be mistaken, Deftones is not a shoegaze band. They are classified as Nu-Metal, a subgenre stemming off metal, appearing in the late 1990s. Due to its overwhelmingly loud guitars, distorted vocals and distraught lyrics, Deftones sparked the conversation of shoegaze once again.
Social media was the gateway to shoegaze’s revival. “When You Sleep,” “Safe In Your Skin” and “When the Sun Hits” are some of the songs that started to gain popularity across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
It was not only older bands included in this revival; new bands like Midrift took on this sound and continue to allow shoegaze to live out through them.
I attended Midrift’s first concert in Texas at Club Dada in August. Experiencing the music I had grown to love so much live was something I will never forget. I felt the same emotions I had felt all this time throughout listening.
One of the reasons I fell in love with shoegaze is the way it made me feel. It gave me an odd sense of comfort and nostalgia. I commonly find myself reminiscing on childhood memories when listening to shoegaze, wishing I could go back but being happy about where I am today.
Shoegaze has had a big influence on me, and I believe it to be a positive one. The mellow sounds and lyrics have touched me in ways other music has not been able to. I like to think I’ve become a more calm, and emotionally available person through this music. I will forever be grateful about my discovery of this subgenre, and it is something that I know in my heart, I will always have.
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