{
  "slug": "shoegaze",
  "name": "Shoegaze",
  "aliases": [
    "shoegazing",
    "dream pop",
    "the scene that celebrates itself"
  ],
  "description": "Guitar bands who buried the song under effects pedals and sang like they were in the next room. Named as an insult by the British music press in 1990, and reclaimed by roughly every guitar band since.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "England",
    "year": 1988
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "ambient",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/ambient/",
      "inherited": "Eno's premise — that the studio is the instrument and texture is the composition — reached Thames Valley guitar bands a decade later and was played at volume. The wall of noise is an ambient record with the gain up."
    },
    {
      "genre": "post-punk",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/post-punk/",
      "inherited": "The guitars and the temperament. Effects used to obscure rather than to display, a bass carrying the tune, and a singer positioned as one more texture — all settled practice in Britain by 1982."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dream-pop",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dream-pop/",
      "inherited": "The immediate parent. 4AD had already established the voice-as-texture, the guitar-as-weather and the refusal to put the lyric forward; shoegaze added volume and a wall of pedals to a template that was otherwise finished."
    },
    {
      "genre": "psychedelic-rock",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/psychedelic-rock/",
      "inherited": "The pedals and the ambition. Everything shoegaze does to a guitar was first done in 1967; what changed was that the effects stopped being a decoration on the song and became the song."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": null,
  "updated": "2026-08-28",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/shoegaze/",
  "trackCount": 10,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "my-bloody-valentine--only-shallow",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/my-bloody-valentine--only-shallow/",
      "title": "Only Shallow",
      "artist": "My Bloody Valentine",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/my-bloody-valentine/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": "Creation",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Four snare hits and then the most disorienting guitar sound ever pressed to record. Kevin Shields bent pitch with a tremolo arm until the instrument stopped behaving like a guitar.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-a-way-in",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — A Way In",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-a-way-in/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/My%20Bloody%20Valentine%20Only%20Shallow",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nwfCoKNI5hs",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "my-bloody-valentine--soon",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/my-bloody-valentine--soon/",
      "title": "Soon",
      "artist": "My Bloody Valentine",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/my-bloody-valentine/",
      "year": 1990,
      "label": "Creation",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A dance groove underneath a wall of detuned noise. Brian Eno called it the vaguest music ever to have been a hit, and meant it as the compliment it is.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/My%20Bloody%20Valentine%20Soon",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=gU7tX5YJghc",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "slowdive--alison",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/slowdive--alison/",
      "title": "Alison",
      "artist": "Slowdive",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/slowdive/",
      "year": 1993,
      "label": "Creation",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Savaged on release and now the genre's most beloved song. The guitars shimmer rather than roar, and the melody underneath survives every layer piled on it.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Slowdive%20Alison",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak43tAU5QuA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "ride--vapour-trail",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ride--vapour-trail/",
      "title": "Vapour Trail",
      "artist": "Ride",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ride/",
      "year": 1990,
      "label": "Creation",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A string coda arrives in the last minute and reframes everything before it. The most conventionally beautiful song the scene produced, and the least afraid of being one.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ride%20Vapour%20Trail",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dRQwGc4qBk0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "cocteau-twins--cherry-coloured-funk",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/cocteau-twins--cherry-coloured-funk/",
      "title": "Cherry-Coloured Funk",
      "artist": "Cocteau Twins",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/cocteau-twins/",
      "year": 1990,
      "label": "4AD",
      "isrc": "GBAFL9000062",
      "whyItMatters": "Elizabeth Fraser sings in a language she invented and communicates more than most lyricists manage in English. The template shoegaze spent a decade chasing.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Cocteau%20Twins%20Cherry-Coloured%20Funk",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=PbbUeLkZt74",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "the-jesus-and-mary-chain--just-like-honey",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-jesus-and-mary-chain--just-like-honey/",
      "title": "Just Like Honey",
      "artist": "The Jesus and Mary Chain",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-jesus-and-mary-chain/",
      "year": 1985,
      "label": "Blanco y Negro",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A Ronettes drum intro drowned in feedback. Predates the scene by years and supplies its founding idea: bury a perfect pop song and let people dig.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Jesus%20and%20Mary%20Chain%20Just%20Like%20Honey",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9LoSpJF_YxE",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "slowdive--souvlaki-space-station",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/slowdive--souvlaki-space-station/",
      "title": "Souvlaki Space Station",
      "artist": "Slowdive",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/slowdive/",
      "year": 1993,
      "label": "Creation",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Dub techniques applied to guitar music, with Eno's fingerprints somewhere in the background. The most spatially adventurous thing anyone in the scene attempted.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Slowdive%20Souvlaki%20Space%20Station",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WPApiFhKFsg",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "chapterhouse--pearl",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/chapterhouse--pearl/",
      "title": "Pearl",
      "artist": "Chapterhouse",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/chapterhouse/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": "Dedicated",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A sampled breakbeat welded to a wall of guitars, years before anyone called that a genre. Shoegaze's most convincing argument that it belonged on a dancefloor.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Chapterhouse%20Pearl",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wlqKSAJZsZs",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "lush--de-luxe",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/lush--de-luxe/",
      "title": "De-Luxe",
      "artist": "Lush",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/lush/",
      "year": 1990,
      "label": "4AD",
      "isrc": "GBAFL9000041",
      "whyItMatters": "Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson's harmonies cut through the haze rather than dissolving into it, which made Lush the scene's sharpest songwriters by some distance.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Lush%20De-Luxe",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aKrw5wOlSng",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 10,
      "trackKey": "swervedriver--duel",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/swervedriver--duel/",
      "title": "Duel",
      "artist": "Swervedriver",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/swervedriver/",
      "year": 1993,
      "label": "Creation",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Shoegaze with actual muscle and an American road-movie sensibility. Heavier than its peers and unfairly overlooked because it refused to sound fragile.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Swervedriver%20Duel",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=MfH3yRVJh8Q",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}