The year was 1991, and after almost bankrupting their record label, an Irish band decide to release their sophomore album, that would become the definitive and seminal album of its genre: My Bloody Valentine released Loveless.
Distortion, reverb, phaser, and many other guitar pedals and effects that created the swirling and lush effect that created the characteristic sounds of what is nowadays known as shoegaze.
But before the release of Loveless, many bands and projects were happening before, including MBV themselves, paving a way to what would become the core element and characteristics of this much peculiar and interesting genre.
One of the main influences of shoegaze would surely be the likes of American alternative rock acts that already worked with experimental and texturized guitar sounds and style of composition such as Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and others.
But between the prime influences of shoegaze, there was also British post-punk acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and Joy Division.
This mix of influences gave way to the first bands as credited as shoegaze: The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins.
The core sound of shoegaze is specially texture through the use of numerous guitar pedals and effects to create wall of sounds of different ways and sounds, often using heavy distortion, reverb (especially reverse reverb), and phaser pedals, making the electric guitar sound as if it were another instrument, the vocals in shoegaze music tend to lay back on the mix and stay a little further away, almost blending in with the guitars.
Although the genre ended up blinded by 90’s eminent grunge and Britpop explosions, the genre remained with a strong cult following and still has a big niche to this day, and new artists and bands influenced by the legacy of this experimentalist genre still emerge to this day as well and inspiring people to pick up their instruments.
Shoegaze, as described on the title, is almost a twin term, for dream pop, the genre that also came about at the same time as shoegaze, but with core differences to its sound, which will be explore in the next part of this post, also mentioning its main influences, core characteristics and textures, fundamental albums and bands.
You can watch this video by pedal partners on the main effects and signature sound of shoegaze.
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