Great list, I’m adding a lot of artists that I had never heard of. I always felt like I Can See For Miles by The Who was a bit of proto-gaze, between the guitar tones and the vocal harmonies.
I also want to recommend the first few Spotlights releases as great blackgaze/doomgaze examples. Their new one is a bit less shoegazey but still good heavy rock.
I can kinda/sorta see that - I actually recently learned that it was Pete himself who invented the phrase "Power Pop" to describe the kind of music The Who was playing around that time
It's a damn good list! Just a few random thoughts in no order.
The earliest song that fits the aesthetic has sometimes been called the birth of "space rock:" The Tornado's "Telstar." Speaking of, you can't ignore Frippertronics. Bowie's "Heroes" - yes it's played out, but still - is the first major pop hit in this genre, and maybe the only top ten proper proto-shoegaze hit. Phil Spector's work is missing, that's a big deal - "I Wonder" by the Crystals can't be denied as seriously real shoegaze shit. Hate to mention them by name so I won't, but Tomorrow Never Knows. Siouxsie's "Circle" is another track - a lot of hers, for sure - that fall into that proto-shoegaze lump. The Clean's "Don't Point That Thing," The biggest missing link from this list is The Lassie Foundation's California EP, which deeply inspired a lot of the artists on this list - I know, because I've bonded with more than a few of them on stage and in the studio while discussing our common love for "California." On that note, it's great to see SF59 here, maybe Le Vainqueur or "Do You Ever Feel That Way" would be good additions. It's really dope that Veldt is getting a resurgence. The Vandelles were a Brooklyn band from my time in NYC who still don't get enough pings, same with Violens. Broadcast and Autolux can't be denied either. Blushing and Holy Wave are younger Austin bands who would be on this list.
An interesting aspect of "shoegaze," though a lot of these bands don't identify (publically) as being a part of a scene, the genre itself remains rather small and close-knit, even across all of the various "waves" and oceans. M83, sonically, and personally, don't seem connected to the rest of the music. But who am I to gatekeep? This is called the history of the "aesthetic" not the history of the "scene." It's funny to me that Hum and Deftones are there, but I can't gatekeep on them either. I'm too old now and outvoted by younger gazers who find something enjoyable in there. But that does open the door for the argument - why not the Pumpkins?
Here's a big thought that has persisted since Loveless. Shields himself says he didn't think of MBV as "Shoegaze." There is a gulf between them (and reverse reverb followers with lush tunings) and the "Soft-Focus" gazers like Slowdive, Lush et al. Shield's chord inventions owe a lot to celtic tuning, and there is a link through Lou Reed back to Doo-Wop (see also Phil Spector and Brian Wilson) to washed-out voices with "extra" harmonic information. Distortion itself is a harmonic effect, and Shields (and Serena and Ringo) use this as a harmonic effect, while some of the shoegazers use the thick fuzz not as an intentional extra layer of musicality but as a explosive device for external or lyrical context (Hum comes to mind; the heavy/punk/metal derived folks as well). If we restrict this list to just the Harmonygazers vs the Trailgazers, you'd have a much smaller list. But you'd probably have to add "Gimme Shelter" or even some Zep to the proto-gaze pile, and remove Slowdive. That can't be right. Genres are weird. Maybe, as Shields says, MBV just ain't real shoegaze.
Finally: how can someone state that shoegazing is a "Zombie Genre." Many of these bands are still hanging out with each other, some of the older bands are connected with the youngest bands on the list and there is a clear "scene" though it's international. It's always been hard to find another person in the same town to make shoegaze with, much less another band. It's probably true that "Shoegaze" is a derogratory term invented by the critics. But it's clearly an active community, marginalized by the more accessible "indie" rockers, punks, or hard rockers. It's having a moment now, for whatever reason, and this will probably change. But a lot of the more accessible "cross-over" shoegazers may miss some of the nuance, and they will probably have as much in common with Loveless as the RHCP's "Dark Necessities." ---- Rant over
Great list, I’m adding a lot of artists that I had never heard of. I always felt like I Can See For Miles by The Who was a bit of proto-gaze, between the guitar tones and the vocal harmonies.
I also want to recommend the first few Spotlights releases as great blackgaze/doomgaze examples. Their new one is a bit less shoegazey but still good heavy rock.
I can kinda/sorta see that - I actually recently learned that it was Pete himself who invented the phrase "Power Pop" to describe the kind of music The Who was playing around that time
It's a damn good list! Just a few random thoughts in no order.
The earliest song that fits the aesthetic has sometimes been called the birth of "space rock:" The Tornado's "Telstar." Speaking of, you can't ignore Frippertronics. Bowie's "Heroes" - yes it's played out, but still - is the first major pop hit in this genre, and maybe the only top ten proper proto-shoegaze hit. Phil Spector's work is missing, that's a big deal - "I Wonder" by the Crystals can't be denied as seriously real shoegaze shit. Hate to mention them by name so I won't, but Tomorrow Never Knows. Siouxsie's "Circle" is another track - a lot of hers, for sure - that fall into that proto-shoegaze lump. The Clean's "Don't Point That Thing," The biggest missing link from this list is The Lassie Foundation's California EP, which deeply inspired a lot of the artists on this list - I know, because I've bonded with more than a few of them on stage and in the studio while discussing our common love for "California." On that note, it's great to see SF59 here, maybe Le Vainqueur or "Do You Ever Feel That Way" would be good additions. It's really dope that Veldt is getting a resurgence. The Vandelles were a Brooklyn band from my time in NYC who still don't get enough pings, same with Violens. Broadcast and Autolux can't be denied either. Blushing and Holy Wave are younger Austin bands who would be on this list.
An interesting aspect of "shoegaze," though a lot of these bands don't identify (publically) as being a part of a scene, the genre itself remains rather small and close-knit, even across all of the various "waves" and oceans. M83, sonically, and personally, don't seem connected to the rest of the music. But who am I to gatekeep? This is called the history of the "aesthetic" not the history of the "scene." It's funny to me that Hum and Deftones are there, but I can't gatekeep on them either. I'm too old now and outvoted by younger gazers who find something enjoyable in there. But that does open the door for the argument - why not the Pumpkins?
Here's a big thought that has persisted since Loveless. Shields himself says he didn't think of MBV as "Shoegaze." There is a gulf between them (and reverse reverb followers with lush tunings) and the "Soft-Focus" gazers like Slowdive, Lush et al. Shield's chord inventions owe a lot to celtic tuning, and there is a link through Lou Reed back to Doo-Wop (see also Phil Spector and Brian Wilson) to washed-out voices with "extra" harmonic information. Distortion itself is a harmonic effect, and Shields (and Serena and Ringo) use this as a harmonic effect, while some of the shoegazers use the thick fuzz not as an intentional extra layer of musicality but as a explosive device for external or lyrical context (Hum comes to mind; the heavy/punk/metal derived folks as well). If we restrict this list to just the Harmonygazers vs the Trailgazers, you'd have a much smaller list. But you'd probably have to add "Gimme Shelter" or even some Zep to the proto-gaze pile, and remove Slowdive. That can't be right. Genres are weird. Maybe, as Shields says, MBV just ain't real shoegaze.
Finally: how can someone state that shoegazing is a "Zombie Genre." Many of these bands are still hanging out with each other, some of the older bands are connected with the youngest bands on the list and there is a clear "scene" though it's international. It's always been hard to find another person in the same town to make shoegaze with, much less another band. It's probably true that "Shoegaze" is a derogratory term invented by the critics. But it's clearly an active community, marginalized by the more accessible "indie" rockers, punks, or hard rockers. It's having a moment now, for whatever reason, and this will probably change. But a lot of the more accessible "cross-over" shoegazers may miss some of the nuance, and they will probably have as much in common with Loveless as the RHCP's "Dark Necessities." ---- Rant over
Love the list and the substack!